Layla bint Masud

Layla was the daughter of Masud ibn Khalid and belonged to Banu Nahshal, a branch of Banu Darim of the large Tamim confederation. Genealogical works therefore describe her as al-Nahshaliyya, al-Darimiyya, or al-Tamimiyya. These are compatible tribal attributions rather than three separate identities. The surviving sources preserve her ancestry more clearly than the details of her personal life.

She became a wife of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him. Some later narratives place the marriage in Basra around 35 or 36 AH, but the precise date and circumstances are not established uniformly in early sources. The firm historical point is her inclusion among Imam Ali's wives and her connection to his household during the final years of his life.

The genealogical record most consistently identifies Abu Bakr ibn Ali and Ubayd Allah ibn Ali as her sons. Some later compilations also name Abd Allah al-Asghar, while reports about personal names and teknonyms differ. Because these notices are not uniform, the profile retains the well-attested maternal connection but does not present every expanded child-list as certain. Traditions concerning the deaths of sons at Karbala in 61 AH also require individual evaluation and should not be used to infer Layla's own presence there.

After Imam Ali's martyrdom in 40 AH, early legal and genealogical reports state that Abd Allah ibn Jafar married Layla. Nasab Quraysh names children from this later marriage, including Salih, Umm Abiha, and Umm Muhammad, while other later lists expand the names. This later marriage is historically important because it is independently reflected in reports cited in works of genealogy and law. No reliable early evidence fixes Layla's date of death, confirms that she witnessed Karbala, or identifies a verified grave; those details should therefore remain unknown rather than be supplied from devotional or unsourced accounts.