Abu Sufyan ibn Harb

For the son of companion and first cousin of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, see Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith.

Abu Sufyan أَبُو سُفْيَانُ
Born	Sakhr ibn Harb ibn Umayya c. 560 CE Mecca, Hijaz, Arabia
Died	c. 653(653-00-00) (aged 92–93) Medina, Rashidun Caliphate
Resting place	Al-Baqi Cemetery, Medina
Occupation	Major leader of the Quraysh tribe
Era	624–630
Spouses	Hind bint Utba Safiyyah bint Abi al-As Zaynab bint Nawfal (among others)
Children	Hanzala Yazid Mu'awiya Amr Utba Anbasa Muhammad Umm Habiba Juwayriyya Maymuna
Father	Harb ibn Umayya
Family	Banu Umayya (clan)
Military career
Battles / wars	Against Muslims Battle of Uhud Battle of the Trench For Muslims Battle of Hunayn Siege of Ta'if Battle of the Yarmuk

Sakhr ibn Harb ibn Umayya (Arabic: صَخْرِ ٱبْن حَرْب ٱبْن أُمَيَّةَ, romanized: Ṣakhr ibn Ḥarb ibn Umayya; c. 560—653), commonly known by his kunya Abu Sufyan (Arabic: أَبُو سُفْيَانُ, romanized: Abū Sufyān), was a prominent opponent-turned companion and father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was the father of the first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) and namesake of the Sufyanid line of Umayyad caliphs which ruled from 661 to 684.

Abu Sufyan was a leader and merchant from the Quraysh tribe of Mecca. During his early career, he often led trade caravans to Syria. He had been among the main leaders of Meccan opposition to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam and member of the Quraysh, commanding the Meccans at the battles of Uhud and the Trench in 625 and 627 CE. However, when Muhammad entered Mecca in 630, he was among the first to submit and was given a stake in the nascent Muslim state, playing a role at the Battle of Hunayn and the subsequent destruction of the polytheistic sanctuary of al-Lat in Ta'if. After Muhammad's death, he may have been appointed as the governor of Najran by Caliph Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) for an unspecified period. Abu Sufyan later played a supporting role in the Muslim army at the Battle of the Yarmuk against the Byzantines in Syria. His sons Yazid and later Mu'awiya were given command roles in that province and the latter went on to establish the Umayyad Caliphate in 661.

Life

Early life

Abu Sufyan's given name was Sakhr and he was born around c. 560 to his father Harb ibn Umayya, a leader of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, and mother Safiyya bint Hazn ibn Bujayr. The family belonged to the Banu Abd Shams clan of the Quraysh, the brother clan of the Banu Hashim, to which the Islamic prophet Muhammad belonged. Abu Sufyan was among the leaders of the Qurayshi opposition to Muhammad in the years preceding the Hijrah (emigration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622). A prominent financier and merchant, Abu Sufyan engaged in trade in Syria, often heading Meccan caravans to the region. He owned land in the vicinity of Damascus.

Opposition to Islam

In 624, a caravan Abu Sufyan was leading back to Mecca from Syria faced an assault by Muhammad, prompting him to send for aid. In response, a 1,000-strong Meccan army led by Abu Jahl ibn Hisham was dispatched. In the ensuing confrontation, Abu Sufyan, "by skillful and vigorous leadership eluded the Muslims", according to the historian W. Montgomery Watt. However, under Abu Jahl's command, the Meccans pursued a direct confrontation with the Muslims, which resulted in the rout of the Quraysh at the Battle of Badr. One of Abu Sufyan's sons, Hanzala, was killed at Badr and another son, Amr, was taken captive, but released. Among the other Meccan casualties were Abu Jahl himself and Utba ibn Rabi'a, who was one of Abu Sufyan's fathers-in-law. In the aftermath of Badr, Abu Sufyan was charged with avenging Meccan losses, the command he held likely being hereditary. Subsequently, Abu Sufyan inflicted significant losses on the Muslims at the Battle of Uhud in 625, but the Quraysh were generally unsatisfied with the battle's results. Two years later, he led the attempted siege of Medina, but was defeated by the Muslim defenders at the Battle of the Trench, and his morale may have taken a blow at this failure. The command of the Meccan forces were transferred to his Qurayshi rivals, Safwan ibn Umayya, Ikrima ibn Amr and Suhayl ibn Amr.

Conversion to Islam

Though Abu Sufyan did not participate in the truce negotiations at al-Hudaybiya in 628, he held peace talks with Muhammad in Medina when allies of the Quraysh apparently broke the truce. Information about the results of these talks is unclear, but Watt surmises that Abu Sufyan and Muhammad entered into an understanding of sorts. When Muhammad conquered Mecca in 630, Abu Sufyan played a key role in the city's surrender, being among the first Qurayshi leaders to submit and guaranteeing protection for his partisans. He fought alongside the Muslims at the Battle of Hunayn against the Banu Thaqif of Ta'if, traditional rivals of Mecca, and the latter's tribal backers from the Hawazin confederation. During this battle, which ended in a decisive Muslim victory, he lost an eye, and was rewarded a relatively high percentage of the spoils to reconcile his heart. Because of his past trade relations with Ta'if, where he also owned property and had kinsmen, Abu Sufyan played a leading role in the dismantlement of the pagan sanctuary of al-Lat in the city.

Later life and death

Abu Sufyan was appointed the governor of Najran, in southern Arabia, either by Muhammad or more likely, by the first caliph, Abu Bakr (r. 632–634). He initially opposed the latter's succession of Muhammad as leader of the nascent Muslim state. Abu Sufyan, seeing no hope that a member of the Banu Abd Shams could attain the role, aimed to keep the leadership in the hands of his next closest kinsmen, the Banu Hashim, specifically Ali ibn Abi Talib, a cousin, son-in-law and early supporter of Muhammad. According to the historian Wilferd Madelung, Abu Sufyan, by dint of his chieftainship of the Banu Abd Shams and the generosity he had received from Muhammad, was duty-bound by a tribal code of honor to offer Ali such support, as doing otherwise "would have been shameful". Ali, however, refused his support, citing Abu Sufyan's late conversion to Islam and the potential backlash from the Muslim community should he accept his backing. Western historians generally dismiss this episode as propaganda by the Muslim traditional sources, which were hostile to the Umayyads, the branch of the Banu Abd Shams to which Abu Sufyan belonged and which ultimately became the ruling family of the Caliphate in 661 until 750.

Abu Bakr ordered the Muslim conquest of the Levant, in which he gave the Banu Abd Shams a stake, despite their early opposition to him, which he sought to allay. Abu Sufyan's son Yazid was ultimately appointed to a leading command role in the conquest. Abu Sufyan was present at the Battle of the Yarmuk, which resulted in a decisive Muslim victory against the Byzantines in Syria. His advanced age at the time renders it unlikely that he actively participated in the battle. According to an account cited by Sayf ibn Umar, he observed the battle alongside unspecified Arab shaykhs (chieftains), and accounts cited by al-Tabari further note that he "exhorted" the Muslim troops. His son Yazid held a command role in the battle and later died in a plague in Palestine in 639. Another of his sons, Mu'awiya, was appointed the governor of Syria by Caliph Umar (r. 634–644). Umar's successor, Uthman (r. 644–656), shared descent with Abu Sufyan from Umayya ibn Abd Shams and was known to show special favor to his kinsmen. To that end, he symbolically honored Abu Sufyan, along with al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As and al-Walid ibn Uqba of the Umayyad line of the Banu Abd Shams, and al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib of the Banu Hashim, by allowing them to sit on his throne in Medina. Abu Sufyan died in 653 at the age of 88.

Family and descendants

Family tree of the Sufyanid ruling family of the Umayyad Caliphate. The Sufyanids were the descendants of Abu Sufyan

Abu Sufyan's wife Ṣāfiya bint Abi al-As was the mother of Ramla (Umm Ḥabība) (She first married Ubayd-Allah ibn Jahsh, by whom she had one daughter, Ḥabība bint Ubayd Allah. After Ubayd Allah's death, she married Muhammad) and Umayma (She first married Huwaytib ibn Abd al-Uzza, by whom she had one son called Abu Sufyan). Abu Sufyan's son Yazid was the son of Zaynab bint Nawfal of the Kinana. Abu Sufyan's well-known wife Hind bint Utba was the mother of Hanzala (killed in the Battle of Badr; Hind refers to Hanzala as her "firstborn"), Mu'awiya, Utba (He is said to have been born "in the time of the Prophet," i.e., after 610. He had a son named al-Walid), Juwayriya (Her first husband was al-Sayib ibn Abi Hubaysh. Her second husband was Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith), and Umm Hakam (She married Abd Allah ibn Uthman al-Thaqafi, by whom she had one son, Abd al-Rahman). Another of his wife Lubaba bint Abi al-As was mother of Maymuna (Amina) (She married Abi Murrah bin Urwa bin Mas'ud al-Thaqafi, and bore him a son, Dawud and a daughter, Layla, who married al-Husayn bin Ali and bore al-Husayn his eldest son, Ali al-Akbar who was martyred in Karbala. Maymuna's second husband was al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba). Abu Sufyan and his wife Safiya bint Abi Amr ibn Umayya had Amr (taken captive in the Battle of Badr and later released), Hind (he married al-Harith ibn Nawfal, by whom she had six children: Abd Allah, Muhammad al-Akbar, Rabi'a, Abd al-Rahman, Ramla and Umm al-Zubayr), and Sakhra (She married Sayyid ibn al-Akhnas and is said to have had children by him). Atiqa bint Abi Udhayhir of the Daws tribe had Anbasa. Other Abu Sufyan's children include Ḥārith, Al-Faraa, and Azzah.

Bibliography

• Donner, Fred M. (1981). The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400847877.
• Guillaume, Alferd (1955). The Life Of Muhammad : A translation of Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-636033-1.
• Madelung, Wilferd (1997). The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56181-7.
• Poonawala, Ismail, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume IX: The Last Years of the Prophet: The Formation of the State, A.D. 630–632/A.H. 8–11. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-691-7.
• Watt, W. Montgomery (1960). "Abū Sufyān". In Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Lévi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume I: A–B. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 151. OCLC 495469456.