b. Ḥarb b. Umayya, Arab commander of the conquests period, son of the Meccan leader Abū Sufyān [ q.v.] by his wife Zaynab bt. Nawfal and half-brother of the subsequent caliph Muʿāwiya I [ q.v.], d. 18/639 without progeny (Ibn Ḳutayba, Maʿārif ed. ʿUkās̲h̲a, 344-5). With his father and brother, he became a Muslim at the conquest of Mecca in 8/630, took part in the ensuing battle of Ḥunayn [ q.v.] and was one of “those whose hearts are won over”, receiving from the Prophet a gift of 100 camels and 40 ounces of silver (Ibn Saʿd, ii/1, 110, vii/2, 127; al-Wāḳidī, iii, 944-5; and see al-muʾallafa ḳulūbuh…

b. Abī Sufyān , the founder of the Umayyad dynasty of caliphs based in Syria (although not, as is often asserted, the first Umayyad caliph: that was ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān [ q.v.], his second ¶ cousin), ruled as generally acknowledged caliph from 41/661 to 60/680. His father was Abū Sufyān (Ṣak̲h̲r) b. Ḥarb b. Umayya al-Akbar b. ʿAbd S̲h̲ams [ q.v.] and his mother was Hint bint ʿUtba b. Rabīʿa [ q.v.], on account of whom Muʿāwiya is sometimes referred to as Ibn Hind and Ibn ākilat al-akbād , “the son of the liver-eater” (cf. below). The sources provide conflicting reports of the date of Muʿāw…

b. Ḥarb b. Umayya , of the clan of ʿAbd S̲h̲ams of Ḳurays̲h̲, prominent Meccan merchant and financier (to be distinguished from Muḥammad’s cousin, Abū Sufyān b. al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib). His name was Ṣak̲h̲r, and his kunya is sometimes given as Abū Ḥanẓala. ʿAbd S̲h̲ams had been at one time a member of the political group known as the Muṭayyabūn (which included the clan of Hās̲h̲im), but about Muḥammad’s time had moved away from this group and in some matters cooperated with the rival group, Mak̲h̲zūm.…

, the second Umayyad caliph ( r. 60-4/680-3). He was named as his successor by his father [see muʿāwiya i ]. His mother was Maysūn, a sister of the Kalbī leader Ibn Baḥdal [see Ḥassān b. mālik ]. The Banū Kalb [see kalb b. wabara ] were strong in the southern regions of Syria, and Muʿāwiya appointed Yazīd as his successor in preference to an older half-brother, ʿAbd Allāh, born of a Ḳuras̲h̲ī mother. Yazīd’s kunya , Abū K̲h̲ālid, refers to one of his own younger sons [see k̲h̲ālid b. yazīd ]. During his father’s caliphate, Yazīd commanded expeditions ( ṣawāʾif see Ṣāʾifa . 1…

b. Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya I, last caliph of the Sufyānid line of the Umayyads, reigned briefly in 64/683-4. When Yazīd I b. Muʿāwiya [ q.v.] died at Ḥuwwārīn in the Syrian Desert in Rabīʿ I 64/November 683, he left behind Three young sons by free mothers; Muʿāwiya and his brother K̲h̲ālid b. Yazīd [ q.v.] cannot have been much more than 20 years old, Muʿāwiya’s age being given by the sources variously at between 17 and 23. Most of the surviving Sufyānids were in fact young and inexperienced, with their leadership qualities unproven. Yazīd had had the bayʿa [ q.v.] made to Muʿāwiya before his death…

(K̲h̲adīd̲j̲ in the D̲j̲amhara of Ibn al-Kalbī, Tab. 240) b. D̲j̲afna al-Sakūnī al-Tud̲j̲ībī , Abū Nuʿaym or Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Companion of the Prophet who took part in the conquest of Egypt and remained in the country with the Muslim occupying forces. He was an ʿUt̲h̲mānī, much attached to the memory of ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān and hostile to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib; also, when Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr [ q.v.], who had been involved in the murder of ʿUt̲h̲mān, arrived at Fusṭāṭ in mid-Ramaḍān 37/24 February 658, in order to govern Egypt in the name of ʿAlī, Ibn Ḥudayd̲j̲ sho…

b. ʿAbd al-Malik , Umayyad prince. As the eldest son of His̲h̲ām [ q. v.], caliph from 105 to 125/724-43, he was designated heir presumptive by his father, but died prematurely, at a date variously located between 117 and 119/735-7, at about thirty years of age. Although he did not himself accede to the throne, he was the father of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān [ q.v.], known as al-Dāk̲h̲il. who fled to Spain where he restored the dynasty founded in Damascus by Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān [ q.v.]. Muʿāwiya b. His̲h̲ām, who had thirteen sons, was thus the ancestor of the amīrs and caliphs wh…

, Abu ’l-Ḥasan b. ʿAmmār al-ʿAbdari al-Saraḳusṭī (d. 524/1129 or 535/1140), Andalusian traditionist. Of unknown date of birth, his nisba indicates that he probably was born in Saragossa. The biographical works do not record any data about his life in al-Andalus. If he did live in Saragossa, he may have left it when the Almoravids captured the town in 503/1110, in which case he must have belonged to those who did not welcome the new lords of the Peninsula. Otherwise, he may have left the town …

, abū hās̲h̲im , was one of the sons of the caliph Yazīd I ¶ and Fāk̲h̲ita bint Abī Hās̲h̲im b. ʿUtba b. Rabīʿa. The year of his birth is not recorded, but he was probably born ca. 48/668. When his brother Muʿāwiya II died in 64/683 without having designated his successor, a struggle broke out. Ḥassān b. Mālik b. Baḥdal [ q.v.] favoured K̲h̲ālid, who was however not elected because he was too young. In his place the elderly Marwān b. al-Ḥakam [ q.v.] was chosen, on the condition that he would be succeeded first by K̲h̲ālid b. Yazīd and then by ʿAmr b. Saʿīd b. al-ʿĀs al-As̲h̲daḳ [ q.v.]. Marwān furtherm…

, Sufyān b. Saʿīd b. Masrūḳ Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Kūfī (97-161/716-78), prominent representative of early Islamic law, tradition, and Ḳurʾān interpretation, founder of the T̲h̲awriyya law school and important link in numerous ḥadīt̲h̲ transmissions of juridical, religious and dogmatic subjects on a broad literary scale, including the major musnad works. Born 97/715-16 in Kūfa, Sufyān al-T̲h̲awrī soon belonged to the exclusive Kūfan law circles around Ḥammād b. Abī Sulaymān (d. 120/737), Abū Isḥāḳ al-Sabīʿī (128/745), Manṣūr b. al-Muʿtamir (132/749)…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Sufyān b. Muṣʿab al-ʿAbdī, of the ʿAbd al-Ḳays, an Arab poet of the 2nd/8th century. The date of his birth is not known and the date of his death is not generally agreed. On the one hand al-ʿĀmilī in his Aʿyān al-S̲h̲īʿa has him die in 120/739, whereas al-Amīnī in al-G̲h̲adīr cites the date as 178/794. He was probably born and spent most of his life in Kūfa. According to the sources he is said to have known the famous S̲h̲īʿī poet al-Sayyid al-Ḥimyarī (d. 173/789? [ q.v.]), who is supposed to have said “were it not for al-ʿAbdī I would have been the greatest poet”. His relationship with…

b. ʿUtba b. Rabīʿa b. ʿAbd S̲h̲ams, Abu ’l-Ḳāsim (genealogy in the D̲j̲amhara of Ibn al-Kalbī, Tab. 8), Companion of the Prophet born in Abyssinia, to which his father and his mother (Sahla bint Suhayl b. ʿAmr) had emigrated (Ibn His̲h̲ām, Sīra , ed. Saḳḳā et alii, i, 322, ii, 369). Following the death of his father in 12/633 at the battle of ʿAḳrabāʾ [ q.v.] against Musaylima [ q.v.], the young orphan was brought up by ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān, a fact which makes all the more reprehensible the conduct which he was later to engage in. Sent to Egypt, he took part in th…

, cousin and son-in-law of Muḥammad, and fourth caliph, was one of the first to believe in Muḥammad’s mission. Whether he was the second after Ḵh̲adīd̲j̲a. or the third after Ḵh̲adīd̲j̲a and Abū Bakr, was much disputed between S̲h̲īʿites and Sunnīs. He was at that time aged 10 or 11 at most, and Muḥammad had taken him into his own household to relieve the boy’s father Abū Ṭālib, who had fallen into poverty. One narrative, which is open to criticism on several counts, represents ʿAlī as having oc…

, a son of the first caliph, who was prominent in the opposition against the caliph ʿUt̲h̲mān [ q.v.] and who governed Egypt on behalf of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib [ q.v.] for a time during the fitna . According to tradition he was born in the year of the Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲at al-Wadāʿ or “Farewell Pilgrimage” (10/632), and he is further associated with this important event by the report that his mother gave birth to him beneath the tree where the Prophet entered iḥrām on that occasion. He belonged to the Ḳuras̲h̲ī clan of Taym b. Murra, while his mother, Asmāʾ bint ʿUma…

(d. during Muʿāwiya’s caliphate), a leading Companion of the Prophet and commander of the Arab armies during the conquest of ʿIrāḳ. His clan was the Banū Zuhra b. Kilāb of Ḳuraysh. His own kunya is given as Abū Is̲ḥāḳ but he is also known as (and sometimes listed in biographical dictionaries under) Saʿd b. Mālik since his father’s name was Mālik b. Wuhayb (or Uhayb) b. ʿAbd Manāf b. Zuhra. There does not seem to be any explanation why Malīk should have had the kunya Abū Waḳḳās. A tradition says that Saʿd asked the Prophet who he was and received the answer…

general in the service of Muʿāwiya. He belonged to the powerful tribe of Sulaym (hence "al-Sulamī"); his mother was a Christian and his father had fought at Uḥud in the ranks of the Ḳurays̲h̲. The son, who does not seem to have belonged to the closest circle of the Prophet, went, probably with the army commanded by Yazīd b. Abī Sufyān, to Syria. In the battle of the Yarmūk he was in charge of a detachment, and from that time he followed faithfully the fortunes of the Umayyads. He thus exposed hi…

, the branch of the Umayyad dynasty of Arab caliphs in early Islam, who formed the second, and most long-lasting line of this dynasty, the first line being that of Sufyānids, that of Muʿāwiya I b. Abī Sufyān b. Ḥarb [ q.v.], his son and his grandson (41-64/661-83). With the death of the child Muʿāwiya II b. Yazīd [ q.v.], the caliphate passed to Muʿāwiya I’s second cousin Marwān b. al-Ḥakam b. Abi ’l-ʿĀṣ, of the parallel branch of the Aʿyāṣ [ q.v. in Suppl.]. Marwān and his descendants now formed the Marwānid line of the Umayyads (64-132/684-750), his son and successor ʿAbd al-Malik [ q.v.] being t…

, son of ʿAlī and Fāṭima [ q.v.], claimant to the caliphate until he renounced the office in favour of Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān, and, in the eyes of the S̲h̲īʿīs, the second imām . Early years. He was born in 3/624-5 (the month is uncertain; mid-Ramaḍān?) and given the name al-Ḥasan by Muḥammad, while his father wanted to call him Ḥarb; he lived with the Prophet for only seven years, but was nevertheless able later to recollect some of his phrases and actions (for example that Muḥammad threw back into the heap of ṣadaḳa dates one which he had already put into his mout…

, grandson of the Prophet and son of Fāṭima [ q.v.], famous because of his revolt which ended tragically at Karbalāʾ on 10 Muḥarram 61/October 680. Childhood and youth. (Al-)Ḥusayn was born at Medina, according to the majority of the sources in the beginning of S̲h̲aʿbān 4/January 626. He was thus still a child when the Prophet died and could therefore have very few memories of his grandfather. A number of ḥadīt̲h̲s mention the affectionate phrases which Muḥammad is said to have used of his grandsons, e.g., “whoever loves them loves me and whoever hates them hates me” and “al-Ḥas…

, elder brother of ʿAlī, who was 20 years his junior. After fighting against the Muslims at Badr, where he was taken prisoner and ransomed by al-ʿAbbās, he became a convert to Islām. The sources give contradictory information as to the date of this event (after the capture of Mecca, according to al-Balād̲h̲urī; shortly before or after the pact of al-Ḥudaybiya, according to Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar, etc.), as well as on his participation in the Ḵh̲aybar and Mūta expeditions, the capture of Mecca, and the bat…