ʿAbd Shams, was the son of ʿAbd Manāf b. Quṣayy (q.v.), an ancestor of the Quraysh, father of Umayya, from whom the dynasty of the Umayyads were descended. He was named after ‘Shams’, which was apparently one of the deities worshipped by the Quraysh (see Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī, 3/808–809). His father, ʿAbd Manāf, was the father of Hāshim, head of the clan of the Hāshimids, and great-grandfather of the Prophet Muḥammad.

Based on a report frequently repeated in the sources, ʿAbd Shams and Hāshim were twins, whose foreheads were connected at birth. They could not be sepa…