Abū Sufyān, Ṣakhr b. Ḥarb b. Umayya b. ʿAbd al-Shams b. ʿAbd Manāf, was one of the famous Arab leaders of the early years of Islam. His kunya is sometimes also given as Abū Ḥanẓala (al-Wāqidī, 2/817; Ibn al-Athīr, 3/12). His exact date of birth is not known: according to one report, he was born ten years before the ‘Year of the Elephant’ (ʿām al-fīl) (al-Balādhurī, Ansāb, 4(1)/13). His mother Ṣafiyya was the daughter of Ḥazn b. Bujayr b. Huzam, and his father Ḥarb was the leader of the Banū Umayya and their commander in the Fijār wars (ca. 580 CE) (Abū al-Faraj, 6/341; Ibn Qudāma, 202).

Despite his b…