Search

Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (d. 13/634) was the first caliph, the successor to the Prophet Muḥammad in his political function as leader of the young Muslim community in Arabia. He was known as ʿAbdallāh b. ʿUthmān and was probably born after 570, the year of the Prophet’s birth, as he was said to be almost three years younger than the Prophet. His father, ʿUthmān, was known as Abū Quḥāfa b. ʿĀmir, and was a member of the Qurashī clan of Banū Taym. His mother, Salma bt. Ṣakhr, was also of Qurashī origin, a…

Ajnādayn is the traditional name of the site in Palestine of a battle (Maʿrakat Ajnādayn) in 13/634 between the Byzantine army and the Muslim-Arab invaders attacking the Byzantine territories in Bilād al-Shām (greater Syria), during the early Muslim caliphate. Although Islamic literary sources report precisely that Ajnādayn lay between Ramla and Bayt Djibrin, no site by that name is attested by classical or modern geographers. On topographical grounds, Meidnik located the site of the battle on the Wādī al-Samṭ. There are two small vi…