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ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ b. Wāʾil b. Hāshim b. Saʿīd al-Sahmī, Abū ʿAbdallāh (d. 42 or 43/662 or 664), is ranked among the Companions of the Prophet and is credited with the transmission of a number of ḥadīth s (al-Dhahabī, Siyar, 3:54–77). He was known for his eloquence, his shrewdness in politics, and his strategic insight in war. The sources emphasise the shrewdness over the other two attributes, especially in the context of the First Civil War. He converted to Islam together with Khālid b. al-Walīd (d. 21/642) and ʿUthmān b. Ṭalḥa. The sou…

ʿAbbād b. Ziyād b. Abī Sufyān (d. 100/718; sometimes designated by the sources as Ibn Sumayya and other times, but more rarely, as Ibn Abī Sufyān) was one of four sons of Ziyād b. Abīhi (d. 53/673), ʿUbaydallāh (d. 67/686), ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and Salm (d. 73/692) being the others. All four brothers served as generals or governors under the Sufyānids. It is not certain how old ʿAbbād was at the time of his death in 100/718 (Ibn ʿAsākir, 26:234; al-Dhahabī, 398), but from the following accounts it can be assumed he was at least in his early seventies. In 41/6…

Abū Sufyān Ṣakhr b. Ḥarb b. Umayya b. ʿAbd Shams b. ʿAbd Manāf b. Quṣayy b. Kilāb al-Amawī (b. c. 560 C.E., d. 32–4/653–5), also known by the kunya Abū Ḥanẓala, was a Meccan merchant, who, though originally leader of a group of Quraysh opposed to Muḥammad, later converted to Islam and became a trusted supporter of the Prophet. He was probably born about 560 C.E. (al-Dhahabī, 2:107). The sources are not on the whole unkind to Abū Sufyān. He is portrayed as less wicked than Abū Jahl and more as a merchant and a tribal leader…