, the third of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs (23-35/644-55). He belonged to the great Meccan family of the Banū Umayya [ q.v.], and more particularly to the branch of Abu ’l-ʿĀṣī who was his grandfather; for his genealogy, see Wüstenfeld, Geneal . Tabellen , U. 23, and the table in umayya. His sudden support for the Prophet’s preaching began his life as a Muslim. ʿUt̲h̲mān was a very rich merchant and an accomplished man of the world. The tradition which represented him as the very esssence of beauty and elegance to the extent of being ov…

b. ʿAffān , governor, son of the third caliph. His mother was called Umm ʿAmr bint Ḏj̲undab b. ʿAmr al-Dawsiyya. Abān accompanied ʿĀʾis̲h̲a at the battle of the Camel in Ḏj̲umāda I 36/Nov. 656; on the battle terminating otherwise than was expected, he was one of the first to run away. On the whole, he does not seem to have been of any political importance. The caliph ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān appointed him as governor of Madīna. He occupied this position for seven years; he was then dismissed and his place was taken by His̲h̲ām b. Ismāʿīl. Abān owes his celebrity not so ¶ much to his activity as an…

b. Abī Muʿayṭ , Companion of the Prophet and member of the Abū ʿAmr family of the Umayyad clan in Mecca, d. 61/680. His father ʿUḳba fell at Badr opposing Muḥammad, but al-Walīd became a Muslim at the conquest of Mecca in 8/630. He acted as collector of the ṣadaḳa [ q.v.] from the Banū Muṣṭaliḳ under the Prophet and that from the Christian Banū Tag̲h̲lib [ q.v.] in al-D̲j̲azīra under ʿUmar. Through his mother, he was a half-brother of the ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān, and when the latter became caliph he appointed al-Walīd governor of Kūfa after Saʿd b. Abī Waḳḳāṣ (29/6…

b. al-Ṣāmit al-Anṣārī , Abū Maʿn or Saʿīd or ʿUmar ), Companion of the Prophet who took part in the conquest of Egypt and remained in the country with the Muslim occupying forces. Subsequently, loyal to the memory of ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān and hostile to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, whose accession to the caliphate he had not recognised (see al-Ṭabarī, i, 3070), he opposed, with Muʿāwiya b. Ḥudayd̲j̲ [ q.v.], the arrival of Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr [ q.v.] who, having had a hand in the murder of the third caliph, had been appointed governor of Egypt, and it is probable that he was involve…

, Abū Marwān al-Dimas̲h̲ḳī al-Ḳibṭī , is chiefly known as one of the first advocates of free will [see Ḳadariyya ], at the same time as Maʿbad al-Ḏj̲uhanī [ q.v.]. The son of a freed slave of ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān, he appears, like Maʿbad, to have been the disciple of a Christian from ʿIrāḳ, but he lived in Damascus where he held the position of secretary in the chancellery. Al-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ ( Bayān , iii, 29) mentions him on the same footing as Ibn al-Muḳaffaʿ, Sahl b. Hārūn and ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, and even one so strictly orthodox as al-ʿAsḳalānī acknowledged his professional ability ( Lisān al-Mizān …

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…

, the charismatic chief of the Fazāra [ q.v.] at the time of the Prophet Muḥammad. ʿUyayna (“one having prominent eyeballs”) was a nickname, his real name being Ḥud̲h̲ayfa. ʿUyayna b. Ḥiṣn b. Ḥud̲h̲ayfa b. Badr b. ʿAmr descended from famous warriors: his father led the Asad [ q.v.] and Ghaṭafān [ q.v.]; his grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather commanded the forces of their own tribe, the Fazāra, and those of other tribes belonging to the Ghaṭafān group. ʿUyayna was called wat̲h̲t̲h̲āb or “leaper, jumper” since before the advent of…

b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Abī Farwa (so-called from his entering Medina with a fleece on his back), emancipated slave of al-Ḥārit̲h̲ al-Ḥaffār, himself the emancipated slave of ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān [ q.v.]. He was really a man of obscure origin, born in slavery at Medina about 112/730. He was ¶ bought by Ziyād b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥārit̲h̲ī, who presented him to his master Abu ’l-ʿAbbās al-Saffāḥ, the first ʿAbbāsid caliph. All his life, he served, with varying fortune, three more ʿAbbāsid caliphs: al-Manṣūr, al-Mahdī and al-Hādī. He reached the zenith of his power under al-Manṣūr (136-58/754-75 [ q.v.])…

(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-Muṭṭalib al-Hās̲h̲imī , Companion of the Prophet, son of the Prophet’s uncle and of Umm al-Faḍl Lubāba al-Hilāliyya, herself Muḥammad’s sister-in-law. Although the Sīra brings him into contact with Muḥammad by making him one of the inner circle of the Hās̲h̲imī family who washed the Prophet’s corpse and descended into his grave, and although his physical resemblance to the Prophet is also stressed, he was obviously a late convert to Islam, doubtless following his father al-ʿAbbās [ q.v.] in this after the conquest of Mecca. Nothing is heard of him during the reigns of t…

b. ʿAbīda b. Rayṭa (Rāʾiṭa) al-Numayrī al-Baṣrī, Abū Zayd, expert in ak̲h̲bār on history as well as poets and poetry, very important source for some of the most prominent works of Arabic literature and himself author of ak̲h̲bār collections which mostly survive in the quotations of later authors (173-262/789-878). His father’s name was Zayd, “S̲h̲abba” being a nickname taken from a song that his father’s mother used to sing for him when he was a boy. ʿUmar was born at Baṣra as a mawlā of the Banū Numayr, as mentioned by Yāḳūt ( Irs̲h̲ād , vi, 481-2) and al-Ṣafadī ( Wāfī , …

b. al-Mund̲h̲ir b. Ḥarām , of the K̲h̲azrad̲j̲ tribe of Yat̲h̲rib (later Medīna), traditionally known as the “poet laureate” of the Prophet, is more correctly the most prominent of several poets who were associated with the rise of Islam, and one who already had an established reputation in the D̲j̲āhiliyya. When ¶ Muḥammad arrived at Medina, Ḥassān was of mature age (though probably not yet 60—which is the age given by most authorities including Ibn Isḥāḳ who relies directly on Ḥassān’s grandson Saʿīd—or even 52 or 53 year…

, Abū Saʿīd al-Azdī al-ʿAtakī , Arab general of the 1st/7th century and founder of an influential family [see muhallabids ]. According to Abū ʿUbayda, al-Muhallab’s father was a Persian weaver from K̲h̲ārak who migrated via ʿUmān to Baṣra, where he gained acceptance as an Azdī thanks to his military valour (Yāḳūt, ii, 387; Ibn Rusta, 205 f.; cf. also Ag̲h̲ānī3 , xx, 75; M. Hinds (tr.), The History of al-Ṭabarī , xxiii, 187 n.). Most sources accept him as a genuine Azdī, and some even present him as a s̲h̲arīf (e.g. al-Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ , 396). Abū Ṣufra was among t…

, the ancestor of the Banū Kalb, the strongest group of the Ḳuḍāʿa [ q.v.]. His mother, Umm al-Asbuʿ, was so called because all her sons were named after wild animals (T. Nöldeke, Neue Beiträge , 75 ff.). The Kalb were, according to the genealogical system (Ibn al-Kalbī, Ḏj̲amharat al-nasab etc.), of Yemenite descent, but sometimes they claimed for political reasons to belong to the Northern Arabs or even to Ḳurays̲h̲. I.—Pre-Islamic period Their greatest chieftain was Zuhayr b. Ḏj̲anāb. who had great authority among the northern tribes; so he was sent by Abraha [ q.v.] to control the Bak…

, secretary and prolific author in Arabic and Persian. A reputed descendant of the caliph ʿUmar, he was born either in Balk̲h̲ or Buk̲h̲ārā, but spent most of his life in Gurgānd̲j̲, the capital of K̲h̲ w ārazm. He died, according to Dawlats̲h̲āh, in 578/1182-3, in his 97th year, which would put his birth in 481/1088-9; Yāḳūt (at least in the published text) has him die 5 years earlier. Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn was chief secretary ( ṣāḥib dīwān al-ins̲h̲āʾ ) under the K̲h̲wārazms̲h̲āh Atsi̊z (521-51/1127-56) and his successor Īl-Arslān (d. 568/1172). His loyalty to Atsi̊z…

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, 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…

b. K̲h̲uwaylid , Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḳuras̲h̲ī al-Asadī, one of the most eminent Companions of Muḥammad, known by the surname Ḥawārī (a Geʿez loanword) Rasūl Allā…

, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (b. Sayḥān) b. Arṭāt al-Muḥāribī , a minor poet of Medina who lived in the 1st/7th century, on intimate terms with the governors or members of the Umayyad aristocracy of the town—al-Walīd b. ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān, al-Walīd b. ʿUtba b. Abī Sufyān, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Ḥakam and al-Walīd b. ʿUḳba b. Abī Muʿayṭ; indeed he belonged to a clan which was a ḥalīf of the Banū Ḥarb b. Umayya, a fact which incidentally won him the friendship and protection of Muʿāwiya. Although we possess a number of his verses, which belong…