Ḥarb ibn Umayya ibn ʿAbd Shams (Arabic: حرب بن أمية بن عبد شمس) was the father of Abu Sufyan and Arwa and the son of Umayya ibn Abd Shams.[1] Harb is credited in the Islamic tradition as the first among the Quraysh to write in Arabic and the first to stop consuming wine.[2]

Harb ibn Umayya
حرب بن أمية
Born
Ḥarb ibn Umayya ibn Abd Shams

Died
Unknown
Known forbeing the qāʾid of the Meccans
SpouseSafiyya bint Hazn
Children
ParentUmayya ibn Abd Shams (father)
Military career
Battles / wars

War leader

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Harb was one of the top leaders of the Quraysh of Mecca, belonging to one of its clans, the Banu Abd Shams. The Islamic tradition presents him as the successor of his companion, Abd al-Muttalib of the Banu Hashim, as the war leader of the Quraysh. He led the Abd Shams or the Quraysh in general during the Fijar War against the nomadic tribes of the Hawazin. After his death, war leadership returned to the Banu Hashim.[3]

According to the editors of the Encyclopedia of Islam, stories of Harb's rivalry and contest of merits with Abd al-Muttalib are "no doubt a projection backwards of the later conflict between the houses of Umayya [branch of the Abd Shams] and Hashim" in the 7th–8th centuries.[2] According to the historian Mahmood Ibrahim, the rivalry between Harb and Abd al-Muttalib stemmed from the increasing commercial power of the Banu Umayya at the expense of other Qurayshite clans, including the Banu Hashim.[4][5]

Family tree

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Quraysh tribe
Waqida bint AmrAbd Manaf ibn QusaiĀtikah bint Murrah
Nawfal ibn Abd Manaf‘Abd ShamsBarraHalaMuṭṭalib ibn Abd ManafHashimSalma bint Amr
Umayya ibn Abd ShamsʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib
HarbAbū al-ʿĀsʿĀminahʿAbdallāhHamzaAbī ṬālibAz-Zubayral-ʿAbbās Abū Lahab
ʾAbī Sufyān ibn Harbal-ḤakamʿUthmānʿAffānMUHAMMAD
(Family tree)
Khadija bint KhuwaylidʿAlī
(Family tree)
Khawlah bint Ja'farIbn Abbas
Muʿāwiyah IMarwān IʿUthmān ibn ʿAffānRuqayyaFatimahMuhammad ibn al-HanafiyyahʿAli ibn ʿAbdallāh
SufyanidsMarwanidsal-Ḥasanal-Ḥusayn
(Family tree)
Abu Hasim
(Imām of al-Mukhtār and Hashimiyya)
Muhammad
"al-Imām"

(Abbasids)
Ibrāhim "al-Imām"al-Saffāḥal-Mansur

References

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  1. ^ "Muslim Congress - Muharram". Archived from the original on 2008-02-24. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  2. ^ a b Editors 1971, p. 203.
  3. ^ Editors 1971.
  4. ^ Ibrahim 2011.
  5. ^ Ibrahim 1982, pp. 343–358.

Bibliography

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