Amr ibn al-As

Amr ibn al-As was born in c. 573.[2] His father, al-As ibn Wa'il, was a wealthy landowner from the Banu Sahm clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca.[3] Following the death of al-As in c. 622, Amr inherited from him the lucrative al-Waht estate and vineyards near Ta'if.[4] Amr's mother was al-Nabigha bint Harmala from the Banu Jallan clan of the Anaza tribe.[5][6] She had been taken captive and sold, in succession, to several members of the Quraysh, one of whom was Amr's father.[7] As such, Amr had two maternal half-brothers, Amr ibn Atatha of the Banu Adi and Uqba ibn Nafi of the Banu Fihr, and a half-sister from the Banu Abd Shams.[6][7] Amr is physically described in the traditional sources as being short with broad shoulders, having a large head with a wide forehead and wide mouth, long arms and a long beard.[6]

There are conflicting reports about when Amr embraced Islam, with the most credible version placing it in 629/630, not long before the conquest of Mecca by Muhammad.[2][8] According to this account, he converted alongside the Qurayshites Khalid ibn al-Walid and Uthman ibn Talha.[8] According to Amr's own testimony, transmitted by his fourth-generation descendant Amr ibn Shu'ayb, he converted in Axum in the presence of King Armah (Najashi) and met Muhammad in Medina upon the latter's return from the Battle of Khaybar in 628.[9] Amr conditioned his conversion on the forgiveness of his past sins and an "active part in affairs", according to a report cited by the historian Ibn Asakir (d. 1176).[10]

Indeed, in October 629, Amr was tasked by Muhammad with leading the raid on Dhat al-Salasil, likely located in the northern Hejaz (western Arabia), a lucrative opportunity for Amr in view of the potential war spoils.[11] The purpose of the raid is unclear, though the modern historian Fred Donner speculates that it was to "break up a gathering of hostile tribal groups" possibly backed by the Byzantine Empire.[12] The historian Ibn Hisham (d. 833) holds that Amr rallied the nomadic Arabs in the region "to make war on [Byzantine] Syria".[12] The tribal groups targeted in the raid included the Quda'a in general and the Bali specifically.[13] Amr's paternal grandmother hailed from the Bali,[14] and this may have motivated his appointment to the command by Muhammad as Amr was instructed to recruit tribesmen from the Bali and the other Quda'a tribes of Balqayn and Banu Udhra.[13] Following the raid, a delegation of the Bali embraced Islam.[13] Amr further consecrated ties with the tribe by marrying a Bali woman, with whom he had his son Muhammad.[15]

Muhammad appointed Amr the governor of Oman and he remained there until being informed of Muhammad's death in 632.[16] The death of Muhammad prompted several Arab tribes to defect from the nascent Medina-based Muslim polity in the Ridda wars. Muhammad's successor Caliph Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) appointed Amr to rein in the apostate Quda'a tribes, and among those targeted were the Hejazi branches of the Bali.[17] Amr's campaigns, which were supported by the commander Shurahbil ibn Hasana, succeeded in restoring Medina's authority as far as the northern frontier with Syria.[18]

Amr was one of four commanders dispatched by Abu Bakr to conquer Syria in 633.[19] The focus of Amr's campaign was Palestine, to which he had been appointed governor by Abu Bakr before his departure.[14] As a Qurayshite merchant Amr was likely already well-acquainted with the routes to Gaza, a principle terminal for Meccan caravans.[20] He took the coastal route of the Hejaz, reaching Ayla,[21] a Muslim possession since 630,[22] before breaking west into the Negev desert or possibly the Sinai.[21] He arrived near the villages of Dathin and Badan in Gaza's environs where he entered into talks with Gaza's Byzantine commander.[21] After the negotiations broke down, Amr's men bested the Byzantines at the Battle of Dathin on 4 February 634 and set up headquarters at Ghamr al-Arabat in the middle of the Wadi Araba.[21][23] Most accounts hold that Amr's army was 3,000-strong; the Muhajirun (emigrants from Mecca to Medina) and the Ansar (natives of Medina), who together formed the core of the earliest Muslim converts, dominated his forces according to al-Waqidi (d. 823), while the 9th-century historian Ibn A'tham holds that Amr's army consisted of 3,300 Qurayshite and allied horsemen, 1,700 horsemen from the Banu Sulaym and 200 from the Yemenite tribe of Madh'hij.[24] The historian Philip Mayerson considers the troop figures to be "unquestionably exaggerated" but still representing the largest Arab fighting force to have ever been assembled in southern Palestine and the Sinai until then.[25]

Amr conquered the area around Gaza by February or March 634 and proceeded to besiege Caesarea, the capital of Byzantine Palestine, in July.[26] He soon after abandoned the siege upon the approach of a large Byzantine army.[26] After being reinforced by the remainder of the Muslim armies in Syria, including the new arrivals commanded by Khalid ibn al-Walid, Amr, with overall command of the 20,000-strong Muslim forces, routed the Byzantine army at the Battle of Ajnadayn, the first major confrontation between the Muslims and Byzantium, in July–August 634.[26][27] Amr occupied numerous towns in Palestine, including Bayt Jibrin, Yibna, Amwas, Lydda, Jaffa, Nablus and Sebastia.[28] Most of these localities surrendered after little resistance due to the flight of Byzantine troops; consequently, there is scant information about them in the traditional accounts of the conquest.[29] Abu Bakr's successor Umar (r. 634–644) appointed or confirmed Amr as the commander of the military district of Palestine.[30]

The ravines of the Yarmouk River where Amr kept the Byzantines confined at the decisive Battle of Yarmouk in 636

The Muslims pursued the Byzantine army northward and besieged them at Pella for four months.[31] Amr may have retained overall command of the Muslim armies until this point, though other accounts assign command to Khalid or Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah.[31] In any case, the Muslims landed a heavy blow against the Byzantines in the ensuing Battle of Fahl in December 634 or January 635.[31] Afterward, Amr and Shurahbil may have been sent to besiege Beisan, which capitulated after minor resistance.[32] The Muslims proceeded to besiege Damascus, where the remnants of the Byzantine army from the battles of Ajnadayn and Fahl had gathered. Amr was positioned at the Bab Tuma gate, the Muslim commanders having each been assigned to block one of the city's entrances.[33] By August–September 635, Damascus surrendered to the Muslims.[34] Amr acquired several residences within the city.[35]

In response to the series of defeats, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) led a large army in person to confront the Muslims; its rout at the Battle of Yarmouk, in which Amr played a key role by confining the Byzantines between the banks of the Yarmouk River and the Yarmouk's ravine, in August–September 636, paved the way for the rest of Syria's conquest by the Muslims.[36] Following Yarmouk, the Muslims attempted to capture Jerusalem, where Amr had previously sent an advance force.[37][38] Abu Ubayda led the siege of Jerusalem, in which Amr participated, but the city only surrendered after Caliph Umar arrived in person to conclude a treaty with its defenders.[37][38] Amr was one of the witnesses of the Treaty of Umar.[39] From Jerusalem,[40] Amr proceeded to besiege and capture the city of Gaza.[41]

Upon his return to Medina, Amr divorced Umm Kulthum and openly criticized Uthman.[89] The Caliph and Amr engaged in a number of heated public exchanges and, according to a report in the Islamic traditional sources, Amr incited Muhammad's senior companions Ali, al-Zubayr and Talha ibn Ubayd Allah, as well as the Hajj pilgrims in Mecca, against Uthman.[90] He lobbied Muhammad's wife A'isha for support and the latter pressed Uthman to reappoint Amr to Egypt citing its garrisons' satisfaction with his rule. In a sermon at the mosque in Medina in June 656 and a letter penned to the Muslim leaders in Syria, Uthman mentioned that he had intended to reappoint Amr but did not follow through as a result of the latter's excessive insult. According to the historian Wilferd Madelung, the insult Uthman cited was likely Amr's public reaction to the Caliph's statement that the mutinous Egyptian troops who had arrived in Medina to protest the Caliph's policies had withdrawn because they were misinformed: "Fear God, Uthman, for you have ridden over abysses and we have ridden over them with you. So repent to God, that we may repent".[91]

After his last exchange with Uthman, Amr retired to his estate in southern Palestine.[92] The estate was called "Ajlan" after one of his mawālī (non-Arab, Muslim freedmen) and was located in the vicinity of "al-Sab'", which had conventionally been identified with modern Beersheba, but more likely corresponds with Bayt Jibrin, according to the historian Michael Lecker;[93] the medieval historians al-Baladhuri (d. 892) and Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1226) also suggest that Ajlan was located in the area of Bayt Jibrin.[94][lower-alpha 3] Amr had likely become owner of the estate through a caliphal grant, though he possibly could have taken possession of it in the course of his conquest of Palestine and his ownership had been confirmed by the caliphs.[98] He lived on the estate, where he derived agricultural revenue, with his sons Muhammad and Abd Allah.[99][lower-alpha 4]

At his estate Amr received news of the Siege of Uthman and the Caliph's subsequent assassination by Amr's Egyptian partisans.[103][104] The roughly 400–600 Egyptian mutineers had protested Uthman's fiscal centralization policies in Medina and accused him of favoring his relatives over the early Muslim converts.[86] The Caliph persuaded them to withdraw, but after they intercepted a letter on their departure ordering Ibn Abi Sarh to punish them, they turned back and assaulted Uthman in his home.[86] In an anecdote cited by al-Baladhuri, Amr is quoted taking partial credit for Uthman's killing.[105] Ali succeeded Uthman, but did not reappoint Amr to his post in Egypt.[106] Amr was one of a number of figures held culpable for Uthman's death by the slain caliph's clan, the Banu Umayya (Umayyads), most prominently by Uthman's uterine brother and Amr's former brother-in-law al-Walid ibn Uqba.[107] Nonetheless, the governor of Syria—which included Palestine—the Umayyad Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, had left Amr on his estate undisturbed.[105] As pressure from the Umayyads increased against him, Amr distanced himself from any role in Uthman's death and wrote Mu'awiya to execute or banish the participating Egyptian troops who had been apprehended when they passed through Mu'awiya's jurisdiction on their way back to Egypt.[108]

After Ali's victory against al-Zubayr, Talha and A'isha at the Battle of the Camel in Iraq, Mu'awiya, who maintained his opposition to Ali, became the focus of the Caliph's attention. Mu'awiya summoned Amr to discuss an alliance against Ali.[109] In the ensuing negotiations, Amr pressed Mu'awiya for lifetime possession of Egypt, to which Mu'awiya ultimately acceded after being persuaded by his brother Utba ibn Abi Sufyan.[109] The public agreement,[109] composed by Amr's mawlā Wardan and made in Jerusalem,[40] secured Amr's allegiance to Mu'awiya in return for the latter's assistance in gaining control of Egypt from Ali's governor.[109] According to Madelung, the "alliance between Mu'awiya and Amr b. al-As constituted a formidable political force"; in forging the alliance, Mu'awiya sought to benefit from Amr's political acumen, "practical battle experience and sure judgement of military strategy and tactics", as well as his "expertise" and support base in Egypt.[110] Amr became Mu'awiya's chief adviser.[111] To secure the defense of his Syrian realm from Ali's loyalists in Egypt, Amr counseled Mu'awiya to secure the support of the Judhamite chief in Palestine, Natil ibn Qays, by ignoring his seizure of the district treasury; Natil subsequently joined Mu'awiya's cause.[112] Amr then advised Mu'awiya to lead the Syrian army in person against Ali, who began his march toward Syria in late May 657.[112]

When Ali's army set up camp around Siffin, south of the Euphrates town of Raqqa, in early June, Mu'awiya's advance guard led by Abu'l-A'war refused them access to the watering places under their control.[113] After Ali protested, Amr advised Mu'awiya to accept their request as preventing access to water might rally the hitherto demotivated Iraqis to a determined fight against the Syrians.[114] Mu'awiya refused and the Iraqis subsequently defeated the Syrians led by Amr and Abu'l-A'war in a skirmish known as the "Day of the Euphrates".[115] As head of the Syrian cavalry,[2] Amr held the overall field command for Mu'awiya's forces in the ensuing weeks-long Battle of Siffin and on occasion personally participated in direct combat, though without particular distinction.[116] At one point in the battle, he raised a black fabric given to him by Muhammad at the tip of his spear, symbolizing the command role given to him by Muhammad.[117]

As the Iraqis gained the battlefield advantage, Amr proposed to Mu'awiya that their men tie leaves from the Qur'an at the tips of their lances in an appeal to Ali's men to settle the conflict peacefully.[2][118] It served as a successful ruse which ended the fighting as the battle turned in Ali's favor and sowed uncertainty in Ali's ranks.[118] The Caliph heeded the majority will in his army to settle the matter diplomatically; an arbitration was agreed with Amr representing Mu'awiya and Abu Musa al-Ash'ari representing Ali.[111] Amr met with Ali once and the two exchanged insults, but Ali ultimately agreed to Amr's condition that he omit his caliphal title, amīr al-muʾminīn (commander of the faithful), from the preliminary arbitration document drafted on 2 August.[119] The omission effectively placed Ali and Mu'awiya on an equal political footing and thereby weakened Ali's leadership position over the Muslim polity.[120]

Amr and Abu Musa likely met twice, at Dumat al-Jandal and then Adhruh, to forge an agreement.[121] At Dumat al-Jandal, Amr succeeded in gaining Abu Musa's recognition that Uthman was wrongfully killed, a verdict opposed by Ali and which strengthened Syrian support for Mu'awiya, who had taken up the cause of revenge for the death of his kinsman Uthman.[122] At the last meeting in Adhruh, the office of the caliphate was discussed, but the meeting ended in violence and without agreement; during the brawl, Amr was physically assaulted by a Kufan partisan of Ali, but the latter was fended off by one of Amr's sons. Abu Musa retired to Mecca, while Amr and the Syrians returned to Mu'awiya and recognized him as amīr al-muʾminīn before formally pledging allegiance to him in April/May 658.[123] As a result, Amr was among those invoked in a ritual curse issued by Ali during the morning prayers and became the subject of derision among the Kufan core of Ali's supporters.[124]

As early as 656/57, Amr and Mu'awiya persuaded Ibn Abi Hudhayfa, who had seized control of Egypt after Uthman's assassination, to meet them in al-Arish, where they took him captive in a ruse. Amr and Mu'awiya did not advance further than this point and Ibn Abi Hudhayfa was executed.[125] Ali's second governor in Egypt, Qays ibn Sa'd al-Ansari, was dismissed in late 657 due to concerns that he would defect to Mu'awiya and his next appointee, Malik al-Ashtar, died in Qulzum (Suez) on his way to the province.[126][127] Al-Ashtar's replacement was Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, son of the first caliph and a foster son of Ali. Ibn Abi Bakr burned the homes and arrested the families of pro-Uthman mutineers from the Fustat garrison led by Mu'awiya ibn Hudayj al-Kindi and Maslama ibn Mukhallad al-Ansari.[128] The latter two requested intervention by Mu'awiya, who dispatched Amr to Egypt with a 4,000–6,000-strong army.[128][129] Despite his thirteen-year absence from Egypt, Amr nonetheless mustered the support of Egypt's original Arab military settlers and their sons.[81] In July/August 658, his forces defeated Ali's troops at the Battle of al-Musannah between Heliopolis (Ain Shams) and Fustat. He subsequently captured Fustat.[128] Ibn Hudayj pursued and captured Ibn Abi Bakr and had him executed over the objections of Amr, who had been lobbied by Ibn Abi Bakr's brother Abd al-Rahman to spare his life.[130]

As per his agreement with Mu'awiya, Amr was installed as governor of Egypt for life and ruled as a virtual partner rather than a subordinate of Mu'awiya, who had become caliph after Ali's assassination and his son al-Hasan's abdication in 661.[128][131] On 22 January of that year, Amr escaped an assassination attempt by the Kharijite Zadawayh or Amr ibn Bakr, who killed Amr's stand-in for the Friday prayers, Kharija ibn Hudhafa, mistaking the latter for Amr.[2][132] When the Kharijite was apprehended and brought before him, Amr proclaimed "You wanted me, but God wanted Kharija!" and he personally executed him.[132]

Amr was permitted by the Caliph to retain personally the surplus revenues of the province after the payment of the troops' stipends and other government expenses.[128] He increased the original garrison at Fustat, numbering some 15,000 soldiers, with the Syrian troops he brought with him.[60] According to the historian Clive Foss "Amr ruled the country successfully, and with considerable independence and privilege, until his death".[1]

A map depicting growth of the Caliphate. The red-lined areas indicate the territories annexed by the Caliphate—namely most of Palestine, Egypt, Cyrenaica and Tripolitania—as a result of Amr's conquests

Amr died of natural causes over the age of 90.[2] Accounts vary regarding the date of his death, though the most credible versions place it in 43 AH (663–664 CE).[133][lower-alpha 5] He was buried at the foot of the Mokattam hills to the east of Fustat.[134] Due to the early Muslims' reticence to mark the graves of their dead, Amr's burial place has not been identified.[134] In a testament to the personal wealth that he accrued, at the time of his death he left seventy sacks of gold dinars. His sons Abd Allah and Muhammad refused inheritance of the sums, which were then confiscated by Mu'awiya.[1] Abd Allah succeeded his father as governor for a few weeks until Mu'awiya replaced him with his own brother Utba.[1]

The traditional Egypt-based Arabic and Coptic sources regard Amr positively.[134] The major source of information about the Muslim conquest of Egypt and the province's early Arab military generations, Ibn Abd al-Hakam (d. 871),[135] commends Amr for his leadership of the Egyptian conquest and as the upholder of the interests of Egypt's troops and their families against the central authorities in Medina and later Damascus.[134] The Egyptian Arab tradition holds that Amr was personally praised by Muhammad and was a man of wisdom and piety on his deathbed.[134] The nearly contemporary Coptic historian John of Nikiu (fl. 680–690), who was generally critical of Arab rule, said of Amr that he "had no mercy on the Egyptians, and did not observe the covenant they had made with him",[136] but also says of him that: "He exacted the taxes which had been determined upon but he took none of the property of the churches, and he committed no act of spoliation or plunder, and he preserved them throughout all his days."[134] In the words of Kennedy, "Of his [Amr's] competence as a military commander and politician there can be no doubt—the results speak for themselves—but he also has a reputation for straight dealing and justice."[134] Amr's roughly two-year conquest of Egypt was the quickest in the history of the early Muslim conquests.[134] Though demographically Egypt remained largely non-Arab and non-Muslim for centuries after the conquest, the country has been continuously ruled by Muslims until the present day.[134]

Amr's estates in Palestine remained in the possession of his descendants as late as the 10th or 11th centuries.[137] His granddaughter Umm Abd Allah bint Abd Allah married the Umayyad viceroy of Egypt Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan (d. 705) and bore his sons Suhayl and Sahl and daughters Sahla and Umm al-Hakam.[138][139][140] The estates in Medina that Amr's descendants inherited from him were confiscated by the Abbasids after they took over the Caliphate from the Umayyads in 750.[141] The estates were restored to Amr's family after the intercession of his great-granddaughter Abida al-Hasna bint Shu'ayb ibn Abd Allah, who married the Abbasid prince al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Ubayd Allah ibn Abbas (d. 758).[141]

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