Abu Sufyan

Abu Sufyan was a leader and merchant from the Quraysh tribe of Mecca. During his early career, he often led trade caravans to Syria. He had been among the main leaders of Meccan opposition to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, commanding the Meccans at the battles of the Uhud and Trench in 625 and 627 CE. However, when Muhammad entered Mecca in 630, he was among the first to submit and was given a stake in the nascent Muslim state, playing a role at the Battle of Hunayn and the subsequent destruction of the polytheistic sanctuary of al-Lat in Ta'if. After Muhammad's death, he may have been appointed as the governor of Najran by Caliph Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) for an unspecified period. Abu Sufyan later played a supporting role in the Muslim army at the Battle of the Yarmuk against the Byzantines in Syria. His sons Yazid and later Mu'awiya were given command roles in that province and the latter went on to establish the Umayyad Caliphate in 661.

Life

Early life

Abu Sufyan's given name was Sakhr and he was born around c. 560 to Harb ibn Umayya, a leader of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, and Safiyya bint Hazn ibn Bujayr. The family belonged to the Banu Abd Shams clan of the Quraysh, the brother clan of the Banu Hashim, to which the Islamic prophet Muhammad belonged. Abu Sufyan was among the leaders of the Qurayshi opposition to Muhammad in the years preceding the Hijrah (emigration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622). A prominent financier and merchant, Abu Sufyan engaged in trade in Syria, often heading Meccan caravans to the region. He owned land in the vicinity of Damascus.

Opposition to Islam

Abu Sufyan led the Meccan resistance to Muhammad from the Battle of Badr in 624 through to the fall of Mecca in 630, a sustained six-year campaign that included the military expeditions resulting in the Battle of Uhud (625) and the Siege of Medina (627).

In 624, a caravan Abu Sufyan was leading back to Mecca from Syria faced an assault by Muhammad, prompting him to send for aid. In response, a 1,000-strong Meccan army led by Abu Jahl ibn Hisham was dispatched. In the ensuing confrontation, Abu Sufyan, "by skillful and vigorous leadership eluded the Muslims", according to the historian W. Montgomery Watt. However, under Abu Jahl's command, the Meccans pursued a direct confrontation with the Muslims, which resulted in the rout of the Quraysh at the Battle of Badr. One of Abu Sufyan's sons, Hanzala, was killed at Badr and another son, Amr, was taken captive, but released. Among the other Meccan casualties were Abu Jahl himself and Utba ibn Rabi'a, who was one of Abu Sufyan's fathers-in-law. In the aftermath of Badr, Abu Sufyan was charged with avenging Meccan losses, the command he held likely being hereditary. Subsequently, Abu Sufyan inflicted significant losses on the Muslims at the Battle of Uhud in 625, but the Quraysh were generally unsatisfied with the battle's results. Two years later, he led the attempted siege of Medina, but was defeated by the Muslim defenders at the Battle of the Trench, and his morale may have taken a blow at this failure. The command of the Meccan forces were transferred to his Qurayshi rivals, Safwan ibn Umayya, Ikrima ibn Amr and Suhayl ibn Amr.

In later Muslim historical memory, the Banu 'Abd Shams, the Umayyad clan of which Abu Sufyan was the dominant figure, were characterized as "irredeemably tainted as the enemies of God and His prophet," their two decades of opposition permanently marking their standing in the Islamic community.

His conversion at the fall of Mecca was widely regarded in later tradition as insincere. According to Ibn Ishaq's Sīra, as transmitted by Ibn Hisham, Abu Sufyan expressed doubt about Muhammad's prophethood on the night before the occupation of Mecca, and converted only after a companion present warned him to "submit and testify that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is the apostle of God before you lose your head."

The Oath of Satisfaction (bay'at al-riḍwān) at Hudaybiya in 628 came to be regarded as the definitive marker separating sincere early Muslims from later converts characterized by later tradition as "hypocritical timeservers," a category in which Abu Sufyan was widely placed. An Abbasid-era decree transmitted by al-Tabari preserves a prophetic tradition in which Muhammad, upon seeing Abu Sufyan riding on an ass with Mu'awiya and Yazid accompanying him, declared: "May God curse the leader, the rider and the driver", with Abu Sufyan identified as the leader.

Conversion to Islam

Though Abu Sufyan did not participate in the truce negotiations at al-Hudaybiya in 628, he held peace talks with Muhammad in Medina when allies of the Quraysh apparently broke the truce. Information about the results of these talks is unclear, but Watt surmises that Abu Sufyan and Muhammad entered into an understanding of sorts. When Muhammad conquered Mecca in 630, Abu Sufyan played a key role in the city's surrender, being among the first Qurayshi leaders to submit and guaranteeing protection for his partisans. According to Ibn Ishaq's Sira, Abu Sufyan converted under threat. On the night before Muhammad's entry into Mecca, Abu Sufyan was brought before Muhammad, who asked him to recognize his prophethood. When he expressed doubt about Muhammad's prophethood, a companion present told him to "submit and testify that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is the apostle of God before you lose your head", after which he declared his conversion.

He fought alongside the Muslims at the Battle of Hunayn against the Banu Thaqif of Ta'if, traditional rivals of Mecca, and the latter's tribal backers from the Hawazin confederation. During this battle, which ended in a decisive Muslim victory, he lost an eye, and was rewarded a relatively high percentage of the spoils to reconcile his heart. Because of his past trade relations with Ta'if, where he also owned property and had kinsmen, Abu Sufyan played a leading role in the dismantlement of the pagan sanctuary of al-Lat in the city.