Ḥamza ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim ibn ʿAbd Manāf al-Qurashī (; )Muhammad ibn Saad. ''Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir'' vol. 3. Translated by Bewley, A. (2013). ''The Companions of Badr''. London: Ta-Ha Publishers. was a foster brother, paternal uncle, maternal second-cousin, and companion of the

Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam () are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets are categorized as messengers (; sing. , ), those who transmit divine revelation, mos ...

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

. He was martyred in the

Battle of Uhud The Battle of Uhud () was fought between the early Muslims and the Quraysh during the Muslim–Quraysh wars in a valley north of Mount Uhud near Medina on Saturday, 23 March 625 AD (7 Shawwal, 3 AH). After the expulsion of Hijrah, Muslims from ...

on 23 March 625 (7 Shawwal 3 hijri). His '' kunyas'' were "Abū ʿUmāra" () and "Abū Yaʿlā" (). He had the by-names '' Asad Allāh'' (, "

Lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

") and '' " Asad of His

Messenger Messenger, Messengers, The Messenger or The Messengers may refer to: People * Courier, a person or company that delivers messages, packages, or mail * Messenger (surname) * Bicycle messenger, a bicyclist who transports packages through cities * M ...

''" , and

gave him the posthumous title ''Sayyid al- Shuhadāʾ'' (, "Master of Martyrs").

Early life

Ibn Sa'd Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd () and nicknamed ''Scribe of Waqidi'' (''Katib al-Waqidi''), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 784/785 CE (168 AH) and di ...

basing his claim on al-Waqidi states that Hamza was reportedly four years older than

. He could also be two years older as said in other hadith. This is disputed by Ibn Sayyid, who said: " Zubayr narrated that Hamza was four years older than the Prophet. Ibn Hajar wrote of Ibn Sayyid's hadiths: "Hamza was born two to four years before Muhammad". It is also claimed that Hamzah was born after 'Abd Allah's death.

Ancestry

Parents

Hamza's father was Abdul Muttalib from the

Quraysh The Quraysh () are an Tribes of Arabia, Arab tribe who controlled Mecca before the rise of Islam. Their members were divided into ten main clans, most notably including the Banu Hashim, into which Islam's founding prophet Muhammad was born. By ...

i tribe of

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

. His mother was

Halah bint Wuhayb Hālah bint Wuhayb ibn ʿAbd Manāf ibn Zuhrah (), was one of Abd al-Muttalib's wives. Biography Historian Ibn Sa'd wrote in Tabaqat that, Halah married Abd al-Muttalib the same day as her cousin Amina, the mother of Muhammad, married Abd ...

from the Zuhra clan of

. Tabari cites two different traditions. In one, Al-Waqidi states that his parents met when

Abd al-Muttalib Shayba ibn Hāshim (; ), better known as ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, () was the fourth chief of the Quraysh tribal confederation and grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Early life His father was Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf,Muhammad ibn Sa ...

went with his son Abdullah to the house of

Wahb ibn Abd Manaf Wahb ibn 'Abd Manaf () ibn Zuhrah ibn Kilab ibn Murrah, was the chief of Banu Zuhrah, and the father of Aminah bint Wahb. He was the maternal grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Family Wahb's great-grandfather was Zuhrah ibn Kila ...

to seek the hand of Wahb's daughter

Amina Amina (or Aminah) is the loose transcription of two different Arabic female given names: * ʾĀmina (Arabic: آمنة, also anglicized as ''Aaminah'' or ''Amna'') meaning "safe one, protected" * ʾAmīna (Arabic: أمينة, also anglicized as ''Am ...

. While they were there,

noticed Wahb's niece, Hala bint Wuhayb, and he asked for her hand as well. Wahb agreed, and Muhammad's father Abdullah and his grandfather

were both married on the same day, in a double-marriage ceremony.

Marriages and children

Hamza married three times and had six children. # Salmah bint Umays ibn Ma'd, the half-sister of

Maymunah bint al-Harith Maymunah bint al-Harith al-Hilaliyyah (; ), was the eleventh and final wife of Muhammad. Her original name was Barrah (), which she changed to Maymunah—meaning "good tidings"—upon converting to Islam and marrying him, as his marriage to her m ...

. ## Umama bint Hamza, wife of Salama ibn Abi Salama. # Zaynab bint Al-Milla ibn Malik of the Aws tribe in Medina. ## Amir ibn Hamza. ##Bakr ibn Hamza, who died in childhood. # Khawla bint Qays ibn Amir of the An-Najjar clan. He had issue, but their descendants had died out by the time of

. ## Umar ibn Hamza. ##Atika bint Hamza. ##Barra bint Hamza.

Conversion to Islam

Hamza took little notice of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

for the first few years. He converted in late 616 CE. Upon returning to Mecca after a hunting trip in the desert, he heard that Amr ibn Hishām (referred in Islamic scriptures as " Abu Jahl" Father of Ignorance) had insulted

"speaking spitefully of his religion and trying to bring him into disrepute". Muhammad had not replied to him.Muhammad ibn Ishaq. ''Sirat Rasul Allah''. Translated by Guillaume, A. (1955). ''The Life of Muhammad''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. "Filled with rage," Hamza "went out at a run ... meaning to punish ibn Hishām when he met him". He entered the

Kaaba The Kaaba (), also spelled Kaba, Kabah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaba al-Musharrafa (), is a stone building at the center of Islam's most important mosque and Holiest sites in Islam, holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Sa ...

, where ibn Hishām was sitting with the elders, stood over him and "struck him a violent blow" with his bow. He said, "Will you insult him, when I am of his religion and say what he says? Hit me back if you can!" He "struck Abu Jahl's head with a blow that cut open his head". Some of ibn Hishām's relatives approached to help him, but he told them, "Leave Abu Umara amzaalone, for, by God, I insulted his nephew deeply". After that incident, Hamza entered the House of Al-Arqam and accepted Islam. "Hamza’s Islam was complete, and he followed the Prophet's commands. When he became a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, the Quraysh recognised that the Prophet had become strong, and had found a protector in Hamza, and so they abandoned some of their ways of harassing him". Instead, they tried to strike bargains with him; but he did not accept their offers. Hamza once asked

to show him the

angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

Jibreel in his true form. Muhammad told Hamza that he would not be able to see him. Hamza retorted that he would see the angel, so

told him to sit where he was. They claimed that Jibreel descended before them and that Hamza saw that Jibreel's feet were like emeralds, before falling down unconscious. Hamza joined the

emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

in 622 and lodged with Kulthum ibn al-Hidm or Saad ibn Khaythama.

made him the brother in Islam of

Zayd ibn Haritha Zayd ibn Ḥāritha al-Kalbī () (), was an early Muslim, Sahabi and the adopted son of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. He is commonly regarded as the fourth person to have accepted Islam, after Muhammad's wife Khadija, Muhammad's cousin Ali, a ...

Military expeditions

First expedition

sent Hamza on his first raid against

. Hamza led an expedition of thirty riders to the coast in Juhayna territory to intercept a merchant-caravan returning from

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. Hamza met Abu Hishām at the head of the caravan with three hundred riders at the seashore. Majdi ibn Amr al-Juhani intervened between them, "for he was at peace with both parties," and the two parties separated without any fighting. There is dispute as to whether Hamza or his nephew Ubayda ibn al-Harith was the first Muslim to whom Muhammad gave a flag.

Battle of Badr

Hamza fought at the

Battle of Badr The Battle of Badr or sometimes called The Raid of Badr ( ; ''Ghazwahu Badr''), also referred to as The Day of the Criterion (, ; ''Yawm al-Furqan'') in the Qur'an and by Muslims, was fought on 13 March 624 CE (17 Ramadan, 2 AH), near the pre ...

, where he shared a

camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

with

and where his distinctive ostrich feather made him highly visible. The Muslims blocked the wells at Badr.

Al-Aaswad ibn Abdalasad al-Makhzumi, who was a quarrelsome ill-natured man, stepped forth and said, "I swear to God that I will drink from their cistern or destroy it or die before reaching it". Hamza came forth against him, and when the two met, Hamza smote him and sent his foot and half his shank flying as he was near the cistern. He fell on his back and lay there, blood streaming from his foot towards his comrades. Then he crawled to the cistern and threw himself into it with the purpose of fulfilling his oath, but Hamza followed him and smote him and killed him in the cistern".

It is disputed whether it was Hamza or Ali who killed Utba ibn Rabi'a. Later Hamza carried Muhammad's banner in the expedition against the Banu Qaynuqa.

Death

Hamza was killed in the

on Saturday 23 March 625 (7

Shawwal Shawwal () is the tenth month of the Islamic calendar. It comes after Ramadan and before Dhu al-Qa'da. ''Shawwāl'' stems from the Arabic verb ''shāla'' (), which means to 'lift or carry', generally to take or move things from one place to an ...

3 hijri) when he was 57–59 years old. He was standing in front of Muhammad, fighting with two swords. The Abyssinian slave Wahshi ibn Harb was promised

manumission Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing slaves by their owners. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that the most wi ...

by Hind bint Utba if he killed Hamza. This was in revenge for the death of her father, Utba ibn Rabi'a, whom Hamza had killed at the Battle of Badr. Wahshi, about whom it was said, "who could throw a javelin as the Abyssinians do and seldom missed the mark," threw it into Hamza's abdomen, killing him.Muhammad ibn Saad. Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir vol. 3. Translated by Bewley, A. (2013). The Companions of Badr. London: Ta-Ha Publishers. page- 2-11

Family tree

* * indicates that the marriage order is disputed * Note that direct lineage is marked in bold.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamza Ibn Abd Al-Muttalib Family of Muhammad Medieval Arabs killed in battle Arab Muslims Sahabah martyrs Angelic visionaries 570s births 625 deaths 6th-century Arab people Sahabah who participated in the battle of Uhud Sahabah who participated in the battle of Badr Banu Hashim