Ḥarb ibn Umayya ibn ʿAbd Shams ( ar, حرب بن أمية بن عبد شمس) was the father of

Abu Sufyan Sakhr ibn Harb ibn Umayya ibn Abd Shams ( ar, صخر بن حرب بن أمية بن عبد شمس, Ṣakhr ibn Ḥarb ibn Umayya ibn ʿAbd Shams; ), better known by his '' kunya'' Abu Sufyan ( ar, أبو سفيان, Abū Sufyān), was a prominent ...

and

Arwa Arwa ( ar, أروى) is an Arabic language, Arabic feminine name. It means "gracefulness and beauty", "satisfied", and “fresh". People *Arwa bint Abdul Muttalib, an aunt of the Islamic prophet Muhammad *Arwa bint Kurayz, cousin of Muhammad and m ...

and the son of

Umayya ibn Abd Shams Umayya ibn ʿAbd Shams ( ar, أمية بن عبد شمس) was the son of Abd Shams and is said to be the progenitor of the line of the Umayyad Caliphs. Ibn al-Kalbi says that his name is derived from , a diminutive of the word for slave-girl an ...

. Harb is credited in the Islamic tradition as the first among the Quraysh to write in Arabic and the first to stop consuming wine.

War leader

Harb was one of the top leaders of the

Quraysh The Quraysh ( ar, قُرَيْشٌ) were a grouping of Arab clans that historically inhabited and controlled the city of Mecca and its Kaaba. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born into the Hashim clan of the tribe. Despite this, many of the Qur ...

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...

, belonging to one of its clans, the

Banu Abd Shams Banu Abd Shams () refers to a clan within the Meccan tribe of Quraysh. Ancestry The clan names itself after Abd Shams ibn Abd Manaf, the son of Abd Manaf ibn Qusai and brother of Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf, who was the great-grandfather of the Isla ...

. The Islamic tradition presents him as the successor of his companion,

Abd al-Muttalib Shayba ibn Hāshim ( ar, شَيْبَة بْن هَاشِم; 497–578), better known as ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, ( ar, عَبْد ٱلْمُطَّلِب , lit=Servant of Muttalib) was the fourth chief of the Quraysh tribal confederation. He was ...

of the

Banu Hashim ) , type = Qurayshi Arab clan , image = , alt = , caption = , nisba = al-Hashimi , location = Mecca, Hejaz Middle East, North Africa, Horn of Africa , descended = Hashim ibn Abd Manaf , parent_tribe = Qu ...

, as the war leader of the Quraysh. He led the Abd Shams or the Quraysh in general during the

Fijar War The Fijar Wars () were a series of battles that took place in the late 6th century mainly between two major tribal confederations of Arabia, the Quraysh and the Hawazin. Assuming the sources are correct, the fighting took place on eight days over ...

against the nomadic tribes of the

Hawazin ) , type = Qaysi , image = Hawazin Flag (20).png , image_size =170px , alt = , caption = Banner of the Hawazin at the Battle of Siffin , nisba = , location = , descended = Hawazin ibn Mansur ib ...

. After his death, war leadership returned to the Banu Hashim. 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 ranch of the Abd Shamsand Hashim" in the 7th–8th centuries. 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.

Family tree

References

Bibliography

* * *{{cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qiEXDQAAQBAJ&q=Harb+ibn+Umayya&pg=PA66, title=Merchant Capital and Islam, first=Mahmood, last=Ibrahim, date=1 November 2011, publisher=University of Texas Press, isbn=9780292741188, via=Google Books Banu Umayya 6th-century Arabs 7th-century Arabs 7th-century merchants