Ḥarb ibn Umayya ibn ʿAbd Shams () was the father of Abu Sufyan and Arwa and the son of Umayya ibn Abd Shams. Harb is credited in the Islamic tradition as the first among the Quraish 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 () 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 ...

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 ...

, belonging to one of its clans, the Banu Abd Shams. The Islamic tradition presents him as the successor of his companion,

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 ...

of the

Banu Hashim Banu Hashim () is an Arab clan within the Quraysh tribe to which the Islamic prophet Muhammad belonged, named after Muhammad's great-grandfather Hashim ibn Abd Manaf. Members of this clan, and especially their descendants, are also referred ...

, 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. According to the sources, the fighting took place on eight days over the cou ...

against the nomadic tribes of the

Hawazin The Hawazin ( / ALA-LC: ''Hawāzin'') were an Arab tribe originally based in the western Najd and around Ta'if in the Hejaz. They formed part of the larger Qays tribal group. The Hawazin consisted of the subtribes of Banu Sa'd, and Banu Jusham, a ...

. 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

* * * {{Authority control Banu Umayya 6th-century Arab people 7th-century Arab people 7th-century merchants