Ḥarb ibn Umayya ibn ʿAbd Shams ( ar, حرب بن أمية بن عبد شمس) 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 Quraysh to write in Arabic and the first to stop consuming wine.
War leader
Harb was one of the top leaders of the
Quraysh of
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 city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow val ...
, belonging to one of its clans, the
Banu Abd Shams. The Islamic tradition presents him as the successor of his companion,
Abd al-Muttalib of the
Banu Hashim, as the war leader of the Quraysh. He led the Abd Shams or the Quraysh in general during the
Fijar War against the nomadic tribes of the
Hawazin. 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
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*{{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