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Death of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan

وفاة معاوية بن أبي سفيان

c. April 680 CE · Rajab 60 AH

Damascus

Mu'awiya died in Rajab of year 60 and was buried between Bab al-Jabiya and Bab al-Saghir at Damascus; he is said to have lived seventy-seven years. Keeping hairs and nail-parings of the Prophet ﷺ, he willed they be placed in his mouth and eyes — 'do that, and leave me with the Most Merciful of the merciful'. He had been governor of Syria twenty years and caliph twenty more 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Umayyad Period
Region
Levant & Iraq
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In time

670680690 c.
The Umayyad Period

In space

Damascus

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Overview

Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan died in Rajab 60 AH and was buried between the Gate of al-Jabiya and the Small Gate in Damascus. It is also said that he lived seventy-seven years. 2

His bequest

al-Suyuti says that he had with him some of the Messenger of God's hair and a paring of his nails, and he bequeathed that they be placed in his mouth and on his eyes. He said: "Do that, and leave me between myself and the Most Merciful of the merciful." 2

The length of his rule

According to al-Suyuti he was governor of Syria for twenty years and caliph for twenty years. 3

The Gregorian date is derived from the Hijri date.

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant
Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan
Occurred at
Damascus

People and things also explored

The Death of Habib ibn Maslama at Damascus· Muawiya· the Cave of Qasyun (Jibril's Cave)· Qasr Hiraql / Qasr Shams al-Muluk· The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus· The Fitna of the Hafiz Abd al-Ghani in Damascus in 595· Abd al-Malik's Coinage Reform· al-Afdal besieges Damascus and turns back

Sources

  1. Tarikh al-Khulafa — al-Suyuti (Dar al-Minhaj edition) , p. 325, 329
  2. Tarikh al-Khulafa — al-Suyuti (Dar al-Minhaj edition) , p. 329
  3. Tarikh al-Khulafa — al-Suyuti (Dar al-Minhaj edition) , p. 325
  • Muhammad Qabbani, The Umayyad State from Birth to Fall (Damascus: Dar Wahy al-Qalam, 2006)
  • The Umayyad State — Bakr Muhammad Ibrahim Bakr (1st ed., Markaz al-Raya lil-Nashr wal-I'lam, Cairo 2002)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Death of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/death-of-muawiya/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

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The Death of Habib ibn Maslama at Damascus

In al-Baladhuri: when Habib had taken what he took of Armenia's land he wrote of it to Uthman ibn Affan, whose answer reached him with Salman's death reported — Uthman near giving him all Armenia, then judging it better to make him a raider of the Syrian and Jaziran frontier for his worth in such service, and gave Armenia's march to Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman al-Absi, who repaired to Bardha'a posting his agents over what lay between it and Qaliqala and to Khizan, until Uthman's writ came ordering his return and the leaving behind of Sila ibn Zufar al-Absi who was with him — and he left him; Habib marched back to Syria raiding the Romans, camped at Hims, and Mu'awiya moved him to Damascus where he died in year 42, being thirty-five years old; Mu'awiya had earlier sent Habib at the head of an army to Uthman's aid when he was besieged, but at Wadi al-Qura word of Uthman's killing reached him and he turned back.