Birth: Amr ibn al-As

All stops in this story

1. Birth: Amr ibn al-As — c. 573 CE

   A Meccan diplomat who opposed the Muslims until 629–630, then converted and became the commander who conquered Egypt — and later Mu'awiya's chief ally in the first civil war.

2. The Quraysh embassy to the Negus — c. 616 CE

   Quraysh sent Amr ibn al-As and Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'a with gifts to the Negus to demand the return of the Muslim emigrants; he heard Ja'far ibn Abi Talib recite the opening of Maryam, refused to surrender them and returned the gifts.

3. The Battle of Uhud — March 625 CE · Shawwal 3 AH

   A battle near Mount Uhud in which the Quraysh gained the upper hand and Hamza, the Prophet's uncle, was killed.

4. The Letters to Rulers and Kings — c. May 628 CE · Dhu al-Hijja 6 AH

   In late 6 AH (early 628 CE) following the Hudaybiyya truce, the Prophet initiated an international diplomatic initiative, sending envoys with silver-sealed letters to the major emperors, kings, and regional chiefs of the surrounding world: the Negus of Abyssinia, the Muqawqis of Egypt, Chosroes of Persia, Heraclius of Byzantium, al-Mundhir ibn Sawa of Bahrain, Hawdha ibn Ali of al-Yamama, al-Harith al-Ghassani of Damascus, and the rulers of Oman.

5. The Battle of Dathin — c. 634 CE · c. 13 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: the first engagement between the Muslims and their enemy at a village of Gaza's district called Dathin, against the patrician of Gaza; they fought hard, then God gave victory to His friends, defeated His enemies and scattered their gathering — this before Khalid ibn al-Walid's arrival in Syria; Abu Hafs al-Shami reports from the elders of Syria that the Muslims' first engagement was rather that of al-Araba, they having fought nothing since leaving the Hijaz and subdued every land between the Hijaz and its site without battle.

6. The Dispatch of the Armies to Syria — c. 12 April 634 CE · 1 Muharram 13 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: when Abu Bakr had finished with the apostates he resolved to direct the armies to Syria, writing to the people of Mecca, al-Ta'if, Yemen and all the Arabs of Najd and the Hijaz summoning them to jihad and stirring their desire for Byzantine spoil, and they hastened from every quarter; he bound three banners for three men — Khalid ibn Sa'id ibn al-As, Shurahbil ibn Hasana (per al-Waqidi son of Abdullah ibn al-Mutta' al-Kindi with Hasana his mother, per al-Kalbi son of Rabi'a ibn al-Mutta' of the children of Sufa) and Amr ibn al-As al-Sahmi — the binding being on Thursday at the opening of Safar year 13, after the armies had camped at al-Jurf the whole of al-Muharram, with Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah leading their prayers; Abu Bakr had wanted to bind a banner for Abu Ubayda who begged off — some report he did bind it, which is not established — and Abu Yakhnaf records Abu Bakr telling the commanders 'if you join in battle your commander is Abu Ubayda, otherwise Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan', while Amr is said to have been only a reinforcement and commander over those joined to him; when he bound Khalid ibn Sa'id's banner Umar disliked it and spoke to Abu Bakr of deposing him — 'he is a proud man who carries his charge with contentiousness and partisanship' — so he deposed him and sent Abu Adwa' al-Dawsi to take his banner, who met him at Dhu al-Marwa and took it, and it was given to Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan, who marched with his brother Mu'awiya bearing it before him — others say it was handed to him at Dhu al-Marwa and he took over Khalid's army, Khalid ibn Sa'id marching on as a volunteer in Shurahbil's army; he ordered Amr to take the Ayla road toward Filastin, Yazid the Tabuk road and Shurahbil likewise; each commander set out with three thousand men, then he kept sending reinforcements until each had seven thousand five hundred, and their total completed at twenty-four thousand; al-Waqidi reports Abu Bakr gave Amr Filastin, Shurahbil al-Urdunn and Yazid Dimashq — 'if you have fighting, your commander is the one in whose charge you stand' — and that he ordered Amr verbally to lead the people in prayer.

7. The Conquest of Damascus — c. 19 March 635 CE · Jumada I 14 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: when the Muslims finished fighting those who had gathered at the Marj they stayed fifteen nights, then returned to Damascus fourteen nights remaining of al-Muharram year 14, taking the Futa and its churches by force while the townsfolk fortified themselves and shut their gate; Khalid camped at the eastern gate with some five thousand joined to him by Abu Ubayda (some say Khalid was commander and his deposition reached them while besieging), the monastery at his side being named Dayr Khalid; Amr ibn al-As camped at Bab Tuma, Shurahbil at Bab al-Faradis, Abu Ubayda at Bab al-Jabiya, and Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan at the small gate to Bab Kaysan, Abu al-Darda' posting Uwaymir ibn Amir al-Khazraji on a watch at Barza; the bishop who had hosted Khalid would call and converse with him, saying one day 'Abu Sulayman, your affair ascends — I hold a pledge over you, so make terms with me for this city', and Khalid wrote his famous charter: 'In God's name, this is what Khalid ibn al-Walid grants the people of Damascus when he enters it: safety for themselves, their wealth, their churches and their city wall — it shall not be demolished nor any of their houses dwelt in; they have for it God's covenant and the protection of His messenger, the caliphs and the believers, and nothing but good shall befall them if they pay the jizya'; one of the bishop's men then told him it was a feast-night for the town, the eastern gate being blocked with stones, and advised a ladder — men of the monastery brought two ladders and a company of Muslims climbed the wall, descended on the gate held by a man or two, overpowered it and opened it at sunrise; Abu Ubayda meanwhile had struggled at Bab al-Jabiya, raised men on its wall, the Roman fighters inclining to him until they broke — he forced it open and entered, and he and Khalid met at the Maqsilat, the coppersmiths' quarter, the Baris of Hassan ibn Thabit's verse 'they give to drink whoever comes to Baris — Barada clapping with sweet wine'; Maytham ibn Adi claimed Damascenes compounded for half their houses and churches, but al-Waqidi says he read Khalid's charter and found no halves in it; many Damascenes joined Heraclius at Antioch leaving surplus houses the Muslims occupied; al-Waqidi dates the conquest to Rajab year 14, Khalid's charter being dated Rabi' al-Akhir 15 because he wrote it undated and it was renewed at the Yarmuk; the volume's editor judges the sound account to be Khalid entering the eastern gate by force and Abu Ubayda entering peacefully by Bab al-Jabiya, reasoning that the Muslims held only the mosque's eastern side before its rebuilding and the church stood west of it until al-Walid demolished it; afterwards the Muslims chose churches for which no jizya was paid and kept the church of John until the Christians surrendered all the churches of the Futa, Mu'awiya writing to Umar who was pleased and ratified it.

8. The Conquest of Caesarea — c. October 640 CE · Shawwal 19 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: the conquest of Caesarea is disputed — some ascribe it to Mu'awiya, others to Iyad ibn Ghanm after Abu Ubayda's death, others to Amr ibn al-As or his son Abdullah; what the scholars agree is that the first to besiege it was Amr ibn al-As, camping against it in Jumada I year 13 and staying as long as he did, marching off whenever the Muslims massed against an enemy — attending Ajnadayn, Fihl, the Marj, Damascus and the Yarmuk — then returning to Filastin to besiege it after Iliya', before leaving from Caesarea for Egypt; Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan, succeeding Abu Ubayda, charged his brother Mu'awiya with the siege and went plague-stricken to Damascus, dying there at the end of year 18, leaving Mu'awiya over Caesarea, who took it and wrote of it to Yazid who wrote to Umar; al-Waqidi reports that when Umar gave Mu'awiya Syria he besieged it until he took it — it had been besieged near seven years — its conquest falling in Shawwal year 19, some say the opening of year 20; the cause of its fall was a Jew named Yusuf who came to the Muslims by night and guided them to a way through a conduit with water to a man's waist, on condition of safety for himself and his house — Mu'awiya carried it out and the Muslims entered by night and magnified God, the Byzantines fleeing toward the conduit finding the Muslims upon it, and the gate being opened Mu'awiya entered with his men; it is said he found in it seven hundred thousand apostates, thirty thousand Samaritans and two hundred thousand Jews, three hundred functioning markets and a hundred thousand guarding its wall each night; its captives reached four thousand heads whom Mu'awiya sent to Umar, who had them quartered at al-Jurf and divided among the orphans of the Ansar, putting some to the script and the Muslims' labours — Abu Bakr had given the daughters of Abu Umama As'ad ibn Zurara two servants of Ayn al-Tamr's captives who died, and Umar gave them their like of Caesarea's; Mu'awiya sent the victory news with two men of Judham, then fearing their weakness sent a man of Khath'am who outpaced them and came to Umar, who magnified God; in it is said to have been Shaqa'iq, of whom Hassan ibn Thabit says 'Shaqa'iq says: had you woken from the wine you would have risen enriched in number'.

9. Conquest of Tripoli and Barqa (22 AH) — 642 CE · 22 AH

   Amr ibn al-'As took Barqa on a 13,000-dinar jizya — its people stipulating the sale of such children as they wished against their tax — then sat a month before Tripoli. A hunting party of the Banu Mudlij, hugging the shore, found a gap where the wall never reached the sea, slipped in and raised the takbir; the Romans thought the city stormed and fled to their ships, and Amr's army walked in. Then Sabra was surprised at dawn and Lawata of the Berbers had their terms .

10. the Alexandria rising and its recovery (25 AH) — 645 CE · 25 AH

    Alexandria broke its treaty: Constantinople shipped a large army under the eunuch Manuel, and the Romans inside the city joined them — though the Muqawqis kept his pact. 'Amr ibn al-'As marched, routed them, followed them into the streets and killed a great multitude including Manuel; he restored to the villagers who had not rebelled their confiscated property upon proof, and demolished Alexandria's walls, leaving her wall-less .

11. the killing of Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥudhayfa in Egypt (36 AH, disputed) — 656 CE · 36 AH

    Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥudhayfa — orphaned at al-Yamāma, raised by ʿUthmān, flogged for drink and then turned ascetic — agitated the Egyptians against his foster-father, returned ʿUthmān's gift of 30,000 dirhams crying «do you not see ʿUthmān deceiving me about my religion and bribing me over it?«, expelled governor ʿAbdallāh ibn Saʿd and held Egypt himself. One report has Muʿāwiya and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ luring him to al-ʿArīsh, mangoneling him out, and killing him with thirty companions — a chronology Ibn al-Athīr himself rejects, since the conquest of Egypt came after Ṣiffīn .

12. Death: Amr ibn al-As — c. 663 CE · c. 43 AH†

    A Meccan diplomat who opposed the Muslims until 629–630, then converted and became the commander who conquered Egypt — and later Mu'awiya's chief ally in the first civil war.