ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs

ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs ( Arabic عمرو بن العاص, DMG ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ ; * around 580; † 664 in Egypt ) was a companion of the Prophet Mohammed as well as a general and politician who conquered Egypt for the Muslims. He came from a wealthy merchant family from Mecca , who belonged to the Quraishite clan of the Sahm. His father, al-ʿĀs ibn Wāʾil, was a well-known opponent of the Prophet Mohammed. On his mother's side he came from the Balī, a tribe of the Qudāʿa .

Mosque of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs in Damiette

Conversion to Islam

Like his father, ʿAmr himself was initially hostile to Islam. It was not until the eighth year after the Hijra (629–630) that he joined Mohammed. Shortly after the Battle of Muʾta in September 629, he sent him at the head of a delegation to the Balī to ensure their loyalty.

As an Amir in Oman

In the year 8 of the Hijra (= 629/30 AD) Mohammed sent him together with Abū Zaid al-Ansārī to the Azd in Oman , with a letter to ʿAbd and Jaifar, the sons of Joulandā, requesting acceptance of Islam contained. In the event that the two obeyed the request, they should stay in Oman, Abū Zaid as head of prayer and ʿAmr as Amīr. Since ʿAbd and Jaifar actually accepted Islam and the Arabs there appealed to it, Abū Zaid and ʿAmr stayed in Oman. However, the onset of the Ridda Wars forced the two to flee to Medina .

Here ʿAmr took the side of Abū Bakr in the follow-up dispute , insisted on the supremacy claim of the Muhādschirūn and railed violently against the Ansār , who at that time still clung to Saʿd ibn ʿUbāda ibn Dulaim .

Role in the conquest of Palestine

After that ʿAmr went back to the Qudāʿa. Saif ibn ʿUmar reports that Abū Bakr sent him from there to Syria in order to strengthen the Muslim troops there with his people, who had been abandoned by Chālid ibn Saʿīd . According to al-Wāqidīs , ʿAmr was at the head of a force of 3,000 men. Muhammad ibn Saʿd , al-Wāqidī's secretary, adds that Abū Bakr made him commander over Balī, ʿUdhra and Qudāʿa . He was supposed to call these tribes to jihad and to provide mounts to all who wanted to follow him.

ʿAmr's troops formed one of the four armies that Abū Bakr dispatched to Syria. The other armies were commanded by Abū ʿUbaida ibn al-Jarrāh , Shurahbil ibn Hasana and Yazīd ibn Abī Sufyān. Together with Chālid ibn al-Walīd , who had led his troops from Iraq to Syria in the spring of 634, the four commanders defeated a Byzantine army on July 30, 634 near Ajnādain in Palestine.

Al-Balādhurī reports that the first clash between the Muslims and the Byzantines occurred when command was in the hands of ʿAmr. He conquered Gaza , Sebastia and Nablus during the Abū Bakr caliphate . He granted its residents a security guarantee ( amān ) for life, property and housing against the payment of the jizya head tax and the kharāj property tax. Then he conquered the city and the territory of Ludd , ʿAmwās and Rafah . and besieged Caesarea Maritima .

Conquest of Egypt

After ʿAmr installed his son as his deputy over the Caesarea, he moved to Egypt with 3,500 men of his own free will. The second caliph Umar ibn al-Chattāb was angry about this unauthorized action and wrote ʿAmr a letter in which he asked him to return if he had not already set foot on Egyptian soil. Since the letter reached ʿAmr in al-Arish , he did not feel bound by the caliph's request.

After the conquest of the fortress Pelusium and the victory at Heliopolis in July 640 over 18,000 Byzantines, the country surrendered to the conquerors. Only in Alexandria could the Byzantines hold their own. Only after the Christians under the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria had been guaranteed freedom of belief in 642 did the city come under the control of the Muslims.

As governor of Egypt, Amr resided in Fustat , a newly founded camp town that was to become the predecessor of Cairo . In the conquered areas he very skillfully arranged the government and made an extraordinary contribution to making the subjugated peoples subject to Islam . He had the Amr mosque built in Fustat and the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea repaired to ensure the supply of Arabia with Egyptian grain.

ʿUmar ibn al-Chattāb brought ʿAmr under his control and confiscated half of his property. When the Byzantines reoccupied Alexandria, ʿAmr drove them out of the city a second time. During this time he is also said to have ordered the destruction of the ancient library of Alexandria . This is a legend, however, as the library had already lost its importance.

Role under ʿUthmān and Muawiya I.

After Amr was recalled as governor by the third caliph ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān immediately after his takeover of power in 644 and replaced by ʿAbd Allaah ibn Saʿd ibn Abī īs-Sarh , he secretly stoked opposition to the caliph. A few months after the assassination of Caliph Othman, the camel battle took place (December 9, 656). After the outcome, when only the two opponents Ali and Muawiya remained, Amr stepped out of his previous inactivity and joined Muawiya. At the Battle of Siffin in 657 he commanded the Syrian cavalry. The establishment of the arbitral tribunal, which was fatal for Ali, took place at his suggestion. When Muawiya was proclaimed caliph in 661, he entrusted him with the Egyptian governorship, which Amr held until his death in 664.

literature

• Michael Lecker: "The estates of Amr b. Al-in Palestine: notes on a new Negev Arabic inscription" in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 52 (1989) 24-37.
• Elias Shoufany: Al-Riddah and the Muslim Conquest of Arabia . Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973.
• AJ Wensinck: Art. "ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ" ​​in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. 1, p. 451.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Shoufany 145.
2. ↑ Michael Lecker: The Banū Sulaym. A Contribution to the Study of Early Islam. Jerusalem 1989. pp. 183-195.
3. ↑ Cf. Al-Balādhurī : Kitāb Futūḥ al-Buldān. Ed. Michael Jan de Goeje . Brill, Leiden, 1866. p. 76. - German transl. Oskar Rescher . P. 74f. Digitized
4. ↑ See Shoufany: Al-Riddah and the Muslim Conquest of Arabia . 1973, p. 59f.
5. ↑ See Shoufany 142.
6. ↑ Shoufany 141.
7. ↑ See Shoufany 141.
8. ↑ See Shoufany 142f.
9. ↑ See Shoufany: Al-Riddah and the Muslim Conquest of Arabia . 1973, p. 144.
10. ↑ Cf. al-Balāḏurī: Kitāb Futūḥ al-Buldān. Ed. Michael Jan de Goeje . Brill, Leiden, 1866. p. 138. - German transl. Oskar Rescher . P. 141.
11. ↑ Cf. al-Balāḏurī: Kitāb Futūḥ al-Buldān. 1866, p. 212.
12. ↑ Cf. al-Balāḏurī: Kitāb Futūḥ al-Buldān. 1866, p. 212.
13. ↑ Shoufany 56.