User:Al Ameer son/Abu Ubayda

Abu Ubayda Amir ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Jarrah

Ancestry
Abu Ubayda belonged to the al-Harith ibn Fihr clan, also called the Balharith, of the Quraysh tribe. The clan was settled in the lower quarter of Mecca, a town in the Hejaz (western Arabia) and home of the Quraysh. During the pre-Islamic period, the Balharith were allied to the Banu Abd Manaf (the ancestral clan of the Islamic prophet Muhammad) in the Mutayyabun faction, against the other Qurayshite clans headed by the Banu Abd al-Dar.

His father Abd Allah was among the chiefs of the Quraysh in the Fijar War against the Hawazin nomads in the late 6th century. His mother was also a Qurayshite.

Companion of Muhammad
Abu Ubayda was among the earliest converts to Islam and was one of the ten companions of Muhammad who were promised entry to Paradise by the Islamic prophet.

Shortly before his death, Muhammad organized an expedition to Syria to be headed by Usama ibn Zayd ibn Haritha, who was eighteen at the time. Abu Ubayda, as well as Abu Bakr and Umar, were directed to take part as Usama's subordinates. There was unease among many of the Muslims at Usama's ability to lead a campaign against the Byzantines and their Arab tribal allies. Muhammad died in 632, before the campaign could be launched.

Role in the succession of Abu Bakr
At the Islamic prophet's death, the Muslims were in discord over who would succeed him as leader of their nascent community. On the same day, the Ansar (natives of Medina) convened, in what became known as the Saqifah, and chose one of their own as caliph. Their principal aim was to prevent a Meccan, especially the new converts among the Qurayshite aristocracy, from gaining power over them. Opinion among the Muhajirun were split, with one side favoring a person closer to Muhammad in kinship, namely Ali, who they held was favored by Muhammad to succeed him. The other faction of the Muhajirun mostly backed Abu Bakr due to his seniority, closeness to Muhammad, and the increasingly important role he was attaining in the prophet's last years. The bulk of the Qurayshite new converts, with the prominent exception of Abu Sufyan, backed Abu Bakr.

The Islamic tradition generally portrays Abu Bakr, Umar and Abu Ubayda as operating in concert and decisively intervening against the Ansar at Saqifah. After a heated exchange, the triumvirate obtained the allegiance of the Ansarites to Abu Bakr despite their reservations. There are indications, according to the modern historian Elias Shoufani, that Umar initially favored Abu Ubayda as caliph, but that he lacked sufficient support against Abu Bakr, who he consequently supported against other potential candidates. A report in the history of al-Baladhuri holds that after Muhammad died, Umar told Abu Ubayda "Stretch your hand and let us give you the bay'ah, for you are the custodian (amīn) of this ummah (the Muslim community), as the prophet called you". Abu Ubayda is then said to have declined in favor of Abu Bakr. Another report in the history of al-Tabari holds that Abu Bakr offered at Saqifah the caliphate to Umar or Abu Ubayda, but both insisted on Abu Bakr's succession.

Syria
As the Ridda wars came to an end, Abu Bakr dispatched three or four armies at the same or different intervals toward Byzantine Syria to conquer that region. Though there are several versions in the early Islamic tradition, including in the works of Ibn Hubaysh al-Asadi, al-Mas'udi (d. 956), al-Azdi (d. 944), as well as the 10th-century-compiled Kitab al-Aghani, that place Abu Ubayda as one of these commanders, modern research, including by historians H. A. R. Gibb, C. H. Becker, Philip K. Hitti, Andreas Stratos, D. R. Hill and Khalil Athamina date his dispatch to after Abu Bakr's death. In the comprehensive 9th-century history of the early Muslim conquests by al-Baladhuri, the latter states "there is no truth" to the claim Abu Ubayda was sent by Abu Bakr; rather, the caliph "intended to send Abu ʿUbayda at the head of one of the armies, but the latter asked the caliph to relieve him of this mission". Athamina assesses that "certain allusions" in the Islamic sources offer context to the notion that Abu Ubayda, despite his participation in several expeditions under Muhammad and his high-standing among the Muslims, did not have the desire nor the necessary military experience and merit to accept the post Abu Bakr offered him.

Modern research indicates that Abu Ubayda was dispatched to the Syrian front by Abu Bakr's successor, Umar, and early Muslim authors al-Baladhuri, al-Fasawi (d. 890) and Ibn Asakir (d. 1175) mention it was in the capacity of commander of an army of reinforcements. His arrival most likely dated to around 636, shortly after the first Muslim capture of Damascus in late 635 or during the preparation for the subsequent Battle of the Yarmuk. At the time, supreme command of the Muslim armies in Syria was held by Khalid ibn al-Walid. Umar may have sent Abu Ubayda to assume the supreme command. Several accounts in the Islamic tradition claim Abu Ubayda concealed the caliph's order from the rest of the army to avoid potentially insulting Khalid or provoking a mutiny while the Muslims were on the cusp of a major confrontation with the Byzantines. Athamina dismisses the reliability of these claims, considering them illogical and meant to dramatize the change in command and emphasize Abu Ubayda's "moral superiority and unselfishness". Instead, Athamina maintains Abu Ubayda's appointment to the supreme command was made by Umar, who kept in constant contact with Abu Ubayda through letters and emissaries, after the decisive Muslim victory at the Yarmuk.

Abu Ubayda may have been chosen to lead at this time, when the Byzantine defense of Syria had taken an enormous blow, as the circumstances called for an able administrator to take the helm from a military commander like Khalid. The Islamic tradition provides a host of moral and personal reasons Khalid was demoted in favor of Abu Ubayda, but most modern historians view these as either partially valid or literary innovations. Athamina holds Abu Ubayda was likely installed because Khalid and his large force of tribesmen, along with their families, presented a threat to the old-established, formerly Byzantine-allied, and militarily experienced Arab tribes of Syria, whose defection was considered vital by Umar to form a network of defense against the Byzantines and motivated him to demote Khalid and disband his army, the remnants of which were transferred to Sasanian front in Iraq.

Role
The sources which describe Abu Ubayda playing an early role in the Syrian conquests, such as Ibn Ishaq, hold that he led his army along the Tabuk road in the direction of the Balqa region of Transjordan in southern Syria. Shurahbil and Yazid led their armies along the same route, but each campaigned in a different area of southern Syria upon their arrival. Abu Ubayda's main area of operations was the Golan Heights. He is credited for besting the defenders of the town of Ma'ab who surrendered after negotiating terms with Abu Ubayda.

The areas in which the Muslim commanders initially campaigned were Syria's desert borderlands where Arab tribes predominated. Abu Ubayda's zone were the traditional pasture grounds of the Ghassanids, the preferred Arab confederates of the Byzantines, and home their capital Jabiya. The historian Fred Donner thus concludes the goal of the early operations was to bring the tribes under Muslim control before operations against the urban centers.

Abu Ubayda, Shurahbil and Yazid were joined outside of the town of Bosra in the Hauran by Khalid ibn al-Walid and his men, coming from their campaigns in Iraq. The besieged Bosra, which capitulated after little fighting. The four commanders then crossed into Palestine where they joined the forces of Amr ibn al-As. There, they decisively defeated a Byzantine army at the Battle of Ajnadayn.

Abu Ubayda is held to have played the overall command role at the Battle of Fahl, though different versions in the early sources ascribe the high command to Khalid or Amr ibn al-As. The chronology of Fahl is also not clear in the sources, with some placing it as the next major engagement after Ajnadayn or after the Yarmuk and overlapping with the first Muslim siege of Damascus. It is generally held to have occurred in December 634–January 635. In one reconstruction of the events, Abu Ubayda dispatched ten commanders led by Abu al-A'war to Fahl, while Abu Ubayda participated as a commander in the siege of Damascus with the other main commanders. Once Damascus capitulated, Abu Ubayda joined his forces at Fahl and led them to a decisive victory against the Byzantines.

In the siege of Damascus, Abu Ubayda was in charge of blocking the city's Jabiya Gate, while the other commanders were responsible for the remaining four gates. Again, the sources are at odds as to whether Abu Ubayda or Khalid held overall command. They generally agree that the two commanders, one of whom breached their respective gate, the other entering peacefully after negotiation with the defenders, met in the city center and negotiated terms of surrender with Mansur ibn Sarjun, who represented the city's inhabitants.

Tomb
Beginning in the 13th century, Abu Ubayda's tomb was held to be in the village of Ammata in Transjordan. Earlier places where Abu Ubayda and his wife were said to have been buried were Tiberias and Beisan in the Jordan district (corresponding to the Galilee and its environs). The traveler al-Harawi, who visited the tomb in Ammata at the beginning of the 13th century, mentions that his tomb was shown in all three places.

Character
Several early Islamic sources and the hadith compilations of Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim all note that Abu Ubayda was held by Muhammad to have been the umma's (Muslim community's) "man of trust". Other Islamic sources refer to him as al-qawiyy al-amin (lit. 'the strong and the trustworthy'). According to Gibb, Abu Ubayda "was clearly a man whose personality impressed his contemporaries, but he is presented by later tradition in a rather colourless fashion".