Sufyān ibn ʿAwf ibn al-Mughaffal al-Azdī al-Ghāmidī (Arabic:سفيان بن عوف بن المغفل الأزدي الغامدي) (died 672 or 673/674) was anArab commander in the service of theRashidun caliphsUmar (r. 634–644) andUthman (r. 644–656) and theUmayyad caliphMu'awiya I (r. 661–680). He fought as a partisan of Mu'awiya against CaliphAli during theFirst Muslim Civil War, leading a raid against the latter's forces in Iraq. Throughout his military career, he was major commander in thewars with the Byzantine Empire. Though the medieval Arabic, Greek and Syriac accounts are not entirely consistent, he most likely was at the head of a large Arab army that was decisively defeated by the Byzantines in 673/74 and was slain during the battle.

Sufyan belonged to theGhamid branch of theAzd Sarat tribe resident in the southernHejaz (westernArabia).^[1] He was acompanion of the Islamic prophetMuhammad.^[2] During theMuslim conquest of Byzantine Syria, he took part in thesiege and capture of Damascus in 634 or 635 as a lieutenant ofAbu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah.^[3] During the caliphate ofUthman (r. 644–656), he became a loyalist of Syria's governorMu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan.^[3] For a certain period, the latter appointed Sufyanṣāḥib al-ṣawāʾif, i.e. chief commander of the summer expeditions intoByzantine territory inAnatolia, across thenorthern frontier.^[2][4]

During theFirst Muslim Civil War between Mu'awiya and CaliphAli (r. 656–661), Sufyan led a raid against Ali's positions in Iraq in 659/660[5] or the summer of 660.^[6] Sufyan first reachedHit and Sandawda, both on the west bank of theEuphrates, and upon finding them deserted by their garrisons and inhabitants, who fled at the news of Sufyan's impending assault, he proceeded towardAnbar, on the east bank of the river.^[7] During the attack, the commander of the Anbar garrison, Ashras ibn Hassan al-Bakri, and thirty of his soldiers were slain.^[8][5] After looting the town, Sufyan withdrew to Syria without proceeding toal-Mada'in as instructed by Mu'awiya, who nonetheless praised him for the expedition's efficiency and success.^[8] He promised to install Sufyan to any office he wished.^[8] The attacks contributed to the flight of many Iraqis to Syria during the war.^[8]

Mu'awiya ultimately prevailed in the conflict and became caliph in 661. He restarted thecampaigns against Byzantium after the lull caused by the civil war and in 665 appointed Sufyan alongside his own sonYazid to lead a summer raid against the Byzantines; Sufyan and his men entered Byzantine territory before Yazid, but shortly after withdrew as a result of disease.^[9] In the medieval Muslim accounts ofal-Ya'qubi (d.c. 900) andal-Tabari (d. 923), Sufyan was a commander of a raid against Byzantine territory in 670/71.^[10] According to the Muslim traditional historiansal-Waqidi (d. 822),Khalifa ibn Khayyat (d. 854), al-Ya'qubi and al-Tabari, Sufyan led an expedition against the Byzantines in 672, during which al-Waqidi and al-Ya'qubi state he died.^[11] According to the Syriac historianTheophilus of Edessa (d. 785), Sufyan was slain with 30,000 of his men by a Byzantine army led by thepatricians Florus, Petronas and Cyprian in 673/74;Michael the Syrian (d. 1199) further notes that the location of the battle was at aLycian coastal city under siege by the Arabs.^[12] The battle was a turning point at this stage of the Arab–Byzantine wars, setting the Byzantines up for a counter-offensive over the following several years.^[13] In the biography of Sufyan byIbn Asakir (d. 1176), Sufyan is said to have been killed in Byzantine territory in 674.^[14]

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• Jankowiak, Marek (2013)."The First Arab Siege of Constantinople". In Zuckerman, Constantin (ed.).Travaux et mémoires, Vol. 17: Constructing the Seventh Century. Paris: Association des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance. pp. 237–320.
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