Ikrima ibn Amr | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 598 (approximate date) Mecca,Hejaz,Arabia |
| Died | 634 or 636 CE Ajnadayn or nearYarmuk River |
| Allegiance |
|
| Service | Rashidun army |
| Years of service | 632–634 or 636 |
| Commands | Field commander of Muslim army in Arabia |
| Battles / wars |
|
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | (possibly a son named Amr) |
| Relations | Abu Jahl (father) Mujaladiya bint Amr (mother)[citation needed] |
Ikrima ibn Amr ibn Hisham (Arabic:عكرمة بن عمرو بن هشام,romanized: ʿIkrima ibn ʿAmr ibn Hishām;c. 598–634 or 636) was an opponent-turnedcompanion of the Islamic prophetMuhammad and a military commander in theRidda wars and theMuslim conquest of Syria. In the latter campaign, he was killed fighting the Byzantine forces.
Ikrima's father wasAmr ibn Hisham ibn al-Mughira, a leader of the polytheisticQuraysh tribe'sBanu Makhzum clan who was called "Abu Jahl" (father of ignorance) by the Muslims for his stringent opposition toMuhammad. Ikrima's father was slain fighting the Muslims at theBattle of Badr in 624.[1] At theBattle of Uhud, where the Quraysh defeated the Muslims, Ikrima commanded the tribe's left wing; his cousinKhalid ibn al-Walid commanded the right wing.[2] The Makhzum's losses at Badr had diminished their influence and gave way to theBanu Abd Shams underAbu Sufyan to take the helm against Muhammad.[1] However, the influence of Ikrima, by then the preeminent leader of the Makhzum, inMecca had increased toward the end of the 620s.[1] He opposed the negotiations with Muhammad atal-Hudaybiya and broke the agreement when he and some Quraysh attacked theBanu Khuza'a. When Muhammadconquered Mecca in 630, Ikrima escaped as a fugitive for the Yemen where the Makhzum had commercial connections.[1]
Muhammad later pardoned Ikrima,[3] apparently after being petitioned by Ikrima's wife and paternal first cousinUmm Hakim bint al-Harith, who had converted to Islam.[4] According to the historianal-Waqidi, Muhammad appointed Ikrima as a tax collector of theHawazin tribal confederation in 632. Ikrima was in theTihama region between Yemen and Mecca when Muhammad died.[5] According to Blankinship, after he embraced Islam, Ikrima devoted to his new religion's cause "much of the energy that had characterized his earlier opposition" to Islam.[6] After Muhammad's death, his close associateAbu Bakr becamecaliph (leader of the Muslim community) and appointed Ikrima to lead a campaign against rebel Arab tribes in theRidda wars (632–633), which saw him command expeditions around the entireArabian Peninsula,[7] with particular focus in Yemen.[8] By 634, Abu Bakr reassigned Ikrima and his troops, who hailed from the Tihama, northernYemen,Bahrayn andOman, to reinforce Khalid's army in theMuslim conquest of Syria.[9] Ikrima was most likely martyred fighting the Byzantines in theBattle of Ajnadayn inPalestine in 634, though it is also held that it may have been during theBattle of the Yarmuk in 636.[8][7]
According to the historianal-Ya'qubi (d. 898), Ikrima was married to Qutayla bint Qays ibn Ma'dikarib, the sister of the chieftain of the Kindite Banu Mu'awiya clan,al-Ash'ath ibn Qays. She was sent from Yemen to marry Muhammad but arrived after he died and afterward was wed to Ikrima.[10] The Islamic tradition mostly agrees that Ikrima died childless, though the 8th-century historianSayf ibn Umar mentions a son named Amr andIbn Hazm (d. 1064), possibly deriving his information from Sayf, calls this same son Umar.[11] The modern historian Michael Lecker holds that Ikrima's marriage to Qutayla proved problematic for later Muslim scholars as the remarriage of Muhammad's wives was forbidden.[12] Lecker holds the Islamic tradition censored out the original report used by the traditional Muslim authors that Qutayla bore Ikrima "a feeble-minded son", which he considers to be the "more trustworthy" version.[12] Ikrima was also married to Asma bint al-Nu'man ibn Abi al-Jawn, another Kindite wife of Muhammad whose marriage had never been consummated. He married her after a relatively short marriage to Ikrima's Makhzumite kinsmanal-Muhajir ibn Abi Umayya.[13] Ikrima's wife Umm Hakim married CaliphUmar (r. 634–644) sometime after Ikrima's death.