among his descendants was ʿAdī ibn Thābit, the hadith scholar of Kufa. In reality his full name was ʿAdī ibn Abān ibn Thābit ibn Qays ibn al-Khaṭīm ibn ʿAmr ibn Yazīd ibn Sawād ibn Ẓafar al-Ẓafarī, but he was popularly linked to his grandfather.
– The Martyrs of Ajnadayn and Yarmūk –
The engagement of Ajnadayn (1) took place between al-Ramla and Bayt Jibrīn in the month of Jumādā, in the year 13 AH. Those martyred there included:
• Nuʿaym ibn an-Naḥḥām al-Qurashī al-ʿAdawī, one of the early Emigrants.
• Abān ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ al-Umawī—some say he was killed at Yarmūk—who had granted safe-conduct to ʿUthmān when the Prophet ﷺ sent him as an envoy to Quraysh on the day of al-Ḥudaybiyyah.
• Hishām ibn al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil as-Sahmī, brother of ʿAmr, known as Abū Muṭīʿ. Concerning the two brothers the Prophet ﷺ said, “The two sons of al-ʿĀṣ are both believers” (2). Others maintain that he, too, was killed at Yarmūk.
(1) This engagement took place twelve nights before the end of the month of Jumada I, in the year 13 AH—about one month prior to the death of Abu Bakr. God granted the Muslims victory; they routed the Byzantines with a crushing defeat. When news of the battle reached Heraclius, his heart faltered in terror and he fled from Hims to Antioch.
Ziyad ibn Hanzala composed the following verses about the event:
“We drove Artabun in frantic flight,
toward the Aqsa sanctuary, stripped of defense.
On the evening of Ajnadayn, when their ranks collapsed,
vultures hovered over him in the open plain.
The Roman hosts turned, pursuing his trail,
as though they would fly from sheer dread.
Many of their slain were left amid their guile,
while the remnant returned to him, weary and crushed.”
(2) Reported by Ahmad, Musnad, 2:304, 327, 353–354; Ibn Saad, 4:191; and by al-Hakim, 3:452, through several chains from Hammad ibn Salama → Muhammad ibn Amr → Abu Salama → Abu Hurayra. Al-Hakim declared it sound and al-Dhahabi concurred. Al-Haythami cites it in Majma al-zawaid, 9:352, attributing it to al-Tabarani in both al-Kabir and al-Awsat. Al-Haythami adds: the transmitters of al-Kabir and of Ahmad are the transmitters of the Sahih, except for Muhammad ibn Amr, whose hadith is acceptable.