Ibn Jarir said (1): In this very year Amr ibn al-As died in Egypt, as did Muhammad ibn Maslamah. I say: We shall record a biographical notice for each of them at the end of the year’s events. After Amr’s death, Muʿawiyah placed Amr’s son, ʿAbdullah ibn Amr, in charge of the lands of Egypt. Al-Waqidi added: He held that governorship for two years (2).
As for Amr ibn al-As (3): he is Amr ibn al-As ibn Waʾil ibn Hashim ibn Saʿid (4) ibn Sahm ibn ʿAmr ibn Huṣaiṣ ibn Kaʿb ibn Luʾayy ibn Ghalib, the Qurashi of the Sahm clan, kunya Abu ʿAbdullah—some say Abu Muhammad.
He was one of Quraysh’s leading figures during the Age of Ignorance. It was he who was sent to the Negus to demand the return of the Muslims who had migrated to his realm, but the Negus, acting justly, refused and admonished Amr about the matter. Some relate that Amr accepted Islam at the Negus’s hand; the sound view, however, is that he embraced Islam six months before the Conquest of Mecca, together with Khalid ibn al-Walid and ʿUthman [ibn Talha] ibn Abi Talha al-ʿAbdari.
Amr went on to become one of the prominent commanders of Islam. He led the expedition of Dhāt al-Salāsil (5), and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reinforced him with additional troops led by Abu ʿUbaydah, in whose company were Abu Bakr al-Ṣiddīq and ʿUmar al-Fārūq.
Al-Tirmidhi said (6): Qutaybah narrated to us [and Ibn Lahīʿah likewise narrated to us] (7), and Mishraḥ ibn Hāʿān (8) narrated from
(1) al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk (The History of Prophets and Kings), vol. 5, p. 181.
(2) The phrase ma bayna ḥaṣīratayn (“between two sieges”) appears here in manuscripts A and B; in manuscript T it occurs before the previously mentioned incident.
(3) Ibn Saʿd, Tabaqāt al-Kubrā, vols. 4: 254 and 7: 493; Khalīfa, Tabaqāt (d. 147 AH, nos. 970, 2820); Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad (vol. 2: 204); al-Muḥbir (pp. 77, 121, 177); Tarīkh al-Bukhārī al-Kabīr (vol. 6: 303); al-ʿAjlī, al-Thiqāt (no. 365); al-Maʿārif (p. 285); al-Musṭadrak (vol. 3: 452); al-Maʿrifa wa-al-Tārīkh (vol. 1: 323); al-Tabari, Tarikh (vol. 4: 558); al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdil (vol. 6: 242); al-Murūj al-Dhahab (vol. 3: 32); Mashāhīr ʿUlamāʾ al-Amṣār (ed. 376); al-Wulāt wa-al-Qudat (see index); Jamharat Ansāb al-ʿArab (p. 163); al-Istiʿrāb (vol. 3: 1184); al-Jamʿ bayna Rijāl al-Ṣaḥīḥayn (vol. 1: 362); Ansāb al-Samʿānī (vol. 7: 204); Tarīkh Ibn ʿAsākir (vol. 13: 245 A); Jāmiʿ al-Uṣūl (vol. 9: 103); Asad al-Ghābah (vol. 4: 244); al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh (vol. 3: 274); al-Hulla fī al-Sirāʾ (vol. 1: 13); Tahdhīb al-Asmāʾ wa-al-Lughāt, pt. 2 sect. 1 (p. 30); Mukhtaṣar Tarīkh Dimashq (vol. 19: 232); Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (fol. 1041); Tarīkh al-Islām (vol. 2: 235); Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb (vol. 3: 101 A; vol. 8: 56); Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (no. 5413); al-ʿIbar (no. 5111); al-Kashf (vol. 2: 287); Mirʾāt al-Janān (vol. 1: 119); al-ʿUqd al-Thamīn (vol. 6: 398); Ghāyat al-Nihāyah (no. 60111); al-Isābah (d. 5884); al-Nujūm al-Zāhirah (vol. 1: 113); Ḥasan al-Muḥāḍarah (vol. 1: 224); Khulāṣat al-Khazarjī (p. 290); Shadharāt al-Dhahab (vol. 1: 232).
(4) The original reading is Saʿd; the correction derives from the genealogical sources and al-Isābah.
(5) This expedition took place in Jumāda al-Ākhirah of 8 AH. Ibn Isḥāq reports that it was so named because they encamped by the water well of al-Juzām called al-Salsal. Its account appears in al-Sīrah al-Nabawīyah (4: 623 ff.), in Ibn Saʿd, Tabaqāt (vol. 2: 131), and in al-Muʿjam al-Buldan (vol. 3: 236).
(6) In his Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī (no. 3844) under al-Manaqib, al-Tirmidhī remarks: “This is a strange (i.e., weak) hadith known to us only from Ibn Lahiʿah via Musharriḥ; its isnād is not strong.” The report admits some degree of commendation and has a supporting version in Aḥmad (vol. 2: 354) from Abū Hurayrah with the wording “The two sons of al-ʿĀṣ are believers, Hishām and ʿAmr,” rendering it ḥasan (fair).
(7) Omitted in manuscript A.
(8) The form Hāʿān is rendered as ʿĀhān in manuscript A; manuscript T reads ʿĀhān.