Ibn Hishām (1) said: ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was the brother of Asad, Naḍlah (2), Abū Ṣayfī, Ḥayyah, Khālidah, Ruqayyah, al-Shifāʾ, and Ḍaʿīfah. All of them were children of Hāshim—whose personal name was ʿAmr. He was called “Hāshim” because he used to crumble bread into meat stew (tharīd) for his people during years of scarcity, as Maṭrūd ibn Kaʿb al-Khuzaʿī says in his poem, recited to al-Zibʿarāʾ, the father of ʿAbd Allāh:

“ʿAmr, the one who crumbled the stew for his people
while the men of Mecca were lean and famished;
To him were established the two journeys alike—
the winter caravan and the summer expedition.” (3)

He was so named because he was the first to inaugurate the two trading journeys of winter and summer, and he was the eldest of his father’s sons.

Ibn Jarīr (4) relates that he was the twin of his brother ʿAbd Shams, and that Hāshim was born with his foot adhered to ʿAbd Shams’s head; they were not separated until blood flowed between them. People took this as an omen (5) that warfare would erupt between their descendants—and indeed the clash of the Banū al-ʿAbbās with the Banū Umayyah, the sons of ʿAbd Shams, occurred in the year 132 AH (6).

Their third full brother was al-Muṭṭalib, the youngest of their father’s children; their mother was ʿĀtikah bint Murrah (7) ibn Hilāl.
Their fourth brother was Nawfal, by a different mother, Wāqidah bint ʿAmr al-Māzniyyah. After their father’s death they became the chiefs of their people, and leadership passed to them. They were called “the Protectors,” because they secured safe-conduct for Quraysh from the kings of various realms so that they could engage in trade. Thus Hāshim obtained guarantees from the kings of Syria, Byzantium, and Ghassān; ʿAbd Shams from the elder Negus, king of Abyssinia; Nawfal from the Chosroes of Persia; and al-Muṭṭalib from the kings of Ḥimyar.

In their praise the poet said:

O traveler moving your baggage elsewhere,
will you not alight with the family of ʿAbd Manāf? (8)