Umayya ibn Abd-Shams (Arabic: أمية بن عبد شمس) was the pre-Islamic progenitor of the Umayyad dynasty.
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Life
Umayya was a son of Abd Shams ibn Abd Manaf and became the leader of the latter's descendants, the Banu Abd Shams, one of the leading groups within the Quraysh tribe of Mecca. Through his paternal grandfather Abd Manaf ibn Qusayy, Umayya was a paternal first cousin of Hashim ibn Abd Manaf, the paternal great-grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the progenitor of the Banu Hashim. The recurring conflict between members of the Banu Hashim and Umayya's descendants were projected by the early Muslim sources onto Umayya and his father Abd Shams and entail legendary rivalries between them and Hashim and his sons.
Although historians Giorgio Levi Della Vida and Clifford Edmund Bosworth note several legendary elements about Umayya's life from the medieval Arabic sources, they consider his existence likely, as the Umayyads who emerge at the beginning of Islam in the early 7th century were only third-generation descendants of Umayya. Umayya and before him, his father Abd Shams, played the role of qa'id (commander) of the Quraysh. The post was not a permanent military command, but its holder likely determined the direction of the Meccans' military affairs and held command in times of war. The role was successively bequeathed to Umayya's son Harb and grandson Abu Sufyan.
Descendants
Umayya's descendants, the eponymous Banu Umayya (Umayyads), emerged as the preeminent family of the Quraysh at the time of Muhammad. Umayya had several sons: Harb, Sufyan, Abu Sufyan Anbasa, Amr, Abu Amr, al-As, Abu al-As, al-Is and Abu al-Is. The last four had the same mother, Amina bint Aban ibn Kulayb of the Banu Amir ibn Sa'sa' tribe. They were grouped in the sources as a family unit, the 'A'yas', the pluralization of the shared root of their names. The first four were grouped as the 'Anabisa', the plural of 'Anbasa', a frequently recurring name among this group. They had the same mother, Ama bint Abu Hamhama b. Abd al-Uzza ibn Amira, a Qurayshite from the clan of Banu al-Harith ibn Fihr. The sources generally consider Abu Amr (real name Dhakwan) as an adopted son of Umayya. His mother was from the Banu Lakhm, or more specifically a Jewish slave woman of the Lakhm from Saffuriya.
From Umayya's grandson Abu Sufyan ibn Harb descended the Sufyanids, the branch of the Umayyad family which founded and ruled the Umayyad Caliphate in 661–684. From Umayya's son Abu al-As came Uthman ibn Affan, the third Rashidun caliph (r. 644–656) and the Marwanids, the branch which succeeded the Sufyanids and ruled the Umayyad Caliphate in 684–750. Three of Umayya's other sons were progenitors of important families during the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid periods: the family of Sa'id ibn al-As (great-grandson of al-As), the family of Asid ibn Abi al-Is and the Banu Abi Mu'ayt (descendants of Abu Amr's son Abu Mu'ayt).