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Abu Quhafa

Arab tribal chief of the Banu Taym (538-635)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ7902721 ↗
Source-derived summary

Uthman ibn Amir ibn Amr (Arabic: عُثْمَان بْن عَامِر بْن عَمْرِو, romanized: ʿUthmān bin ʿĀmir bin ʿAmr, 540–635 CE), commonly known by the kunya Abu Quhafa (Arabic: أَبُو قُحَافَة, romanized: Abū Quḥāfa), was the father of the first Rashidun caliph Abu Bakr (r. 632–634).

Family

Abu Quhafa was the son of 'Amir ibn 'Amr ibn Ka'b ibn Sa'd ibn Taym ibn Murra ibn Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy ibn Ghalib ibn Fihr.

He lived in Mecca and married Umm al-Khayr Salma bint Sakhar ibn ʿĀmir ibn Kaʿb ibn Saʿd ibn Taym, whose lineage was recorded as such in Nasab Quraysh by Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Muṣʿab al-Zubayrī (d. 236 AH / 851 CE). They had several sons who did not survive infancy. When Abu Bakr was born in 573, he was therefore known as Atiq ("exempted" from death), while his subsequent brothers were given the related names Muataq and Muaytaq.

Abu Quhafa later married a younger woman, Hind bint Nuqayd. They had three daughters: Umm Farwa, Qurayba and Umm Amir.

Islam

When Abu Bakr became a Muslim in 610, Abu Quhafa remained a pagan. When he spoke disparagingly of Muhammad, Abu Bakr struck his father's chest and rendered him unconscious.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Abu Quhafa” as arab tribal chief of the Banu Taym (538-635). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Quhafa, Arab and tribal.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current 197-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The authority record carries competing date values—0542-07-01, 0540—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Quhafa, Arab and tribal providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Abu Quhafa”, the useful work is to connect “arab tribal chief of the Banu Taym (538-635)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7902721. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Abu Quhafa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.