Sufyan 1 | Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire |
| Sex | M |
| Floruit | M/L VII |
| Dates | 670 (taq) / 675 (tpq) |
| Variant Names | Souphian |
| Religion | Muslim |
| Ethnicity | Arab |
| Titles | Commander of the Arabs (office) |
| Textual Sources | Baladhuri, al-, Kitab futuh al-Buldan, tr. P. K. Hitti, The Origins of the Islamic State (London, 1916, reprint Beirut, 1966) (history); Elias Barshinaya, Chronicle (Eliae metropolitae Nisibeni, Opus chronologicum, pars prior, ed. and tr. E. W. Brooks, CSCO 62 and CSCO 63 (1910) (chronicle); Tabari, al-, Ta'rikh al-rusul wa-l-muluk, ed. M.-J. de Goeje et al., 15 vols. (Leiden 1879-1901); Eng tr. The History of al-Tabari, general editor E. Yar-Shater, 39 vols. (New York, 1985-) (history); Theophanes Confessor, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1883-85, repr. Hildesheim/NewYork, 1980); tr. and comm. C. Mango and R. Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, Oxford 1997 (chronicle) |
Son of Auph 1, Sufyan 1 had an older brother; in 673/674 he joined battle with a Roman army under Phloros 1, Petronas 1 and Kyprianos 1 and was heavily defeated, Arab losses supposedly amounting to thirty thousand: (Σουφιᾶν δέ, ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Ἀΰφ, ὁ δεύτερος ἀδελφός συνέβαλε πόλεμον μετὰ Φλώρου καὶ Πετρωνᾶ καὶ Κυπριανοῦ ἐχόντων δύναμιν Ῥωμαϊκήν: καὶ κτείνονται Ἄραβες χιλιάδες λ') Theoph. AM 6165. The event is placed by Theophanes at the end of his summary of the six year long series of naval campaigns by the Arabs against Constantinople and it is not clear whether the date was at the beginning of the campaigns or at some later stage.
Sufyan 1 is to be identified with the Arab general Sufyan b. `Awf al-Azdi recorded in Tabari. In AH 50 (Jan. 670/Jan. 671) Sufyan 1 and Busr b. Abi Artat (Bousour 1) led a raid into Byzantine territory: Tabari XVIII, p. 96. One of Tabari's sources (al-Waqidi) claimed that in AH 52 (Jan.-Dec. 672) Sufyan 1 raided Byzantine territory in the summer and again in the winter, when he allegedly died (but cf. below) after appointing Abdallah b. Mas`adah al-Fazari as his successor; other sources claim that he accompanied Busr b. Abi Artat on the winter campaign: Tabari XVIII, p. 165. Al- Waqidi later claimed that Sufyan 1 led the winter campaign into Byzantine territory in AH 55 (Dec. 674-Nov. 675), but other sources of Tabari named `Amr b. Muhriz or `Abdallah b. Qays al-Fazari or Malik b. `Abdallah as the leader: Tabari XVIII, p. 180. It is not clear how the chronology of Tabari here matches with that of Theophanes.
Sufyan 1 was perhaps identical also with Sufyan ibn `Auf al-Ghamidi, who made an expedition against the Greeks in AH 30 (Sept. 650/Aug. 651): Baladhuri, tr. Hitti, p. 294. In AH 53 (Dec. 672/Dec. 673) = 984 Sel. (672/673) Sufyan ibn `Auf spent the winter in the lands of the Romans: Elias, Chron., p. 145, 1-4 = p. 70.
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