At a glance
Era 1- Dates
- Died c. 55 AH (c. 675 CE)
- Who
- Early Companion who led the army that defeated the Sasanian Persians
- Era
- The Rightly Guided Caliphs
ProfileSa'd ibn Abi Waqqas
Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him) accepted Islam in Makkah as a young man, among the first to do so, and was a maternal relative of the Prophet ﷺ. He was known as a fine archer, and he is counted among the ten Companions given the good news of Paradise.
Under Umar he was given command of the army sent against the Persian empire in Iraq. At al-Qadisiyyah, around 15 AH (636 CE), after several days of hard fighting, the Muslims defeated the Sasanian army. Sa'd went on to take the Persian capital, Ctesiphon, which the Arabs called al-Mada'in. He then founded the garrison city of Kufah and served as its first governor.
Umar named him as one of the six men of the council that chose the next caliph. In the years of division after Uthman's death, Sa'd kept away from the fighting. He lived out his life near Madinah and died around 55 AH.
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