Editing Mu'awiya I (section)

==Origins and early life==
[[File:Age of the Caliphs-recolored (transparent).svg|thumb|upright=1|The Caliphate's growth. By the time Muhammad died in 632, Islam had spread throughout [[Arabia]] (green)]]

Mu'awiya's year of birth is uncertain, with 597, 603 or 605 cited by early Islamic sources.{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=264}} His father [[Abu Sufyan ibn Harb]] was a prominent [[Mecca]]n merchant who led trade caravans to [[Syria (region)|Syria]], then part of the [[Byzantine Empire]].{{sfn|Watt|1960a|p=151}} He emerged as the leader of the [[Banu Abd Shams]] clan of the [[Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia|polytheistic]] [[Quraysh]], the dominant tribe of Mecca, during the early stages of the Quraysh's conflict with Muhammad.{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=264}} The latter also hailed from the Quraysh and was distantly related to Mu'awiya via their common paternal ancestor, [[Abd Manaf ibn Qusayy]].{{sfn|Hawting|2000|pp=21–22}} Mu'awiya's mother, [[Hind bint Utba]], was also a member of the Banu Abd Shams.{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=264}}

In 624, Muhammad and his followers attempted to intercept a Meccan caravan led by Mu'awiya's father on its return from Syria, prompting Abu Sufyan to call for reinforcements.{{sfn|Watt|1960b|p=868}} The Qurayshite relief army was routed in the ensuing [[Battle of Badr]], in which Mu'awiya's elder brother Hanzala and their maternal grandfather, [[Utbah ibn Rabi'ah]], were killed.{{sfn|Watt|1960a|p=151}} Abu Sufyan replaced the slain leader of the Meccan army, [[Abu Jahl]], and led the Meccans to victory against the [[Muslims]] at the [[Battle of Uhud]] in 625. After his abortive siege of Muhammad in [[Medina]] at the [[Battle of the Trench]] in 627, he lost his leadership position among the Quraysh.{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=264}}

Mu'awiya's father was not a participant in the [[Treaty of Hudaybiyya|truce negotiations at Hudaybiyya]] between the Quraysh and Muhammad in 628. The following year, Muhammad married Mu'awiya's widowed sister [[Umm Habiba]], who had embraced Islam fifteen years earlier. The marriage may have reduced Abu Sufyan's hostility toward Muhammad and Abu Sufyan negotiated with him in Medina in 630 after confederates of the Quraysh violated the Hudaybiyya truce.{{sfn|Watt|1960a|p=151}} When Muhammad [[conquest of Mecca|captured Mecca]] in 630, Mu'awiya, his father, and his elder brother [[Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan|Yazid]] embraced Islam. According to accounts cited by the early Muslim historians [[al-Baladhuri]] and [[Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani|Ibn Hajar]], Mu'awiya had secretly become a Muslim from the time of the Hudaybiyya negotiations.{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=264}} By 632 Muslim authority extended across [[Arabia]] with Medina as the seat of the Muslim government.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|pp=22–23}} As part of Muhammad's efforts to reconcile with the Quraysh, Mu'awiya was made one of his {{transliteration|ar|[[kātib]]s}} (scribes), being one of seventeen literate members of the Quraysh at that time.{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=264}} Abu Sufyan moved to Medina to maintain his newfound influence in the [[ummah|nascent Muslim community]].{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|pp=20–21}}