{
 "id": "person/abdullah-ibn-ubayy",
 "class": "person",
 "slug": "abdullah-ibn-ubayy",
 "label": {
  "en": "Abdullah ibn Ubayy",
  "ar": "عبد الله بن أبي بن سلول"
 },
 "summary": {
  "en": "The chief of Khazraj who had been preparing to be crowned king of Medina when the Hijra ended his ambition — remembered in the Sunni sources as the leader of the 'hypocrites' who opposed the Prophet from inside the city.",
  "ar": "سيد الخزرج الذي كانت يثرب تهيئ لتتويجه ملكًا حين قطعت الهجرة طموحه — يذكره التراث السني زعيمًا للمنافقين الذين عارضوا النبي من داخل المدينة."
 },
 "stub": false,
 "wings": [
  "people"
 ],
 "regions": [
  "arabia"
 ],
 "periods": [
  "period/prophetic-era"
 ],
 "tags": [],
 "aliases": [],
 "themes": [
  "factions-splits-schisms",
  "desertions-defections-withdrawals"
 ],
 "span": {
  "earliest": 580.0002053430255,
  "latest": 631.160735675581
 },
 "display": {
  "start": {
   "edtf": "0580~",
   "calendar": "julian",
   "precision": "decade",
   "status": "tradition",
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley"
   ]
  },
  "end": {
   "edtf": "0631-02~",
   "hijri": "0009-11~",
   "calendar": "julian",
   "precision": "month",
   "status": "historical",
   "note": "Died at Medina in Dhu al-Qa'da 9 AH / early 631 CE.",
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley",
    "source/watt-1956-medina"
   ]
  }
 },
 "data": {
  "names": [
   {
    "kind": "full",
    "lang": "ar",
    "value": "عبد الله بن أبي بن سلول الخزرجي"
   }
  ],
  "gender": "male",
  "born": {
   "edtf": "0580~",
   "calendar": "julian",
   "precision": "decade",
   "status": "tradition",
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley"
   ]
  },
  "died": {
   "edtf": "0631-02~",
   "hijri": "0009-11~",
   "calendar": "julian",
   "precision": "month",
   "status": "historical",
   "note": "Died at Medina in Dhu al-Qa'da 9 AH / early 631 CE.",
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley",
    "source/watt-1956-medina"
   ]
  },
  "roles": [
   "politician"
  ],
  "traditions": [],
  "story_roles": [
   {
    "role": "ruler",
    "start": {
     "edtf": "0618~"
    },
    "end": {
     "edtf": "0622"
    },
    "status": "historical",
    "note": "The acknowledged leader of Khazraj; the sources say the Aws and Khazraj had agreed to crown him king of Medina before the Prophet's arrival.",
    "sources": [
     "source/ibn-ishaq-guillaume",
     "source/watt-1956-medina"
    ]
   },
   {
    "role": "opponent",
    "toward": "person/muhammad",
    "start": {
     "edtf": "0623"
    },
    "end": {
     "edtf": "0631"
    },
    "status": "historical",
    "note": "Professed Islam but led the internal opposition: he withdrew his contingent before Uhud, was implicated by the tradition in the slander against Aisha, and worked to split the community.",
    "sources": [
     "source/ibn-ishaq-guillaume",
     "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley"
    ]
   }
  ],
  "faith": [
   {
    "value": "sunni",
    "basis": "debated",
    "start": {
     "edtf": "0623~"
    },
    "note": "Outwardly professed Islam; the Sunni sources classify him as the chief of the munafiqin, while historians describe a Medinese leader whose conversion was political.",
    "sources": [
     "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley",
     "source/watt-1956-medina"
    ]
   }
  ],
  "labelled": [
   {
    "label": {
     "en": "Ra'is al-munafiqin (chief of the hypocrites)",
     "ar": "رئيس المنافقين"
    },
    "by": "Sunni tradition",
    "status": "tradition",
    "sources": [
     "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley"
    ]
   }
  ],
  "perspectives": [
   {
    "tradition": "sunni",
    "summary": {
     "en": "The chief of the munafiqin: outwardly Muslim, inwardly working against the Prophet — the figure around whom sura al-Munafiqun and the slander affair are read. The tradition also records that the Prophet prayed over him and gave him his own shirt for a shroud."
    },
    "sources": [
     "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley"
    ]
   },
   {
    "tradition": "academic",
    "summary": {
     "en": "Historians describe a Medinese aristocrat whose political base the Prophet steadily absorbed; 'hypocrite' is the tradition's category for what was also a straightforward contest for power inside Medina."
    },
    "sources": [
     "source/watt-1956-medina"
    ]
   }
  ],
  "sources": [
   "source/ibn-ishaq-guillaume",
   "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley",
   "source/watt-1956-medina"
  ],
  "sensitivity": "contested",
  "status": {
   "review": "draft",
   "completeness": 2,
   "generated_by": "Devin; 2026-10-11"
  }
 },
 "prose": {
  "ar": {
   "sections": [
    {
     "heading": "نبذة",
     "markdown": "عبد الله بن أبي سيد الخزرج — الرجل الذي كادت يثرب تتوّجه ملكًا حين جعلت الهجرة النبي سيد مدينته بدلًا منه. يذكره التراث السني رئيسًا للمنافقين: العدو من الداخل."
    },
    {
     "heading": "الحياة",
     "markdown": "تقول المصادر إن قبائل يثرب المتنازعة اتفقت على تتويجه قبل أن يصل النبي فيتبخّر التاج. فأظهر الإسلام وبقي مقعده في المجلس — وفي رواية التراث عمل ضد النبي من الداخل {cite:ibn-ishaq-guillaume} {cite:watt-1956-medina}.\n\nوانسحب بثلث الجيش عشية [[event/battle-of-uhud|أحد]]؛ وتُقرأ عليه حادثة الإفك وسورة المنافقون {cite:ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley}. مات مطلع سنة 631م، ويحفظ التراث أن النبي صلى عليه وألبسه قميصه — نهاية ترويها المصادر دون أن ترقّق الرجل {cite:ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley}.\n\n:::perspectives\nيسمّيه التراث السني رئيس المنافقين: أظهر الإسلام وعمل في الباطن على تفريق الجماعة — وهو الشخص الذي تُقرأ حوله سورة المنافقون.\n\nأما المؤرخون فيصفون أرستقراطيًّا يثربيًّا يخسر صراعًا صريحًا على السلطة لصالح صعود النبي — و«المنافق» اسم التراث نفسه للمعارضة الداخلية.\n:::"
    },
    {
     "heading": "للزوار الصغار",
     "markdown": "الرجل الذي كاد يصير ملك المدينة فقد تاجه بوصول النبي — وحاربه من داخل المدينة سنين بعدها."
    }
   ],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "person/abdullah-ibn-ubayy",
    "lang": "ar",
    "source_lang": "en",
    "translators": []
   }
  },
  "en": {
   "sections": [
    {
     "heading": "Brief",
     "markdown": "Abdullah ibn Ubayy was the chief of Khazraj — the man Medina had nearly crowned its king when the Hijra made the Prophet master of his city instead. Sunni tradition remembers him as the chief of the *munafiqin*: the enemy inside."
    },
    {
     "heading": "Life",
     "markdown": "The sources say the feuding tribes of Medina had agreed to crown him before the Prophet arrived and the crown evaporated. He professed Islam, kept his seat in the council — and, in the tradition's telling, worked against the Prophet from within {cite:ibn-ishaq-guillaume} {cite:watt-1956-medina}.\n\nHe withdrew his third of the army on the eve of [[event/battle-of-uhud|Uhud]]; the slander against Aisha and sura al-Munafiqun are read against him {cite:ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley}. He died in early 631 CE, and the tradition records that the Prophet prayed over him and gave his own shirt for the shroud — an ending the sources tell without softening the man {cite:ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley}.\n\n:::perspectives\nSunni tradition names him chief of the hypocrites: outwardly Muslim, inwardly working to split the community — the figure sura al-Munafiqun is read around.\n\nHistorians describe a Medinese aristocrat losing a straightforward contest for power to the Prophet's ascendancy — \"hypocrite\" being the tradition's own category for the internal opposition.\n:::"
    },
    {
     "heading": "For young visitors",
     "markdown": "The man who nearly became king of Medina lost his crown to the Prophet's arrival — and fought him from inside the city for years after."
    }
   ],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "person/abdullah-ibn-ubayy",
    "lang": "en",
    "source_lang": "en",
    "translators": []
   }
  }
 },
 "degree": 12,
 "contemporaries": [
  "person/abbas-ibn-abd-al-muttalib",
  "person/abdullah-ibn-salam",
  "person/abu-bakr",
  "person/abu-sufyan-ibn-harb",
  "person/al-aswad-al-ansi",
  "person/amr-ibn-al-as",
  "person/bilal-ibn-rabah",
  "person/halima-al-sadiyya",
  "person/heraclius",
  "person/hind-bint-utba",
  "person/malik-ibn-awf",
  "person/muhammad"
 ],
 "connections": [
  {
   "to": "place/medina",
   "type": "born_in",
   "inverse": false
  },
  {
   "to": "place/medina",
   "type": "died_in",
   "inverse": false
  },
  {
   "to": "group/khazraj",
   "type": "member_of",
   "inverse": false
  },
  {
   "to": "person/muhammad",
   "type": "opposed",
   "inverse": false,
   "start": {
    "edtf": "0623"
   },
   "end": {
    "edtf": "0631"
   },
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-ishaq-guillaume",
    "source/watt-1956-medina"
   ]
  },
  {
   "to": "event/battle-of-uhud",
   "type": "deserted",
   "inverse": false,
   "start": {
    "edtf": "0625"
   },
   "note": "Withdrew a third of the army on the eve of the battle.",
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-ishaq-guillaume"
   ]
  },
  {
   "to": "passage/quran-63-1",
   "type": "revealed_in",
   "inverse": true,
   "note": "Sura al-Munafiqun is read by the tradition as revealed concerning him and his faction.",
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "related": [
  "person/aisha",
  "person/umar-ibn-al-khattab",
  "event/battle-of-the-trench",
  "event/battle-of-uhud",
  "screen/al-risala-1976",
  "person/muhammad",
  "place/medina",
  "event/expedition-to-tabuk"
 ],
 "license": {
  "prose": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
  "data": "CC0 1.0"
 }
}