Amr ibn al-As

Amr ibn al-As was Mecca's wiliest diplomat — sent to argue against the Muslims, converted at the last hour of the old order, and then the commander who won Egypt for Islam.

A Qurayshi of the Sahm clan, Amr appears in the sources first as Mecca's clever envoy: he argued before the Negus for the return of the Abyssinian refugees and failed ¹. Between Hudaybiyya and the conquest he read the wind, rode to Medina and embraced Islam about 629–630 ².

The Prophet used his diplomacy — sending him to Oman — and under Umar he took command in Syria, then asked for and received the conquest of Egypt: he took Fustat by 641 and Alexandria shortly after ³. In the first civil war he sided with Mu'awiya, and at the arbitration after Siffin outmaneuvered Ali's side — a famous trick the sources narrate with grudging admiration ². He died governing Egypt about 663 ².

Egypt became Islamic under his hand — and stayed so. Politically he is the tradition's emblem of the brilliant pragmatist: the man who always landed on the winning side, including, finally, the caliphate's.