Suhayl ibn Amr
سهيل بن عمرو
c. 570 CE – c. 639 CE · c. 18 AH† †
† Hijri date derived by computation from the Gregorian/Julian date; it may differ from the transmitted date by a day or two.
Quraysh's orator and spokesman — the diplomat who faced Muhammad across the table at Hudaybiyya — who converted at the conquest and died a Muslim in the plague of Amwas.
At a glance
- Roles
- Politician
- Era
- The Prophetic Era
- Region
- Arabia
- Review
- Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it
In time
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
Peace-making and coexistenceConverts and those who leave
Place in the story
- OpponenttowardThe early Muslim community · 624 CE · 2 AH† – 630 CE · 9 AH†Historical
- Convert to Islam · 630 CE · 9 AH†Tradition
- Companion · 630 CE · 9 AH† – 639 CE · 18 AH†Tradition
Arabian polytheism (documented) · Sunni (transmitted)
Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.
Brief
Suhayl ibn Amr was Quraysh's orator — the voice sent to negotiate. At Hudaybiyya he sat across from the Prophet dictating terms; three years later he was a Muslim, and the tradition remembers him eulogizing the Prophet in Mecca.
Life
Captured at Badr and ransomed, Suhayl remained one of Mecca's public faces: when the Prophet came to make pilgrimage in 628, it was Suhayl whom Quraysh sent to turn him back — and who ended by signing the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, arguing the points clause by clause 1.
He converted at the conquest. The tradition records the Prophet saying of him that day: he is a man you will see stand in a station that will gladden you — read as fulfilled when Suhayl steadied Mecca with a speech at the news of the Prophet's death 2.
He died in the plague of Amwas, about 639 CE 2.
Legacy
The diplomat of the opposition became the orator of the transition — the story of the treaty man who stayed to give the funeral speech.
For young visitors
Suhayl was sent to argue with the Prophet — and later gave the speech that calmed Mecca when the Prophet died.
Connections
- Parent of
- Abu Jandal ibn SuhaylSahla bint SuhaylUmm Kulthum bint Suhayl
- Born in
- Mecca
- Died in
- Amwas (Emmaus)
- Member of
- Quraysh
- Participated in
- The Battle of BadrThe Treaty of HudaybiyyaThe affair of the Badr prisonersThe distribution of Hunayn spoils at al-Ji'rana
- Signed
- The Treaty of Hudaybiyya
- Converted under
- Muhammad
People and things also explored
Umar ibn al-KhattabMuhammadMus'ab ibn UmayrThe Treaty of Hudaybiyyaal-Nadr ibn al-HarithUqba ibn Abi Mu'aytMeccaAbu Sufyan ibn Harb
Sources
- Ibn Ishaq / Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad (1955)
- Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir (Bewley translation, Ta-Ha)
- Watt, Muhammad at Medina (1956)
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Suhayl ibn Amr”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/suhayl-ibn-amr/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-12.