Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah (583-639) was the Governor of the Levant under the Rashidun Caliphate from 634 until his death in 639 as well as a sahabi of Muhammad.
Biography[]
Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah was born in 583 in Mecca to a merchant family, and he was famous for his modesty and bravery. In 611, he embraced Islam just a day after Abu Bakr did so, and he was a sahabi of the prophet Muhammad from beginning to end. Muadh ibn Jabal became Jarrah's "brother under God", and the two fought together in the early battles of Islam. Abu Ubaidah was forced to kill his own father Abdullah ibn al-Jarrah at the Battle of Badr in 624, and he fought at the Battle of Uhud, the Battle of the Trench, and the campaigns against the Jewish tribes in central Arabia in the following years. Muhammad sent him as a tax collector to Bahrain, and he was later sent to lead the reinforcements for 'Amr ibn al-'As' army at al-Qabaliyyah in October 629. When Muhammad died, Umar asked for Abu Ubaidah to swear allegiance to him as the servant of the new Caliph, but Abu Ubaidah instead supported Abu Bakr, who became the first Caliph. He took part in the invasion of Syria in the Byzantine Empire, winning the Battle of Ajnadayn in Israel in July 634 and the Battle of Yarmouk in August 636. In 638, he campaigned in Anatolia and Armenia, and he died of plague in Jordan in 639.