Life
When Abu Bakr died, Asma bint Umais married Ali (Muhammad's cousin, successor, and son-in-law). Ali adopted Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, who later became one of his staunchest supporters.
Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr had a son named, Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr (not to be confused with the Islamic prophet Muhammad's son Qasim ibn Muhammad). The daughter of Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, Umm Farwah, was the mother of the sixth Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq.
After the Battle of Siffin, Ali ibn Abi Talib appointed Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr as the Governor of Egypt, then a newly conquered province of the Islamic empire. In 658 CE (38 A.H.), Muawiyah I, the then Governor of Syria, sent his general Amr ibn al-As and six thousand soldiers against Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr. Muhammad asked Imam Ali for help. Ali is said to have instructed his foster son to hand the governorship over to his best general and childhood friend, Malik al-Ashtar, whom he judged better capable of resisting Amr ibn al-As. However, Malik died on his way to Egypt. The Shi’a and Institute for Shia Ismaili Studies in London's Shia'ism researcher Wilferd Madelung believe that Malik was poisoned by Muawiyah I.
Ibn Abi Bakr was eventually defeated by Amr. Amr's soldiers were ordered to capture him and bring him alive, to Muawiyah I. However, a soldier named Muawiya ibn Hudayj is said to have quarreled with the prisoner and killed him out of hand. Ibn Hudayj was so incensed at Ibn Abi Bakr that he put his body into the skin of a dead donkey and burned both corpses together, so that nothing should survive of his enemy. However, Shi'a accounts say that the Muawiyah I who later became the first Umayyad Caliph was the actual killer of Ibn Abi Bakr.
Read more about this topic: Muhammad Ibn Abi Bakr
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