When Abu Bekr sent his troops for the conquest of Syria, Yazid, the eldest son of Abu Sofian, held one of the chief commands, with Moawiya as his lieutenant.
This remarkable man was said to be a bastard of Abu Sofian, the father of Moawiya, and was, by his mother, the brother of Abu Bakra, a man of great wealth and position at Basra.
Moawiya seems also to have acknowledged him as the son of Abu Sofian, and thus as his brother; in 664 this recognition was openly declared.'
But the Shiites were dissatisfied and 1 A single genealogist, Abu Yagazan, says that he was a legitimate son of Abu Sofian, and that his mother was Asma, daughter of A`war.
But all others call his mother Somayya, who is said to have been a slave-girl of Hind, the wife of Abu Sofian, and who became later also the mother of Abu Bakra.