Abu 'Ubayd ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi

Abū 'Ubayd ibn Mas'ūd ibn 'Amr ibn 'Umayr ibn 'Awf ibn Uqda ibn Ghayra ibn Awf ibn Thaqif al-Thaqafi , or simply Abu Ubayd , was a commander in the army of the Rashidun Caliphate. He was from Ta'if in western Arabia, and belonged to the tribe Banu Thaqif.

Al-Muthanna, commander of the Muslim Arabs in al-Hira, had asked Abu Bakr and later Caliph Umar for reinforcements against the Sasanians in Mesopotamia, who were fighting back. Umar chose Abu Ubayd who volunteered first, although he was not among the Muhajirun or Ansar (the companions of Muhammad), and dispatched him. Abu Ubayd arranged a force of 1,000 from his Thaqif tribe and increased his numbers on the way north. He took over command from al-Muthanna for the second time, becoming commander of the forces in the al-Hira region. The combined Arab forces conducted raids on the plains between al-Hira and Ctesiphon (the Sawad). The commander of the Sasanian army Rustam Farrukhzad dispatched an army under Bahman Jadhuyih to attack them.

Abu Ubayd was the father of the revolutionary leader al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, who rebelled against the Umayyads to avenge the Karbala event during the Second Fitna. Safiyah, wife of Abdullah ibn Umar, was one of his daughters. Jariah, another of his daughters, was married to Umar ibn Sa'ad.