Arab conquest of Iran Uthman ibn Abi al-As al-Thaqafi (Arabic: عثمان بن أبي العاص, romanized: ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ; died 671 or 675) was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad from the tribe of Banu Thaqif and the governor of Bahrayn (eastern Arabia) and Oman (southeastern Arabia) in 636–650, during the reigns of caliphs Umar (r. 634–644) and Uthman (r. 644–656).
[6] Uthman was the youngest member of a six-man delegation of Thaqif representatives sent to establish peace with the Islamic prophet Muhammad on 9 December 630, shortly before the Muslim conquest of their city in 631.
[11] His appointment stemmed from his apparent zeal in studying Islam and the Quran,[12] as testified to Muhammad by Abu Bakr, the future first caliph (leader of the Muslim community).
[10] Uthman's jurisdiction was over the settled inhabitants of Ta'if and its environs (the Hawazin nomads were governed by Malik ibn Awf al-Nasri) and he remained in the post at the time of Muhammad's death in 632.
[26] The modern historian Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch suspects that if the raids against the Indian coast were actually undertaken, they likely occurred in late 636.
[17] According to Baloch, the reasons for Uthman's initiative are not identified by the medieval sources and were possibly zeal-driven adventures for the cause of jihad (holy struggle).
[29] He was restored to Bahrayn in 638 in the aftermath of an abortive naval raid by al-Ala against the Sasanian province of Fars, which ended in heavy Arab losses.
[32] In 639 or 640, Uthman and al-Hakam captured and garrisoned Arab troops in the Fars town of Tawwaj near the Persian Gulf coast, southwest of modern Shiraz.
[31] About 643, Uthman's forces were joined by Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, the Muslim governor of Basra, who had been fighting against the Sasanians on the Iraqi front.
[34] Uthman was unable to capture the Sasanian strongholds of Istakhr and Jur (Firuzabad) in mountainous central Fars, which were conquered in 649 by the Muslim governor of Basra, Abd Allah ibn Amir.
[13][36] In February 650 he was granted by the caliph a large estate near the city, in al-Ubulla (Apologos) along the Euphrates river, from which he bestowed plots to each of his brothers to build on.