Sufyan belonged to the Ghamid branch of the Azd Sarat tribe resident in the southern Hejaz (western Arabia). He was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. During the Muslim conquest of Byzantine Syria, he took part in the siege and capture of Damascus in 634 or 635 as a lieutenant of Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah. During the caliphate of Uthman (), he became a loyalist of Syria's governor Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan. For a certain period, the latter appointed Sufyan "ṣāḥib al-ṣawāʾif", i.e. chief commander of the summer expeditions into Byzantine territory in Anatolia, across the northern frontier.