 He was born during the rule of Uthman's predecessor, Caliph Umar ().Biographical details about Amr are often confused in the traditional Islamic sources with Amr's full brother Umar.The historian al-Baladhuri (d. 892) asserts that Amr was Uthman's eldest son to have survived the caliph, who was killed in 656, and the historian Mus'ab al-Zubayri (d. 851) holds that Amr was the eldest of Uthman's sons to leave descendants, while the historians Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 1492) and al-Qalqashandi (d. 1418) attribute both facts to Umar.