Awana was the son of al-Hakam ibn Awana, the deputy Umayyad governor of Khurasan in 727 and later the governor of Sind.[1] The family hailed from the Banu Kalb tribe of Syria, but Awana was based in Kufa in Iraq.[1] Though there is an absence of Muslim tradition emanating from Umayyad Syria, likely lost after the region's fall to the Abbasids in 750, traces of it may be found in the accounts of Awana.[2] He is considered an important source of information for the Umayyad period.[3] He is frequently cited in the history of al-Tabari (d. 923) for matters pertaining to Syria,[2] and was an historical source for the historians Hisham ibn al-Kalbi (d. 819) and al-Mada'ini (d.