Umar

Umar (Arabic: عمر بن الخطاب; Transliteration: `Umar ibn al-Khattāb, c. 581-83 CE – 7 November, 644), also known as Umar the Great or Omar the Great was a Muslim convert from the Banu Adi clan of the Quraysh tribe,^[1] and a sahaba (righteous companion) of Muhammad. He became the second Caliph (634 – 644) following the death of Abu Bakr, and is thus regarded by Sunni Muslims as one of the Rashidun (four righteously guided Caliphs).

Name

Umer, Umar, Omer, or Omar is an Arabic word which is directly corresponding to the English word "life", thus Umer means "who live longer" `Umar ibn al khataab is also referred to as `Umar al-Farūq (meaning: Umar the Distinguisher [between Truth and Falsehood]). He is regarded by Sunni Muslims as the second of the four Khulafā' ar-Rashīdīn (meaning: rightfully-guided caliphs). In English, his name has also been spelled as Omar or Omer.

Life

Early life

Umar was born in Mecca. In his earlier years, he worked as a shepherd and a merchant, growing up in humble surroundings.^[2] His father was Khattab ibn Nufayl, who is said to have been an emotional polytheist^[3] belonging to a middle class family. Umar was literate, which by some accounts was uncommon in those times, and he was also well known for his physical strength, being a champion warrior. Although Umar was a well respected and honourable man, and came from a family of noble descent, he was just like the rest of Quraysh. Omar was like most of Quraysh before Islam, yet after Islam he became one of the greatest men to walk this earth.^[4]

When Muhammad began preaching Islam, `Umar ibn al-Khattāb resolved to defend the traditional, polytheistic religion of Arabia. He was most adamant in opposing Muhammad and very prominent in persecuting the Muslims. In those days, the early Muslims lived in fear of their life and often did not openly pray at the Kaaba. To overcome this oppression, Muhammad explicitly prayed, 'to strengthen the religion with Umar.<sup>[5]</sup> According to an early story, recounted in Ibn Ishaq's Sīrah, `Umar resolved to assassinate Muhammad.^[6] On the way to assassinate Muhammad, Umar met a Muslim who told him to set his own house in order first, as his sister and her husband had converted to Islam. Upon arriving at her house, `Umar found her reciting verses of the Qur'an. When he listened carefully to the Sura's verses, he was so struck by the sūrah's verses, that he accepted Islam that very day. When `Umar later went to inform the chief of Quraish, Amr ibn Hishām, about his acceptance of Islam. According to one account, Umar, thereafter prayed openly at the Kaaba as the Quraish chiefs, Amr ibn Hishām and Abu Sufyan ibn Harb were said to have watched in anger.^[7] According to the same account, this further helped the Muslims to gain confidence in practicing Islam openly, since it is said that no one dared to interfere with Umar when he was openly praying.

Migration to Medina

`Umar was part of the first migration (Hijrah) to Yathrib (later renamed Medīnat an-Nabī, or simply Medina, which means "the city," in 622.^[8] where he was one of two chief advisers to Muhammad, the other being Abu Bakr.

In the following years, he participated at the battles of Badr, Uhud, Khaybar, and the raid on Syria, as well as many other engagements. He was one of Muhammad's companions. In 625, `Umar's daughter Hafsah was married to Muhammad.

Caliphate of Abu Bakr

Abu Bakr was chosen as the new leader, the Khalifah, of the community by a group of men gathered in Saqeefah Bani Saadah, in Medina after Muhammad died. The Muslims who were natives of Medina, the Ansar, had met separately and were planning to elect their own leader. This would have split the community between the natives of Medinas and the immigrants from Mecca, known as the Muhajirun. Finally, both Abu Bakr and Umar arrived at the meeting, and, after a day of deliberations, Umar took the initiative by publicly giving his allegiance to Abu Bakr. The Ansar followed suit, and swore allegiance to Abu Bakr, pointing to various hints given by Muhammad that Abu Bakr should be his successor.

Abu Bakr was Caliph for only a short time. Most of his caliphate was occupied with the Ridda wars, in which tribes who tried to desert the Muslim alliance were brought to heel. Umar was one of his chief advisors. Just before his death in 634, Abū Bakr appointed Umar as his successor.

Umar's Reign as a caliph

Main article: Reforms of Umar's era

During Umar's reign, the Islamic empire grew at an unprecedented rate, taking Mesopotamia and parts of Persia from the Sassanids (effectively ending that empire), and taking Egypt, Palestine, Syria, North Africa and Armenia from the Byzantines. Many of these conquests followed major battles on both the western and eastern fronts. The Battle of Yarmouk, fought near Damascus in 636, saw a small Muslim army defeat a much larger Byzantine force, permanently ending Byzantine rule south of Anatolia (Asia Minor). A Muslim army achieved victory over a force in the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah (c. 636), near the banks of the Euphrates. During the course of the battle, Muslim general Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas routed the Sassanid army and killed the Persian general Rostam Farrokhzād.

The Treaty of Umar

In 637 , after a prolonged siege of Jerusalem, the Muslims finally entered the city peacefully following the signing of a treaty by the Patriach of Elya Al-Quds (i.e. Jerusalem) and Umar himself. Several years earlier, the Patriach had announced that he would not sign a treaty with anyone other than the Caliph himself. For this reason, `Umar personally came to Jerusalem after Muslims had established control of all the surrounding territory. According to both Muslim and Christian accounts, `Umar entered the city humbly, walking beside a camel upon which his servant was sitting, due to the reason they share turns over it and it was his servant's turn when they happen to reach the city. He is said to have been given the keys to the city by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Sophronius, after conducting the peace treaty known as the Treaty of Umar, the English translation of which is provided below:

Then Umar asked the Patriach to lead him to the place of the old Jewish Temple. Umar was shocked to find the site covered in rubbish, as the Romans had initiated the custom of using it as a dung heap. `Umar knelt down immediately, and began to clear the area with his hands. When the Muslims saw what he was doing, they followed his example, and soon the entire area of al-Aqsa, approximately 35 acres (14 ha), was cleaned up. Thereafter, commissioned the construction of a wooden mosque on the southern end of the site, exactly where the present-day mosque of Al-Aqsa stands.

`Umar was then led to the sites of the Foundation Stone by a rabbi, Ka'ab al-Ahbar, who had converted to Islam. The rock was surrounded it by a fence, and several years later an Umayyad Khalif built the Dome of the Rock over the site.

Upon taking Jerusalem, `Umar demonstrated the utmost respect for members of the other faiths living in the city. For the first time in 500 years since their expulsion from the Holy Land, Jews were allowed to practice their religion freely and live in the vicinity of Jerusalem. According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, seventy Jewish families took up residence in the city. `Umar also agreed to several pacts, called the Covenant of Omar, with the local Christian population, determining their rights and obligations under Muslim rule.

As a conqueror, `Umar undertook many administrative reforms and closely oversaw public policy. He established an advanced administration for the newly conquered lands, including several new ministries and bureaucracies, and ordered a census of all the Muslim territories. During his rule, the garrison cities (amsar) of Basra and Kufa were founded or expanded. In 638, he extended and renovated the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) in Mecca and the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Mosque of the Prophet) in Medina. He also began the process of codifying Islamic law. At the same time, `Umar also ordered the expulsion of the Christian and Jewish communities of Najran and Khaibar and forbade non-Muslims to reside in the Hijaz for longer than three days.^[9]

As a leader, `Umar was known for his simple, austere lifestyle. Rather than adopt the pomp and display affected by the rulers of the time, he continued to live much as he had when Muslims were poor and persecuted. In 639, his fourth year as caliph and the seventeenth year 17 since the Hijra, he decreed that the years of the Islamic era should be counted from the year of the Hijra.

Narratives from Sunni Islamic literature

According to Sunni tradition, after the siege of Jerusalem, Sophronius welcomed `Umar because, according to biblical prophecies allegedly known to the church in Jerusalem, "a poor, but just and powerful man" will rise as a be a protector and an ally to the Christians of Jerusalem. Sophronius believed that `Umar, a great warrior who led an austere life, was a fulfilment of this prophecy.

In the account by the Patriarch of Alexandria, Eutychius, it is said that `Umar paid a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and sat in its courtyard. When the time for prayer arrived, however, he left the church and prayed outside the compound, in order to avoid having future generations of Muslims use his prayer there as a pretext for converting the church into a mosque. Eutychius adds that `Umar also wrote a decree which he handed to the Patriarch, in which he prohibited that Muslims gather in prayer at the site.^[10]

Another story tells of the meeting between `Umar and Hurmuzan, a Persian leader who fought against the Muslims, but later converted to Islam.<sup>[11]</sup> He found `Umar sleeping on the ground after he had sought him out for battle, and was amazed at his humility and austere lifestyle. The story continues that Hurmuzan declared: "You ruled by justice, therefore you became safe; only because of that, you are now able to sleep peacefully anywhere."^[12]

Tombstone of Caliph Umar. The first window from the right gives a view of Umar's grave.

Death

Umar died in 644, the victim of an assassin's dagger. His killer, Pirouz Nahavandi (also known as Abu Lulua) was a Persian Soldier who was in both wars of Jaloola and Nahavand and taken as a captive in the second. Most probably Firuzan was a Zoroastrian as the majority of Iranians were, at the time of Arab occupation of Iran in 7th century. One day when the caliph was leading prayers in the mosque, Pirouz Nahavandi walked over to him and stabbed him. There are varying accounts about the actual events that took place. Some believe that when Pirooz got to Umar he used his dagger to rip his stomach open from below belly all the way to his neck. and then stabbed him in his back as well and some say that he stabbed Umar six times. `Umar died two days later, and was buried alongside Muhammad and Abū Bakr. Uthman Ibn Affan was chosen as his successor, by a group of people appointed by Umar before his death.

Sunni views

Main article: Sunni view of Umar

Main article: Hadith of Umar and the Qur'an

Sunnis remember Umar as a Farooq, meaning "leader, jurist and statesman", and the second of the rightly-guided Caliphs. He did not seek advancement for his own family, but rather sought to advance the interests of the Muslim community, the ummah. The general Sunni sentiment for Umar is summarized by one of Muhammad's companions, Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud:

See also

• Ali

Notes

References

• Donner, Fred, The Early Islamic Conquests, Princeton University Press, 1981
• Guillaume, A., The Life of Muhammad, Oxford University Press, 1955
• Madelung, Wilferd, The Succession to Muhammad, Cambridge University Press, 1997
• "G.LeviDellaVida and M.Bonner "Umar" in Encyclopedia of Islam CD-ROM Edition v. 1.0, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands 1999"
• Previte-Orton, C. W (1971). The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

External links

• Excerpt from The History of the Khalifahs by Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti
• Sirah of Amirul Muminin Umar Bin Khattab (r.a.a.) by Shaykh Sayyed Muhammad bin Yahya Al-Husayni Al-Ninowy.