Omar (TV series)

Omar
Genre	Biography, drama, religion, history, serial
Starring	Ghassan Massoud, Samer Ismail
Voices of	Assad Khalifa (Omar)
Composer(s)	Walid Saif
Country of origin	Arab World/Qatar
Original language(s)	Arabic
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	31
Production
Producer(s)	MBC Group, Qatar TV
Location(s)	Saudi Arabia, Morocco
Running time	45 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	MBC1, Qatar TV, Nessma TV, Atv, MNCTV, Nour TV
Picture format	HDTV
Original run	July 20, 2012 (2012-07-20) – August 18, 2012 (2012-08-18)

Omar (Arabic: عُمَرْ‎) or Farouk Omar (Persian: عمر فاروق‎) is a historical Arab television drama miniseries-serial that was produced and broadcast by MBC1 and directed by Hatem Ali. Co-produced by Qatar TV, the series is based on the life of Omar ibn Al-Khattab, the second Caliph of Islam.^[1] The series had to face large controversy due to its depiction of Omar, Abu Bakr, Uthman and Ali, the four Rashidun Caliphs, along with other characters, who some Muslims believe should not be depicted, much like the Prophet Mohammad. The series consists of 30 episodes and was originally aired in the month of Ramadan since July 20, 2012.^[2] It was made at a cost of 200 million Saudi riyals and filmed in Morocco, mostly in Marakesh, Tangiers, El Jadida, Casablanca and Mohammedia. After the series was broadcast on MBC, dubbed into several languages and subtitled in English on YouTube, it received great support from many different scholarly bodies and people watching it. As the series depended solely on reliable historical established facts, the series did not face criticism in terms of its content, as past films faced.

Reception

Cast

List of episodes

Trivia

Two actors of this series, Hassan Al-Jundi and Muna Wassef, both acted (as Abu Jahl and Hind respectively) in the 1970s Arabic language film Al Risalah (الرسالة), the version of Moustapha Akkad's religious biopic The Message (a.k.a.Mohammad, Messenger of God) made for the Arab World. Hassan Al-Jundi also acted as Kisra in the English language film while his counterpart in Al Risalah played the character of Abu Jahl in the same film.

VFX effects

Most of the episodes of the series contained many expensive computer-generated imagery (CGI) effects which were maintained by French CGI production BUF in association with Hecat.^[6] Moreover, the sets of ancient Mecca and Medina and other sites in Arabia and elsewhere in the post classical era were also produced by the Soora Studio, a Syrian set producer production, which previously made the sets of many other popular Arabic dramas.

Music

A nasheed or Arabic song praising Omar and describing a complete archive of the serial was featured after the scene of his assassination in the ending episode. The nasheed, entitled "Salamun Alayka", was sung by the Kuwaiti Quran reciter Mishary Al-Afasy.

Traditional historicitic controversy

In the event of the battle against Musailimah, the character of Khalid bin Walid and other sahabas have been shown to give the slogan "Ya Muhammada" (O Muhammad), which is a subject of controversy about historicity among some sunni clerics. They say that it could never be told by sahabas because calling on any other except Allah is a form of polytheism or shirk.

See also

• Qamar Bani Hashim (TV series)

References

External links

• Omar at the Internet Movie Database
• "Omar" the app - MBC group's official comprehensive application about Omar series
• Official Trailer
• Omar Series - All Episodes - Original Arabic
• Omar Series - All Episodes - English Subtitles
• Omer Series - All Episodes - Dubbed in Turkish
• Omer Series - All Episodes - Dubbed in Persian
• Omar Series - All Episodes - French Subtitles