DEATH OF OMAR.
A.H. XXIII. A.D. 644.
[Sidenote: Omar performs pilgrimage; end of A.H. XXIII. October, A.D.
644.]
It was now the eleventh year of Omar’s Caliphate, and though fifty-five
years of age (according to others over sixty) he was full of vigour
and vigilant in the discharge of the vast responsibilities that
devolved upon him.[418] In the last month of the twenty-third year of
the Hegira, he journeyed, as was his wont, to Mecca; and taking on
this occasion the Widows of Mahomet in his suite, performed with them
the rites of the annual Pilgrimage. He had returned but a few days to
Medîna, when his reign came to a tragical and untimely end.
[Sidenote: Abu Lulû, a Persian slave, promises to make a windmill.]
A Persian slave, Feroze, called more familiarly Abu Lulû, had been
brought by Moghîra from Irâc. Carried off a prisoner in his youth by
the Romans, he had early embraced Christianity; and now, captured from
them by the Moslems, his fate was to endure a second captivity as
Moghîra’s slave. When the crowd of prisoners was marched into Medîna
from the battle of Nehâvend (which is said to have been his birthplace)
he gave vent to his grief; the sight opened springs of tenderness long
pent up, and stroking the heads of the little ones, he exclaimed:
‘_Verily, Omar hath consumed my bowels!_’ He practised the
trade of a carpenter; and Moghîra, as his owner, shared the profit.
Meeting Omar in the market-place,[419] he cried out, ‘Commander of the
Faithful! right me of my wrong, for verily Moghîra hath assessed me
heavily.’ ‘At how much?’ asked the Caliph. ‘At two dirhems a day.’ ‘And
what is thy trade?’ ‘A carpenter, designer, and worker in iron.’ ‘It is
not much,’ replied Omar, ‘for a clever artificer like thee. I am told
that thou couldst make for me a mill driven by the wind.’ ‘It is true.’
‘Come then,’ continued the Caliph, ‘and make me such a mill that shall
be driven by the wind.’ ‘If spared,’ said the captive in a surly voice,
‘I will make a mill for thee, the fame whereof shall reach from the
East even to the far West;’ and he went on his way. Omar remarked, as
he passed on, the sullen demeanour of Abu Lulû:--‘That slave,’ he said,
‘spoke threateningly to me just now.’[420]
[Sidenote: Omar mortally wounded by Abu Lulû.]
Next morning, when the people assembled in the Great Mosque for the
early matin prayer, Abu Lulû mingled with the front rank of the
worshippers. Omar entered, and, as was customary with the Imâm who led
the prayers, took his stand in advance of the congregation, having
his back towards them. He had no sooner called out the first words,
_Allah Akbar_, than Abu Lulû rushed upon him, and with a sharp
blade inflicted six wounds in different parts of his body. Then he ran
wildly about, killing some and wounding others, and at last stabbed
himself to death. Omar, who had fallen to the ground, was borne into
his house, which adjoined the Mosque, sufficiently composed to desire
that Abd al Rahmân should proceed with the service. When it was ended,
Omar summoned him to his bedside, and signified his intention of
nominating him to the Caliphate. ‘Is this obligatory upon me?’ inquired
Abd al Rahmân. ‘Nay, by the Lord!’ said Omar, ‘thou art free.’ ‘That
being so,’ he replied, ‘I never will accept the burden.’[421] ‘Then
stanch my wound,’ said the dying Caliph (for life was ebbing fast
through a great gash below the navel), ‘and stay me while I commit my
trust unto a company of men that were faithful unto their Prophet, and
with whom their Prophet was well pleased.’ [Sidenote: Omar appoints
Electors to choose successor.]So he named together with Abd al Rahmân,
other four, namely Aly, Othmân, Zobeir, and Sád, as the chiefest
among the Companions of Mahomet, to be the electors of his successor,
and called them to his bedside. When they appeared, he proceeded
thus:--‘Wait for your brother Talha (who was absent for the moment from
Medîna) three days; if he arrive, take him for the sixth; if not, ye
are to decide the matter between you.’ Then, addressing each in turn,
he warned them of the grave responsibility attaching to their office
as Electors, and the danger to the elected one of favouring unduly his
own clan and family. ‘O Aly, if the choice fall upon thee, see that
thou exalt not the Beni Hâshim above their fellows. And thou, Othmân,
if thou art elected, or Sád, beware that thou set not thy kinsmen
over the necks of men. Arise, go forth, deliberate and then decide.
Meanwhile Soheib shall lead the public prayers.’[422] When they had
departed, he called Abu Talha, a warrior of note, to him:[423] ‘Go,
stand,’ he said, ‘before their door, and suffer no man to enter in unto
them.’ After a while he proceeded solemnly, addressing those around
him:--‘To him who shall succeed, give it as my dying bequest that he
be kind to the Men of this city, which gave a home to us and to the
Faith; that he make much of their virtues, and pass lightly by their
faults. And bid him treat well the Arab tribes, for verily they are the
backbone of Islam; the tithe that he taketh from them, let him give
it back unto the same for the nourishment of their poor. And the Jews
and Christians, let him faithfully fulfil the covenant of the Prophet
with them.[424] O Lord, I have finished my course. And now to him that
cometh after me I leave the kingdom and the Caliphate firmly stablished
and at peace.’ Then he lay down quietly and rested for a time.
[Sidenote: Omar desires to be interred beside the Prophet.]
After a while he bade his son go forth, and see who it was that had
wounded him. Being told that it was Abu Lulû, he exclaimed:--‘Praise
be to the Lord that it was not one who had ever bowed down before
Him, even once, in prayer! Now, Abdallah, my son, go in unto Ayesha,
and ask her leave that I be buried in her chamber by the side of the
Prophet, and by the side of Abu Bekr. If she refuse, then bury me by
the other Moslems, in the graveyard of Backî.[425] And list thee,
Abdallah, if they disagree’ (for he too was to have a voice in the
election) ‘then be thou with the majority; or, if the votes be equal,
then choose thou that side on which is Abd al Rahmân. Now let the
people come in.’ Crowds had assembled at the door; and, permission
having been given, they approached to make obeisance. As they passed in
and out, Omar asked whether any leading man had joined in conspiring
against him. ‘The Lord forbid!’ was the loud response of all, in
horror at the very word. For this burying-ground, see _Life of
Mahomet_, p. 208.]
[Sidenote: Omar’s death.]
Among the rest, Aly came forward to inquire; and as he sat by the
bedside, the son of Abbâs came up. Omar, who dreaded the factious
spirit of the latter, said: ‘O Ibn Abbâs, art thou with me in this
matter?’ He signified assent, whereupon Omar added earnestly: ‘See
that thou deceive me not, thou and thy fellows.[426] Now, Abdallah,
my son, raise up my head from the pillow, and then lay it gently on
the ground:[427] peradventure the Lord may in mercy take me thus, this
night, for I fear the horrors of the rising sun.’ A physician gave
him to drink of date-water; but it oozed through the wound unchanged;
and so also with a draught of milk. Which when the physician saw, he
said: ‘I perceive that the wound is mortal: make now thy testament, O
Commander of the Faithful.’ ‘That,’ said Omar, ‘have I done already.’
As he lay, his head resting on the bosom of his son, he recited this
couplet:--
It had gone hard with my soul, if I had not been a Moslem;
But verily all the appointed prayers have I observed, and fasted.
[Sidenote: Nov. 3, A.D. 644.]
And so, in a low voice, he kept repeating the name of the Lord, and the
short Moslem creed, until his spirit passed away. It was the 26th of
Dzul Hijj, the 23rd year of the Hegira. He had reigned for the space of
ten years and a half.[428]
[Sidenote: Achievements of his Calphate.]
So died Omar, next to the Prophet the greatest in the of Islam; for
it was all within these ten years that, by his wisdom, patience, and
vigour, the dominion was achieved over Syria, Egypt, and Persia, which
Islam has ever since maintained. Abu Bekr beat down the apostate
tribes; but at his death the armies of Islam had but just crossed
the Syrian frontier. Omar began his reign the master only of Arabia.
He died the Caliph of an empire embracing Persia, Egypt, and some of
the fairest provinces of the Byzantine throne. Yet throughout this
marvellous fortune he never lost the equipoise of a wise and sober
judgment, nor exalted himself above the frugal and familiar style of
the Arab Chief. ‘Where is the Caliph?’ would the visitor from distant
provinces inquire, as he looked around the court of the Great Mosque;
and all the while the monarch sat in homely guise before him.
[Sidenote: Character of Omar.]
The features of Omar’s life it requires but few lines to sketch.
Simplicity and duty were his guiding principles. Impartiality and
devotion characterised the discharge of his great office; and the
responsibility so weighed upon him that at times he would exclaim, ‘O
that my mother had not borne me; would that I had been this stalk of
grass instead!’ Of a fiery and impatient temper, he was noted in his
youth, and even during the later days of the Prophet’s life, as the
stern advocate of vengeance. Ever ready to unsheathe the sword, it was
he who, after the battle of Bedr, advised that the prisoners should all
be put to death. But age, as well as weight of office, had mellowed
the asperity of his nature.[429] His sense of justice was strong. And
excepting the treatment of Khâlid, whom he pursued with an ungenerous
resentment, no act of tyranny or injustice is recorded against him; and
even in this matter his enmity took its rise in Khâlid’s unscrupulous
treatment of a fallen foe. The choice of his captains and governors
was free from favouritism; and (the appointment of Moghîra and Ammâr
excepted) singularly fortunate. The different tribes and bodies in
the empire, representing interests the most diverse, reposed in his
integrity the utmost confidence, and his strong arm maintained the
discipline of law and empire. A certain weakness is discernible in
his change of governors at the factious seats of Bussorah and Kûfa.
But even so, the conflicting claims of Bedouin and Coreish were kept
by him in check, and never dared to disturb Islam till he had passed
away. The more distinguished of the Companions he kept around him at
Medîna, partly, no doubt, to strengthen his counsels, and partly (as he
would say) from unwillingness to lower their dignity by placing them in
an office subordinate to himself.[430] Whip in hand, he perambulated
the streets and markets of Medîna, ready to punish the offenders on
the spot; and it became a proverb,--‘Omar’s whip is more terrible
than another’s sword.’ But with all this he was tender-hearted, and
numberless acts of kindness are recorded, such as relieving the wants
of the widow and the fatherless.[431]
[Sidenote: The first called Commander of the Faithful.]
Omar was the first who assumed the title Ameer al Momenîn, or
‘Commander of the Faithful.’ _Caliph_ (Successor) _of the
Prophet of the Lord_, was, he said, ‘too long and cumbersome a name,
while the other was easier and more fit for common use.’
[Sidenote: Burial of Omar.]
According to his desire, Omar was buried side by side with the Prophet
and Abu Bekr, in the chamber of Ayesha. Soheib, as presiding over the
public prayers, performed the funeral service, and the five Electors,
with Abdallah, the Caliph’s son, lowered the body into its last
resting-place.
[Sidenote: Faction and schism in prospect.]
The Moslem annalist may well sigh as he bids farewell to the strong and
single-minded Caliph; and enters on the troubled sea of self-seeking
faction, strife, and schism, which opens with the Caliphate of his
successor.