Chapter XXVIII: 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.