Omar ibn Abd al-Aziz

“ Another proof is that they caused to be hanged at one time 21 eminent and cultured Moslems and Arabs of distinction, in addition to those they had previously put to death—the Emir Omar el-Jazairi, the Emir Arif esh-Shihabi, Shefik Bey el-Moayyad, Shukri Bey el-Asali, Abd el-Wahab, Taufik Bey el-Baset, Abd el-Hamid el-Zahrawi, Abd el-Ghani el-Arisi, and their companions, who are well-known men. Cruel-hearted men could not easily bring themselves to destroy so many lives at one blow, even if they were as beasts of the field. ”

“ Al-Aziz ordered him a costly robe of honour and expended monies galore, giving unto each who had wroughten after the measure of his work. Then he assembled in the Hammam all the Lords of his realm, Emirs and Wazirs and Chamberlains and Nabobs, and the chief officers of his kingdom and household, and sending for his son Al-Abbas, said to him, "O my son, I have builded thee a bath, wherein thou mayst take thy pleasance ”

“ The reader must bear in mind, that this part of the Harim was formerly the house of Ali and Fatimah; it was separated from the Hujrah-the abode of Mohammed and Ayishah-only by a narrow brick wall, with a window in it, which was never shut. Omar Bin Abd al-Aziz enclosed it in the mosque, by order of Al-Walid, A.H. 90. [FN#56] Plural of Sharif, a descendant of Mohammed. [FN#57] The "people of the garment," so called, because on one occasion the Apostle wrapped his cloak around himself, his daughter, his son-in-law, and his two grandsons, thereby separating them in dignity from other Moslems. ”

“ What shall be our excuse with the King? By Allah, my soul suggested to me that the youth was of the sons of the kings!" His wife, the Lady Afifah saw him lamenting for his neglect of Al-Abbas, and said to him, "O King, what is it thou regrettest with this mighty regret?" Quoth he, "Thou knowest the stranger youth, who gifted us with the rubies?" Quoth she, "Assuredly;" and he, "Yonder youths, who have halted in the palace court, are his Mamelukes, and his father, King Al-Aziz, lord of Al-Yaman, hath pitched his camp on the Green Meadow ”

“ When the king heard his words, he bade decorate Baghdad and commanded the citizens to equip themselves with the richest of their apparel, in honour of the coming of Al-Abbas. Furthermore, he sent to give King Al-Aziz the glad tidings of his son's return and informed him of all which he had heard from the Prince's servant. When the news reached King Al-Aziz, he joyed with exceeding joy in the approach of his son and straightway took horse, he and all his host, while the trumpets blared and the musicians played, so that the earth quaked and Baghdad also trembled, and it was a notable day. ”

“ Koran, Chapter 24 verse 39
As this world is a means for reaching the next, a wise and enlightened person does not make the means and end in itself. Whosoever sells this world for the next stands condemned.
The Caliph, Omar bin Abdul Aziz was a practical moralist. Even before he was elected caliph, he would say when a piece of very expensive cloth was brought to him: "Alas, it is too coarse for me to wear". However, after his election when an inexpensive robe was brought for him, he would say: "Alas, it is too fine for me to wear. ”

“ Omar bin Abd al-Aziz believed this tradition, when he included the room in the Mosque; and generally in Al-Islam Fatimah is supposed to be buried in the Harim. Those who suppose the Prophet�s daughter to be buried in Al-Bakia rely upon a saying of the Imam Hasan, �If men will not allow me to sleep beside my grandsire, place me in Al-Bakia, by my mother.� They give the following account of his death and burial. His body was bathed and shrouded by Ali and Omar Salmah. ”

“ Abu Bekr followed the Prophet’s example. In the great revolt of the Arabic tribes after the death of Mahomet, and in the invasion of Irak and Syria by the Moslems, the principal generals belonged to them. Omar did not deviate from that line of conduct. It was he who appointed Yazīd, the son of Abu Sofiān, and after his death, his brother Moawiya as governor of Syria, and assigned the province of Egypt to Amr-ibn-el-Ass (‘Amr b. Āṣ) . It is even surprising to find among the leading men so few of the house of Hāshim, the nearest family of the Prophet. ”

“ Mukair Ibn Zarrarah, elderly when his sons had been born, had aged with startling suddenness since the death of Omar. He had all at once become an old man, unable to rally from the shock of his bereavement, bewailing the fate of his elder and favourite son, and trembling for the future of his beloved tribe left to the tender mercies of a man he now recognised to be more Frenchman than Arab. He exaggerated every Francophile tendency he saw in Saïd and cursed the French as heartily as ever Omar had done, forgetting that he himself was largely responsible for the inclinations he objected to. ”

“ There they settled. ʿAmr remarked: "To seek herbage before knowledge is weakness." The tribe of ʿAkk were distressed at the fall of their best lands into the hands of al-Azd and asked the latter to evacuate the land. Thereupon a one-eyed and deaf man of al-Azd, named Jidhʿ, made an attack on a ʿAkk party and destroyed them. This resulted in a war between al-Azd and ʿAkk. ”

“ The road of right thou hast made straight, that erst was crooked
grown; Yea, for its path of old had fall'n to ruin and
decay.
Exalted mayst thou be above th' empyrean heaven of joy And may
God's glory greater grow and more exalted aye!
"And indeed," continued Adi, "this ode on the Prophet (may God bless and keep him!) is well known and to comment it would be tedious." Quoth Omar, "Who is at the door?" "Among them is Omar ibn [Abi] Rebya the Cureishite," [FN#49] answered Adi, and the Khalif said, "May God show him no favour neither quicken him! Was it not he who said ... ?" ”

“ Hearing this, al-Muḳauḳis said to his followers, "These people are telling the truth. They have chased our king from his kingdom as far as Constantinople. It is much more preferable, therefore, that we submit." His followers, however, spoke harshly to him and insisted on fighting. The Moslems fought fiercely against them and invested them for three months. At last, ʿAmr reduced the city [3] by the sword and plundered all that was in it, sparing its inhabitants of whom none was killed or taken captive. ”

“ He fell upon Ziyâd and his companions, and many Moslems were lost. The Moslems were then defeated, and all the great men of Kindah rallied to the support of al-Ashʿath ibn-Ḳais. Seeing this, Ziyâd wrote to abu-Bakr asking for reinforcement. Abu-Bakr wrote to al-Muhâjir ibn-abi-Umaiyah, ordering him to reinforce Ziyâd. Ziyâd and al-Muhâjir, at the head of the Moslems, met al-Ashʿath and dispelled his men, and attacking his companions, made a fearful slaughter among them. Thence al-Ashʿath's men took refuge in a fortification of theirs, an-Nujair, where the Moslems besieged them. ”

“ And the Lord who scattered hath brought us back ✿ For who doeth good shall of good ne’er lack. When King Al-Aziz heard the damsel’s song, both words and verses pleased him and he said to Al-Abbas, “O my son, verily long versifying hath tired these damsels, and indeed they make us yearn after the houses and the homesteads with the beauty of their songs. These five have adorned our meeting with the charm of their melodies and have done well in that which they have said before those who are present; so we counsel thee to free them for the love of Allah Almighty.” ”

“ She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir Dandan pursued to King Zau al-Makan, And the youth Aziz continued to Taj al-Muluk: So I read what my cousin had written and the charge to me which was, "Preserve this cloth with the gazelles and let it not leave thee, for it was my companion when thou west absent from me and, Allah upon thee! if thou chance to fall in with her who worked these gazelles, hold aloof from her and do not let her approach thee nor marry her; and if thou happen not on her and find no way to her, look thou consort not with any of her sex. ”

“ An thou consent unto my wish thine is ours and on thee shall be whatso is on us; [426] and we will be to thee a mighty forearm against all unfriends and foes.” Quoth Ins bin Kays, “Say what thou wilt, O King, for indeed thou excellest in speech and in whatso thou sayest dost hit the mark.” So Al-Aziz said to him, “I desire that thou marry thy daughter Mariyah to my son Al-Abbas, for thou knowest what he hath of beauty and loveliness, brightness and perfect grace and his frequentation of the valiant and his constancy in the stead of cut-and-thrust.” ”

“ In this hazardous enterprise his success was beyond all expectation, for he threw Jabalah's Arabs into disorder and killed a great many, losing very few of his own men on the field, besides five prisoners, three of whom were Yezid Ebn Abu Sofian, Rafi Ebn Omeira, and Derar Ebn Al Alzwar, all men of great note. Abu Obeidah sent Abdallah Ebn Kort with an express to Omar, acquainting him with their circumstances, begging his prayers and some fresh recruits of Unitarians, a title they glory in, as reckoning themselves the only asserters of the unity of the Deity. ”

“ Thus were ʿAmr's possessions confiscated by ʿUmar.
Al-Madâʾini from ʿÎsa ibn-Yazîd:—When Muḥammad ibn-Maslamah divided with ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi his possessions, ʿAmr made this remark, "An age in which the son of Ḥantamah [26] treats us in this manner is certainly an evil age. ”

“ According to some, ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi left for Egypt and appointed his son ʿAbdallâh to succeed him. The truth in all that, on which scholars agree, is that the first to lay siege to the city was ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi who made his descent on it in Jumâda I, year 13. ʿAmr would camp around it as long as he could, and whenever the Moslem forces wanted to combine against their enemy, he would go to them. ”

“ Covered with wounds and left for dead under a heap of dying followers Omar and two others had alone survived, and with death in his heart the young man had lived only for the hour when he might avenge his honour. Animated by the one fierce desire that sustained him he had struggled back to life to superintend the preparations for retaliation that should be both decisive and final. To old injuries had been added this crowning insult, and the tribe of Mukair Ibn Zarrarah, roused to the highest pitch of fury, were resolved to a man to exterminate or be exterminated. ”

“ Omar the second khalif, Sotian Souri, Ibn Shobormah, Atá and Amar-bin-Dinar. All these early legists held that the fighting was not religiously incumbent (wájib) , and that it was only a voluntary act, and that only those were to be fought against who attacked the Moslems. ”

“ There they pitched the tents, till the lowland was straitened with them, and set up for the king a pavilion of green brocade, purfled with pearls and precious stones. When Al-Aziz had sat awhile, he summoned the Mamelukes of his son Al-Abbas, and they were five-and-twenty in number besides ten slave-girls, as they were moons, five of whom the king had brought with him and other five he had left with the prince's mother. ”

“ Then the King sent out black slaves, dressed in purple and silver, and commanded them to summon to his presence his thirty vezirs and his ninety sons; and when they had all assembled in the golden hall of state, he spoke to them, saying:
"My youngest son, Aziz-Ullah, shall be ruler in my stead, for he has shown himself to be as wise as Haroun-el-Rashid. Nay, he is as wise as Omar, the great Caliph, on whom be peace ”

“ Do you not pervert the holy Koran for your purposes? Do you not take bribes to rob God's children, the widow and orphan? and are you not now here to shed innocent blood? But your victim is safe, and we have taught you the difference between Moorish law and Arab justice. I will not have your blood on my hands, when your grey beard will so soon be burning in Djehennem. You will presently be free. Show mercy, as you have received it. And tell your Sultan we laugh at his beard."
"O Sheik!" said Abd el Aziz, "the black horse has won the race." ”

“ In September Abd-el-Aziz arrived at Rabat from Fez and endeavoured to secure the support of the European powers against his brother. From France he accepted the grand cordon of the Legion of Honour, and was later enabled to negotiate a loan. His leaning to Christians aroused further opposition to his rule, and in January 1908 he was declared deposed by the ulema of Fez, who offered the throne to Hafid. After months of inactivity Abd-el-Aziz made an effort to restore his authority, and quitting Rabat in July he marched on Marrakesh. ”

“ It was the same furious fanaticism and one-idea’d intolerance which made Caliph Omar destroy all he could find of the Alexandrian Library and prescribe burning for the Holy Books of the Persian Guebres. And the taint still lingers in Al-Islam: it will be said of a pious man, “He always studies the Koran, the Traditions and other books of Law and Religion; and he never reads poems nor listens to music or to stories.” ”

“ At that time (A.D. 633) many of the most devoted Moslems fell, the very men who knew most Koran pieces by heart. Omar then began to fear that the Koran might be entirely forgotten, and he induced the Caliph Abū Bekr to undertake the collection of all its parts. The Caliph laid the duty on Zaid ibn Thābit, a native of Medina, Zaid’s First Koran. then about twenty-two years of age, who had often acted as amanuensis to the Prophet, in whose service he is even said to have learned the Jewish letters. ”