Caliph Omar the Great & his Reforms

By Aatef Khan

Excerpts from my book “Religions of Politics”.

Omar was a native of Meccah, a camel herd originally. [1] During his ten-year reign, the Islamic state transformed from an Arabian principality to world power.

Historians tell us during Omar's regime, Muslims conquered thirty-six thousand cities, towns, and castles, and erected' fourteen hundred mosques. [2] But, the Caliph of the wealthiest state had neither any palace nor any court. He offered the prayers in the mosque and spent the remaining day in the streets and squares. It was on the roads and markets, where he met the ambassadors of the most powerful contemporary princes.

Omar had a simple mud hut without doors. In the latter days of his rule, the great Caliph started sleeping on the steps of the mosque at night.

The food of the powerful Muslim Caliph was usually coarse barley bread seasoned with salt, and on days of abstinence it was only bread soaked in water and he liked to share his meal with all present around.[3]

He wore simple clothes, no better than any of his humble subjects. Once when someone pointed out he responded angrily, “I would rather please the Lord by my conduct, than men by my dress”.

Once, his generals presented him with an unrivalled piece of tapestry, worked with gold and precious stones. Omar cut that elaborate piece of workmanship into pieces and distributed it among his soldiers.

But the splendour of his public works was a strange contrast to the simplicity of his private life. [4]

Omar modernized the cities of Old Cairo, Cufa, and Bassora, which rapidly grew to greatness.[5]

When Basra was being established, Omar started building a nine-mile canal from the Tigris to the new city for irrigation and drinking water.

Suez Canal was also conceived in his era but could not be completed. The dome of the rock in Jerusalem was first erected on his orders. He enlarged and beautified Mohammad's mosque, Madinah. He built a marvellous political structure to hold together the expanding empire.

He 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 held a census of all the Muslim territories.

Omar was the first to establish a foreign office, by keeping a record system of correspondence between Governors and heads of state.

He was the first to appoint police forces to keep civil order.

Omar organized Bait-ul-mal, to help Muslim and non-Muslim poor, needy, elderly, orphans, widows, and the disabled.

The successor governments of Umayyad and Abbasid continued the Bait-ul-mal.

Omar also introduced a child benefit and pensions for the children and the elderly.

Omar adopted a policy of giving barren lands to those who undertook to cultivate them. This policy continued during the Umayyad period and resulted in the cultivation of large areas of barren lands.

It was Omar, who first introduced the custom of dating from migration.

Earlier, Arab chronology dated from the last significant event, like a war, a famine, or a plague, causing great confusion.

He established a police force in Mecca and Madinah.

Omar was the first to establish a department for the investigation of complaints against the state officers. He led the legal proceedings personally. Omar started an intelligence service to hold his staff accountable.

Caliph and his governors worked all hours and never had doorkeepers. Omar had ordered his staff to not put off today’s work until tomorrow, lest work accumulate and you achieve nothing.[6]

After converting to Islam, Omar became polite, but he was still strict in administration. He often carried a cane and used it against officers even of the highest rank, whom he found guilty. Among his staff, it was famous that Omar’s cane is more terrible than the sword of the bravest warrior.

Omar was strict with his staff but with his subjects, he was the most kind, irrespective of their religion.

Once he saw a blind beggar. Omar struck his arm and asked harshly about his religion.

I am a Jew, the old man cried. What has made you beg, Omar shouted. “I am begging to pay for Jizyah and my need,” the old man replied. Omar took him to his house and gave him money. Then he sent him to the Muslim treasurer (Bait-ul-Mal), directing him to take care of the old man and others like him. “We have not done justice to this man. When he was young, we took Jizyah from him but we forsook him when he became old. Verily, the Sadaqa is for the poor and this one is destitute from the People of the Book,” Omar told the administration and exempted taking the Jizyah from him and people like him. [7]

After the conquest of Jerusalem, Omar assigned payments to the Muslims and established the military registers.?He established a fund to provide the salary of the army and started a reward system for those who had distinguished themselves in the propagation of Islam.

He determined the payments according to seniority in Islam. Many noble late converts received very little.[8] Prophet’s wife Aishah headed the list with 12,000 dirhams a year. The emigrants and supporters were given an average of 5000 dirhams. The minimum for an ordinary warrior was fixed at 500-600 dirhams.

Even women children and clients (non-muslims) were included in the register and were allotted an annual stipend between 200-600 dirhams.[9]

Omar was a very practical man. He had a strong appreciation for trade. He always advised his people to engage in trade and lead a respectable life.

“No one of you should refrain from earning a living and say, ‘O’ Allah grant me provision,’ when he knows that the sky will not rain down gold or silver and that Allah grants provision to people by one another. Then he would recite the verse.

“After Jumah prayers, you may disperse through the land and seek the Bounty of Allah (by working) and remember Allah much, that you may be successful”.

Once he entered a market and saw no Muslim trader. He called people and asked why they abandoned the market.

When people replied they don’t require to work, as they were wealthy because of conquests, Omar became unhappy.

“By Allah, if you carry on like that, your men will need their men and your woman will need their woman”.

He always urged people to work hard and encouraged them to learn a profession.

He always said earning through menial work is better than begging from people.

The great Caliph, however, advised his people if they fail in any specific trade or profession, they should move on to something else.

Omar regulated markets and prohibited hoarding. One day he saw a man mixing water in the milk before selling it. Omar wasted it. Omar encouraged non-Muslim traders as well, by declaring them guests of Omar. Omar’s all decisions were public-oriented. He started the night patrol. One night he was on patrol when heard a woman in great distress.

This night is too long and I cannot sleep, for I have no one to sleep with, she cried. Feeling her pain, Omar sent her some clothes and money and wrote a letter to her husband to come home.

According to another report, he went to her daughter and asked how long can a woman live without her husband.

His daughter replied a woman can wait for a month or two but after four months she will lose her patience. On her advice, Omar ordered not to keep away soldiers for over four months. It was his strictness that despite the unprecedented success and victories, his army remained humble to the inhabitants.

Omar had a strong desire to die in the path of God. “There is no situation, in which I would like to die, apart from Jihad and sake of Allah, more than if death were to come to me when I was riding my camels (for trade), seeking provision by the bounty of Allah’s bounty”, he would often say.

In a spotless career of ten years, Caliph Omar is criticized for two unpopular decisions. One was the removal of elite commander Khalid Bin Walid from his services at the peak of his military career. Historians discuss many reasons behind the removal.

Omar may have erred in his decision, but seeing the selfless picture historians portray, it is hard to imagine Omar removed Walid because of any personal reason.

The allegation of burning the entire library of Alexandria is the second criticism often found in western books. Scholars tell us Omar ordered the burning of a rare book collection.

“The incredible volumes of historical work were distributed to the four thousand baths of the city, where they were burnt for six months as fuel, a great irreparable shipwreck of the learning, the arts, and the genius of antiquity”. But the modern historians deny the existence of any such library.[10] Scholars believe Julius Caesar burnt the great Ptolemaic Library in 48 B.C.

Later, Emperor Theodosius destroyed another library, referred to as the Daughter Library, in about A.D. 389. Experts believe there was no library of importance that existed at the time of the Arab conquest of Alexandria.

?“The story of feeding the many bath furnaces of the city, with the volumes of the Alexandrian library, for six months, on orders of Caliph Omar, is one of those tales that make good fiction but terrible history”.

Historians believe there were many reasons for the Islamic conquests but the qualities of leadership and the brilliance of Omar played a major role. Omar’s qualities were rarely repeated in any era.[11]

[1](The Historians History of the World: Parthians, Sassanids, and Arabs 150)

[2](The Historians History of the World: Parthians, Sassanids, and Arabs 151)

[3](The Historians History of the World: Parthians, Sassanids, and Arabs 167)

[4](The Historians History of the World: Parthians, Sassanids, and Arabs 167)

[5](The Historians History of the World: Parthians, Sassanids, and Arabs 167)

[6](D. A. as-Sallabi 79)

[7](Umar Ibn al-Khattab, his Life and Times Volume 1 205)

[8](Friedmann 199-200)

[9](Hitti, History of The Arabs 172)

[10](Hitti, History of The Arabs 166)

[11](Umar Ibn al-Khattab, his Life and Times 417)