The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall/Chapter 53

by William Muir

CHAPTER LIII

ʿOMAR II

99–101 A.H. 717–720 A.D.

ʿOmar II.,
ii. 99 A.H.
Sept., 717 A.D.If Suleimān differed from Al-Welīd, ʿOmar differed incomparably more, not only from both, but also from all other Caliphs both before and after him. An unaffected piety, tinged albeit with bigotry, led to uprightness, moderation, simplicity of life, and to a rule that was eminently just and peaceful. On assuming the Caliphate, the royal grooms brought before him the prancing steeds of the court stables to choose from; but he preferred his own modest equipage. He bade his wife surrender to the treasury the costly jewels given her by her father, ʿAbd al-Melik, else he could no longer live with her; and she obeyed. On ʿOmar's death, her brother Yezīd succeeding to the throne, offered to restore them, but she, mindful of her husband's wish, declined. Calling his other wives and slave-girls to him, ʿOmar told them, that as now he had to bear the weight of empire, they must no longer expect from him the same attention and benevolence as before, but it was open to them to leave: they wept, and all declared that they would not be parted from him. In his first oration he invited only those to join his company who would help in doing that which was just and right. Poets, orators, and such like soon found that his court was no place for them, while it was thronged by godly and devout divines. His pious scruples led him sometimes into acts of questionable expediency. The demesnes at Fadak, reserved by the Prophet for public charity,^[1] but some time back wrongfully appropriated by Merwān for the expenses of the court, were now, against the ruling of Abu Bekr, handed over to the family of ʿAlī; their properties in Mecca were restored to the family of Talḥa; and these, with other resumptions of the kind, created ill-feeling in the royal house.Pious and bigoted, but just. His devotion to Islām prejudiced him against the employment of Jews and Christians: and in a rescript addressed to his lieutenants he bade them exalt the true faith, abase all others, and appoint none but Muslims to offices of trust—quoting verses of the Ḳorʾān in support of his command.^[2] The Mawāli, or new converts, of Khorāsān, who took part in the wars, were put on a level with the Muḳātila, or fighting Arabs—that is, they were exempt from taxes and received pensions. He restored to the children also of the Muḳātila the pensions which had been curtailed by Muʿāwiya and withheld by ʿAbd al-Melik. The tithes of the province of ʿOmān were returned to that province for distribution amongst its poor. He was also hard and unpitiful in exacting from those of other creeds the severest burdens it was lawful to impose. But whatever the bigotry or even fanaticism of his rule, and however much he may have sought to proselytise by favouring the religion of Islām, his justice in administering the law according to its dictates, was surpassed by none. When appealed to by the Christians of Damascus to give them back the Church of St John turned by Al-Welīd into the city Mosque—though unable to concede their request, he allowed them to retain the Church of St Thomas, which was not theirs by right. The people of Nejrān, who had, by a breach of faith, been transplanted by ʿOmar I. to near Al-Kūfa, and on whom Moḥammad had laid a tribute of 2000 pieces of cloth (80,000 dirhems), had decreased in numbers by war and conversions. ʿOthmān had granted them a rebate of 200 pieces, and Muʿāwiya of a further 200, Both these were re-imposed by Al-Ḥajjāj. By the time of ʿOmar II., their numbers had fallen from 40,000 to 4000, ʿOmar II. therefore reduced the tribute from 2000 pieces of cloth to 200.

Discontinues imprecation on ʿAlī.Hitherto in the public prayers on Friday throughout the Empire, a petition cursing ʿAlī had been in use. The later historians say this was now withdrawn. A sense of duty may have led to this action, justified by a passage in the Ḳorʾān, which enjoins justice and kindness towards relatives.^[3] When a schoolboy at Medīna, the practice had been denounced to him by a holy man, whose teaching he adopted, and never departed from. ʿOmar had urged his father to discontinue it when Governor of Egypt; but he replied that the cessation, however otherwise right and proper, would damage the Umeiyad reign, and favour transfer of the Caliphate to the house of ʿAlī. The imprecation was resumed after ʿOmar's death. But its temporary abolition, whilst conciliating the feelings of the adherents of the house of ʿAlī towards ʿOmar himself, did no doubt stimulate the movement now taking shape against the ruling dynasty.

The Khawārij.It says much for ʿOmar’s government that the Khawārij under his Caliphate did not unsheathe the sword. Sending for their leaders to argue their grievances and traitorous tenets with them, he heard their scruples patiently and answered them as far as he could. What troubled him most was their plea that, though he himself was orthodox and saintly, yet the godless Yezīd would succeed him. ʿOmar could only answer that with succession to the throne he could not interfere, as it had been so provided by the same authority from which his own title was derived. The faction was stimulated by ʿOmar's concessions to their prejudices; and equally so were the Umeiyad family troubled at his attitude, as dangerous to their dynasty.^[4]

Efforts at conversion in Africa and Spain.There is not much to record of adventure, military or administrative, in the reign of ʿOmar. His first concern was to bring safely back what remained of the armament so bootlessly launched by his predecessors against Constantinople. Large supplies of food and carriage were sent to Maslama, and the withdrawal was thus successfully carried out. Elsewhere the efforts of ʿOmar were mainly marked by endeavours to convert the nations to Islām. Among the Berbers these were most successful. But in Spain the task was not so easy; and therefore, to reduce ‘the influence of the Christians, their lands were divided amongst the conquerors. A royal Mosque was also founded, in this reign, at Saragossa. To promote conversion in the East, ʿOmar addressed a rescript to the kings of Sind, inviting them to embrace Islām, with the promise of thereby enjoying all the privileges and immunities of the Arab race. This they did, and obtained Arabian names, but again, in the reign of Hishām, apostatised.

ʿOmar II. appointed his governors, not for the party to which they belonged, but for their honesty and trustworthiness. His governors in Al-Baṣra, ʿAdī ibn Arṭāt, and in Mesopotamia, ʿOmar ibn Hubeira, both of Fezāra, were of Ḳeis; whilst his governor in Spain was a Yemeni, Samḥ ibn Mālik, and in India a brother of Ḳoteiba. He considered the Ḳāḍi or judge a more important official than the governor. His Ḳāḍi in Al-Baṣra was the famous Al-Ḥasan. Unlike his predecessors he did not leave his governors a free hand so long as the taxes came in regularly, but considered himself as responsible for them.

Fall of Yezīd,
99 A.H.One instance of this conscientiousness was the arraignment of Yezīd, son of Al-Muhallab, Even Suleimān is said to have become dissatisfied with his favourite; and ʿOmar, regarding him now as a tyrant, summoned him to give an account of his stewardship in Khorāsān. Yezīd no sooner set foot in Al-ʿIrāḳ than he was put in chains, and so conducted to Damascus. ʿOmar held him to the letter of his reported victories and prize in Central Asia. In vain Yezīd protested that the report was made to magnify the achievement in the people's eyes, and that he had never thought of being called to account for the exact amount which he had named. ʿOmar would none of the excuse; Yezīd must produce a reckoning of the whole, and make good what was due. Finally, he was banished in coarse prison dress to an island in the Red Sea. But warned of his dangerous aims even in that isolated place, the Caliph removed him to Aleppo, where he was kept in strict confinement. His son, whom he had left to take his place at Merv, came to intercede for him, but in vain; and dying shortly after, ʿOmar performed the funeral service over him, saying that he was a better man than his father. Yezīd had fancied ʿOmar to be but a sanctimonious hypocrite; he now found him terribly in earnest; but he had reason to fear his successor even more. On hearing that ʿOmar had sickened, he bribed the guard, and effected his escape to Al-Baṣra, where he raised a dangerous rebellion, as we shall in the sequel see.

Religious policy in Khorāsān.The policy pursued in Khorāsān and Central Asia after the recall of Yezīd is another evidence that the Caliph was more intent on the spread of the Faith than on temporal aggrandisement. There were loud cries of harshness and exaction from the professed converts of Khorāsān. ʿOmar sent for a deputation of these to represent their grievances, and finding their complaint well-founded, deposed Al-Jarrāḥ the viceroy, and insisted that all who said the creed, and joined in the religious services, should be exempt from burdens, and placed on the same footing as themselves. To consolidate his rule, he stayed the sword against outlying countries, and called in the garrisons and columns that had been settled in those heathen parts. Throughout all the provinces retained, the people, finding now the comfort and advantages of conversion, began to flock in multitudes to the Faith. At first they were tested by their willingness to be circumcised; but ʿOmar hearing of it, forbade a test nowhere enjoined in the Ḳorʾān; "for Moḥammad," said he, "was sent to call men to the faith, not to circumcise them." To the warning of an Egyptian official that the number of conversions was seriously affecting the revenue, he replied that "God sent His Prophet as a missionary, not a tax-gatherer." At the same time burdens on unbelievers were imposed, as elsewhere, to the utmost, but justice towards them must also be observed. No churches, synagogues, or fire-temples were to be destroyed: but the erection of new ones was forbidden. The policy of ʿOmar was thus to fill Khorāsān and the adjoining districts with a population of contented believers; to consolidate the Faith and cast the sword aside. And in this policy so far as his short and transient reign allowed, he was successful.

The revenues.In spite of his reply to the Egyptian official, ʿOmar had to take steps to put a stop to the falling off in the land-tax due to the migration of the peasantry into the towns. His measures were wiser and less violent than those of Al-Ḥajjāj. After consulting the lawyers of Medīna, he apparently forbade the sale of taxable land by non-Muslims to Muslims (who paid no tax) after the year 100 A.H. This measure held good under the next two Caliphs and then became a dead letter, and at a later period a third expedient was adopted, which still holds good. A difference was declared between Kharāj and Jizya. The former was said by a legal fiction to be paid by the land, and so both Muslims and non-Muslims were liable for it; but the latter was a poll-tax payable only by non-Muslims in return for the protection afforded them by the Muslims. Thus the Muslims were made to contribute to the revenue, and the State did not suffer loss.

Death of a pious son.A son of seventeen died before him. Some touching passages are related of ʿOmar's conversation with this youth, who was like-minded with him in high religious aspiration. He urged his father to enforce reform and bring back society to the primitive practice of what was right. ʿOmar replied that he had done what he could by gentle means, but if Muslim rule were to be regenerated as his son desired, it must be accomplished by force; and "there is no good," said he, "in that reform which can be enforced by the sword alone."

Attractive character.Though devoid of stirring events, there is much that is attractive in the reign of ʿOmar. It is a relief, amidst bloodshed, intrigue, and treachery, to find a Caliph devoted to what he believed the highest good both for himself and for his people. The saint might be morbid, over-scrupulous, and bigoted; but there are few, if any, throughout this history whose life leaves a more pleasing impression on the reader's mind than that of ʿOmar.

Death of ʿOmar II.,
Rajab, 101 A.H.
Feb., 720 A.D.It was the middle of 101 A.H., after a reign of two vears and a half, that ʿOmar sickened. In a few weeks he died, at the age of thirty-nine, and was buried at Dair Simʿān, in the province of Ḥimṣ.^[5] He was succeeded, according to his brother Suleimān's last will, by his cousin Yezīd, son of ʿAbd al-Melik, and of ʿĀtika, daughter of Yezīd I.

1. Life of Moḥammad, pp. 503, 536.
2. Sūras iii. 114, and v. 54.
3. Sūra xvi. 92.
4. It is even asserted that they set one to poison his drink, and that of this he died. But this is not consistent with other traditions, and looks like a fabrication of the ʿAbbāsid enemies of the Umeiyad line.
5. His tomb was not desecrated by the ʿAbbāsids like those of the other Umeiyad Caliphs. Masʿūdi, v. 416.—Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, pp. 432 f., 497.