Biography of Umar ibn al-Khattab

The sira of Umar al-Faruq, may Allah be pleased with him :

Umar ibn al-Khattab ibn Nufayl ibn Abd al-Uzza ibn Riyah ibn Qurt ibn Razah ibn Adi ibn Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy, Commander of the Believers, Abu Hafs al-Qurashi al-Adawi, al-Faruq, may Allah be pleased with him.

He was slain in martyrdom at the end of Dhu al-Hijja of the year twenty-three. His mother was Hantama bint Hisham al-Makhzumiyya, sister of Abu Jahl. He embraced Islam in the sixth year of the prophethood, and he was twenty-seven years old.

Those who narrated from him : Ali, Ibn Mas'ud, Ibn Abbas, Abu Hurayrah, several Companions, Alqama ibn Waqqas, Qays ibn Abi Hazim, Tariq ibn Shihab, his client Aslam, Zarr ibn Hubaych, and others than they.

The physical description of Umar

Abdallah ibn Umar reported : my father was white, his color heightened with redness, tall, bald, white-haired.

Another said : he was ruddy, tall, bald, brown-skinned, using either hand.

Abu Raja al-Atardi said : he was tall and burly, very bald, very ruddy ; he had at his temples a lightness, and his staff was great, with an iron tip at its end : when a matter preoccupied him, he caressed it.

Samak ibn Harb said : Umar was quick of gait, as if riding while the people walked, as if he were one of the riders of the Banu Sadus ; the quick of gait is he whose feet skim the ground when he walks.

Anas said : he dyed himself with henna.

Samak said : Umar was swift in his walking.

It is reported from Abdallah ibn Ka'b ibn Malik : Umar would take with his right hand his left ear, and stand straight upon his mount, as if he had been created upon its back.

Ibn Umar and others, by sound paths, reported that the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "O Allah, honor Islam through Umar ibn al-Khattab." His Islam has already been mentioned in "the prophetic tarjama".

The Islam of Umar ibn al-Khattab

Ikrima said : Islam remained concealed until Umar embraced Islam.

Sa'id ibn Jubayr said : {and the righteous of the believers} (Surah at-Tahrim, verse 4) was revealed concerning Umar specially.

Ibn Mas'ud said : we ceased not being honored since Umar embraced Islam.

Chahr ibn Hawshab reported, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ghanm, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said to Abu Bakr and Umar : "The people will grow more ardent for Islam at seeing you wear a fine adornment of the world." He said : "I shall do it ; by Allah, were you two to agree with me upon one single matter, I would never disobey you in consultation."

Al-Layth ibn Abi Sulaym reported, from Mujahid, from Ibn Abbas : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "I have two vizirs among the people of heaven and two vizirs among the people of earth : my vizirs among the people of heaven are Jibril and Mikail, and my vizirs among the people of earth are Abu Bakr and Umar." The like is reported by two paths from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri.

At-Tirmidhi said, concerning the hadith of Abu Sa'id : a hasan hadith.

I say : likewise the hadith of Ibn Abbas is hasan.

Muhammad ibn Thabit al-Bunani reported, from his father, from Anas, the like of it.

In "the Musnad of Abu Yala", from the hadith of Abu Dhar, raising it to the Prophet : "Every prophet has two vizirs, and my two vizirs are Abu Bakr and Umar."

Abu Salama reported, from Abu Arwa ad-Dawsi, who said : I was with the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, when Abu Bakr and Umar appeared, and he said : "Praise be to Allah who strengthened me by you two." Asim ibn Umar reported it alone ; he is weak.

It has passed already in the tarjama of as-Siddiq that the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, looked at Abu Bakr and Umar advancing and said : "These are two venerable lords, among the first of the people of Paradise." Continuation of the hadith.

At-Tirmidhi reported, from the hadith of Ibn Umar, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, went out one day, entered the mosque, Abu Bakr and Umar with him, holding their two hands, and said : "Thus shall we be raised on the Day of Judgment." Its chain is weak.

Za'ida reported, from Abd al-Malik ibn Umayr, from Rub'i, from Hudhayfa : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Take for models those after me : Abu Bakr and Umar."

Salim Abu al-Ala, who is a weak narrator, reported it, from Amr ibn Harm, from Rub'i. The hadith of Za'ida is hasan. Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Muttalib ibn Hantab reported, from his father, from his grandfather : I was sitting with the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, when Abu Bakr and Umar appeared, and he said : "These are the hearing and the sight." The like is reported from the hadith of Ibn Umar and others.

Yaqub al-Qumi reported, from Ja'far ibn Abi al-Mughira, from Sa'id ibn Jubayr : Jibril came to the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and said : "Convey to Umar the salam, and inform him that his anger is might and his contentment judgment." The relay report is sounder, and some connect it to Ibn Abbas.

Muhammad ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas reported, from his father, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Woe to you, O son of al-Khattab ! By Him in whose hand my soul is, never has the devil met you following a road but he followed a road other than yours."

Aisha reported that the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "The devil flees before Umar." Mubarak ibn Fadala reported it, from Ubaydallah ibn Umar, from al-Qasim, from Aisha.

She reported that the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said, at the migration to Abyssinia, when Umar arrived : "I behold devils of the jinn and of men fleeing before Umar." At-Tirmidhi authenticated it.

Husayn ibn Waqid said : Abdallah ibn Burayda told me, from his father : his mother Sawda came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, returned from an expedition, and said : "I vowed that, if Allah returned you safe, I would beat the tambourine before you." He said : "If you have vowed, then do it." She beat the tambourine ; Abu Bakr entered while she beat it ; then Umar entered, and she set her tambourine behind her, seated as she was. The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "The devil flees before you, O Umar."

Yahya ibn Yaman reported, from ath-Thawri, from Umar ibn Muhammad, from Salim ibn Abdallah : the news of Umar was slow in reaching Abu Musa al-Ash'ari ; he came to a woman in whose belly was a devil and questioned her concerning him. She said : "Wait till my devil comes." He came, she questioned him, and he said : "I left him adorning himself : he is a man whom no devil sees but he becomes jealous, snorting ; kingship is between his two eyes, and the Holy Spirit speaks by his tongue."

Zarr said : Ibn Mas'ud would deliver a sermon, saying : "I deem that the devil flees before Umar fearing to relate to him an account that he rejects ; and I deem that between his two eyes stands an angel confirming his word and establishing it."

Aisha said : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "There were in the nations men given inspiration ; if there be one in my community, it is Umar ibn al-Khattab." Muslim reported it.

Ibn Umar reported : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Allah has set the truth upon the tongue of Umar and in his heart."

A group reported it from Nafi, from him. The like is reported

from a group of the Companions.

Ash-Sha'bi said : Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, said : "We judged it not far that the stillness should speak upon the tongue of Umar."

Anas said : Umar said : "My Lord granted me in three things : at the standing-place of Ibrahim, concerning the veil, and at His word : {Perchance his Lord, if he divorce you, will give him in exchange wives better than you} (Surah at-Tahrim, verse 5)."

Haywa ibn Charih reported, from Bakr ibn Amr, from Machrah, from Uqba ibn Amir : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Were there a prophet after me, it would be Umar."

There came, by two distinct paths, from Ibn Jurayj, from Ata, from Ibn Abbas : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Allah gloried in the people of Arafat in general, and in Umar in particular."

The like is reported from Ibn Umar and Uqba ibn Amir.

Mu'in al-Qazzaz said : al-Harith ibn Abd al-Malik al-Laythi told us, from al-Qasim ibn Yazid ibn Abdallah ibn Qusayt, from his father, from Ata, from Ibn Abbas, from his brother al-Fadl, who said : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "After me, the truth is with Umar, wherever he is."

Ibn Umar said : I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say : "While I slept, there was brought me

a cup of milk : I drank until I saw the moisture running in my nails ; then I gave my remainder to Umar." They said : "What have you interpreted it as ?" He said : "Knowledge."

Abu Sa'id said : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "While I slept, I saw the people presented to me, wearing shirts : some reaching the breast, some shorter ; and Umar passed, clad in a shirt he trailed."

They said : "What have you interpreted it as, O Messenger of Allah ?" He said : "The religion."

Anas said : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "The most compassionate of my community is Abu Bakr, and the firmest of it in the religion of Allah is Umar."

Anas said : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "I entered Paradise and saw a palace of gold ; I said : whose is this ? It was said : for a young man of Quraysh. I thought it was I ; it was said : for Umar ibn al-Khattab."

In the Sahih likewise, from the hadith of Jabir.

Abu Hurayrah reported, from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : "While I slept, I saw myself in Paradise ; and behold a woman making her ablutions

beside a palace. I said : whose is this palace ? They said : Umar's. I recalled the jealousy of Umar and turned away."

He said : Umar wept and said : "May my father and mother be your ransom, O Messenger of Allah : should I be jealous of you ?"

Ash-Sha'bi and others reported that Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, said : "I was with the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, when Abu Bakr and Umar appeared, and he said : these are two venerable lords, among the first of the people of Paradise, of the first and the last, save the prophets and the messengers : tell them not, O Ali."

Ash-Sha'bi heard this hadith from al-Harith one-eyed ; it has fine paths from Ali, among them : Asim, from Zarr ; and Abu Ishaq, from Asim ibn Damra. The hafiz Ibn Asakir said : the hadith is well-preserved from Ali, may Allah be pleased with him.

I say : the like is reported from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, Ibn Umar, Anas and Jabir.

Mujalid reported, from Abu al-Wadak, and a group reported it from Atiyya, both from Abu Sa'id, from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : "The people of the highest degrees shall see those above them as you see the bright star at the horizon of the sky ; and Abu Bakr and Umar are of them, and of the most favored."

Isma'il ibn Umayya reported, from Nafi, from Ibn Umar, that the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, entered the mosque, Abu

Bakr at his right and Umar at his left, and said : "Thus shall we be raised on the Day of Judgment." Sa'id ibn Maslama al-Umawi reported it alone ; he is weak, from Isma'il.

Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, said at Kufa, upon its pulpit, before an assembly of the people, during his caliphate : "The best of this community after its prophet is Abu Bakr ; the best after Abu Bakr is Umar ; and were I to name the third, I would name him."

This is mutawatir from Ali,

may Allah be pleased with him : may Allah disgrace the Rafidites.

Ath-Thawri reported, from Abu Hashim al-Qasim ibn Kathir, from Qays al-Kharfi, who said : I heard Ali say : "The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, led ; Abu Bakr prayed ; the third part of Umar ; then the fitna struck us, and there was what Allah willed."

Sharik reported it, from al-Aswad ibn Qays, from Amr ibn Sufyan, from Ali, the like of it.

Ibn Uyayna reported, from Za'ida, from Abd al-Malik ibn Umayra, from Rub'i, from Hudhayfa : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Take for models those after me : Abu Bakr and Umar."

Sufyan ibn Husayn al-Wasiti reported it likewise from Abd al-Malik. Sufyan sometimes practiced tadlis, dropping Za'ida from it. Sufyan ath-Thawri reported it, from Abd al-Malik, from Hilal, client of Rub'i, from Rub'i.

Aisha said : Abu Bakr said : "There is not upon the earth a man dearer to me than Umar."

Aisha said : people entered upon Abu Bakr in his illness and said : "You are content that Umar govern us, you who go to your Lord : what will you say to Him ?" He said : "I shall say : I appointed over them the best of them."

The caliphate of Umar al-Faruq

Az-Zuhri said : the first who greeted Umar with Commander of the Believers was al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba.

Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad said : Umar said : "Let him know who succeeds this matter after me, that the near and the far will desire to turn him from it : I fight the people for my own self a real fighting ; and did I know one stronger than I, it would be dearer to me to go forward and have my neck struck than to let him govern me."

Ibn Abbas reported : when Umar was invested, it was said to him : "Some of the people all but turned this matter from you." He said : "And why so ?" They said : "They claim you are harsh and hard." He said : "Praise be to Allah who filled my heart with mercy toward them, and filled their hearts with awe of me."

The asceticism and justice of Umar

Al-Ahnaf ibn Qays said : I heard Umar say : "It is not lawful for Umar of the wealth of Allah but two garments : a garment for winter and a garment for summer, and what he makes pilgrimage and umra with, and the food of his family, like a man of Quraysh, though not the richest of them ; and I am a man among the Muslims."

Urwa said : Umar made the pilgrimage with the people all the time of his command.

Ibn Umar said : I never saw, after the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, since he was taken, anyone more noble nor more generous than Umar.

Az-Zuhri said : Allah opened to Umar all Syria, the Jazira, Egypt, and all Iraq ; he instituted the pension registers a year before dying, and divided among the people their spoils.

Asim ibn Abi an-Najud reported, from a man of the Ansar, from Khuzayma ibn Thabit : when Umar appointed a governor, he would write to him and bind him by condition to ride no saddle-horse, eat no clarified butter, wear no fine garment, shut not his door against those in need ; did he otherwise, the legal penalty would become lawful upon him.

Tariq ibn Shihab said : a man would relate a hadith to Umar and lie to him : he would say : "Detain this one" ; then he would relate him a hadith, and he would say : "Detain this one" ; then he would say to him : all you related me is true, save what I ordered you detained.

Ibn Mas'ud said : when the righteous are mentioned, begin with Umar : Umar was the most knowing of us in the Book of Allah and the most deeply versed of us in the religion of Allah.

Ibn Mas'ud said : were the knowledge of Umar set in one scale, and the knowledge of the living of the earth in the other, the knowledge of Umar would outweigh theirs.

Chamir reported, from Hudhayfa, who said : the knowledge of the people was as if hidden in a burrow, with Umar.

Ibn Umar said : Umar learned Surah al-Baqara in twelve years ; when he had learned it, he slaughtered a she-camel in thanksgiving.

Al-Awwam ibn Hawshab said : Mu'awiya said : "As for Abu Bakr, he coveted not the world, nor did it covet him ; as for Umar, the world coveted him and he coveted it not ; as for us, we wallowed in it, back and belly."

Ikrima ibn Khalid and others reported that Hafsa, Abdallah and others spoke to Umar, saying : "Did you eat good food, you would be stronger for the truth." He said : "Do you eat upon this counsel ?" They said : "Yes." He said : "I know your counsel is sincere ; but I left my companion upon his high road : did I leave his road, I would not reach him at the abode."

He says : a year of dearth struck the people, and we ate that year neither fat nor flesh.

Ibn Abi Mulayka said : Utba ibn Farqad spoke to Umar of his food, who said : "Woe to you : should I eat my delights in the life of this world and enjoy them ?"

Mubarak reported, from al-Hasan : Umar entered upon his son Asim while he ate,

he was eating meat. He said : "What is this ?" He said : "A craving brought me to it." He said : "Whenever a craving brings you to a thing, you eat it ? It suffices a man for extravagance to eat all he desires."

Abd ar-Rahman ibn Zayd ibn Aslam reported, from his father, from his grandfather : Umar said : "There came to my heart the craving for fresh fish." He says : he traveled driving his mount, walked four days going and coming, bought a dried fish and brought it to him ; he approached his mount and washed it, then came to Umar, who said : "Go : let me consider the mount." He considered it and said : "You forgot to wash that vein under its ear : here is a beast tormented for the craving of Umar. No, by Allah, Umar shall not taste your fish."

Qatada said : Umar wore, caliph as he was, a jacket of felted wool, some patches of it leather ; he would walk through the markets, his whip upon his shoulder, disciplining the people with it ; he passed by the trails and pleasant places and gathered them in the dwellings of the people that they might profit by them.

Anas said : I saw between the two shoulders of Umar four patches upon his shirt.

Abu Uthman an-Nahdi said : I saw upon Umar an izar patched with leather.

Abdallah ibn Amir ibn Rabi said : I made pilgrimage with Umar, and he pitched neither tent nor pavilion : he would cast the rug and the cloth-flap upon the tree and shade himself beneath.

Abdallah ibn Muslim ibn Harmz reported, from Abu al-Ghudiyya the Syrian, who said : Umar came to al-Jabiya upon a white camel with yellowish reins, his bald head shining in the sun ; upon him was neither hood nor turban, between two staves ; his saddle was a Najdi ram's fleece, his bed when he alighted ; his satchel was stuffed

with fiber, and that was his pillow ; he wore a shirt of qarabis, thick, its pocket torn. He said :

"Call me the chief of the village." They brought him, and he said : "Have my shirt washed and mended, and lend me a shirt." They brought a shirt of linen ; he said : "What is this ?" They said : "Linen." He said : "And what is linen ?" They informed him ; he took off his shirt : they washed it, mended it, and he wore it. The chief of the village said to him : "You are the king of the Arabs, and this is a land where camels thrive not." He brought him a saddle-horse, casting upon it a cloth of brocade, without saddle or frame. When he had ridden a little, he said : "Halt ! I thought not that folk rode the devil : bring me my camel."

Al-Muttalib ibn Ziyad reported, from Abdallah ibn Isa : there were upon the face of Umar ibn al-Khattab two black streaks, from weeping.

Al-Hasan reported : Umar would pass by the verse of his recitation and fall swooning, until he was roused from it for days.

Anas said : I went out with Umar ; he entered a garden and I heard him say, a wall between him and me : "Umar ibn al-Khattab, Commander of the Believers, fie ! By Allah, you shall fear Allah, O Banu al-Khattab, or He shall punish you."

Abdallah ibn Amir ibn Rabi said : I saw Umar take a clod of earth and say : "Would that I were this clod : would that I had been nothing, would that my mother had not borne me."

Ubaydallah ibn Umar ibn Hafs reported that Umar ibn al-Khattab carried a waterskin upon his neck ; he was blamed for it, and said : "My self flattered me : I wished to abase it."

As-Salt ibn Bahram reported, from Jumayy ibn Umayr at-Taymi, from Ibn Umar : I attended Jalula and bought of the spoils for forty thousand. When I came to Umar, he said : "What think you : were you presented to the Fire and told : ransom yourself, would you ransom yourself with it ?" I said : "By Allah, there is nothing that would hurt you but I would ransom you from it." He said : "It is as if I saw the people, at the time of pledging you allegiance, saying : Abdallah ibn Umar, companion of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him,

son of the Commander of the Believers, the dearest of men to him ; and so you are : that would be for them a cause of indulgence toward you dearer than severity ; and I am a distributor questioned upon his distribution, and I give you more than a merchant of Quraysh gains : yours is the gain of dirham upon dirham." Then he called the merchants, who bought it of him for four hundred thousand dirhams ; he paid him eighty thousand and sent the rest to Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas to divide it.

Al-Hasan said : Umar saw a slave-girl wasted and gaunt, and said : "Who is this ?" Abdallah said : "She is one of your daughters." He said : "Which of my daughters is this ?" He said : "My daughter." He said : "Do I not see in her what I see ?" He said : "Your deed : you spend not upon her." He said : "By Allah, I maintain not your children : hasten to maintain them, O man !"

Muhammad ibn Sirin said : the son-in-law of Umar came to him and asked that Umar give him from the treasury ; Umar rebuked him and said : "Would you have me meet Allah, a treacherous king ?" Afterwards he gave him ten thousand dirhams of his own wealth.

Hudhayfa said : "By Allah, I know no man whom no reproacher's reproach seizes, in Allah's cause, except Umar."

Hudhayfa said : we were sitting with Umar, who said : "Which of you retains the word of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, concerning the fitna ?"

I said : "I." He said : "You are bold !" I said : "The fitna of a man, in his family, his wealth and his children, prayer, fasting, alms, enjoining right and forbidding wrong efface." He said : "Not of that do I ask you, but of the fitna that surges like the wave of the sea." I said : "You have nothing to fear from it : between you and it is a door shut." He said : "Will it be broken, or opened ?" I said : "It will be broken." He said : "Then it will never be shut." We said to Hudhayfa : did Umar know who is the door ?"

He said : "Yes, as he knows that night precedes the morrow : I related him an account with no lie in it." Masruq questioned him : "Who is the door ?" He said : "The door : Umar." Al-Bukhari reported it.

Ibrahim ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf said : the treasures of Kisra were brought to Umar. Abdallah ibn al-Arqam said : "Will you set them in the treasury till you divide them ?" Umar said : "No, by Allah : I shall not shelter them beneath a roof before I have distributed them." He set them in the midst of the mosque, and they were guarded through the night. At morning he uncovered them : reds and whites almost gleaming ; he wept. My father said to him : "What makes you weep, O Commander of the Believers ? By Allah, this day is a day of thanksgiving and a day of joy !" He said : "Woe to you : a people to whom this was never given : enmity and hate have been cast between them."

Aslam, client of Umar, said : Umar appointed one of his clients over the pastures, who said : "O Hani, fold your wing upon the Muslims and fear the invocation of the oppressed : it is answered ; and bring in the master of the lean flock and the master of the fat flock. Beware me, and Ibn Awf, and Ibn Affan : did their flocks perish, they would return to their tillage and palms ; but did the master of the lean flock and the master of the fat flock lose their flocks, he would bring me his son and say : O Commander of the Believers ! Shall I, I, abandon my children ? Water and pasture are easier to me than gold and silver ; and, by Allah, they see I am unjust to them : it is their land ; they fought upon it in the Jahiliyya and embraced Islam upon it. By Him in whose hand my soul is, but for the wealth I load upon them in the path of Allah, I would not have guarded them a span of their lands." Al-Bukhari reported it.

Abu Hurayrah said : Umar instituted the register, assigning the first Muhajirun five thousand apiece, the Ansar four thousand apiece, the mothers of the believers twelve thousand apiece.

Ibrahim an-Nakha'i said : Umar traded, caliph as he was.

Al-A'mash reported, from Abu Salih, from Malik ad-Dar : dearth struck the people in the time of Umar. A man came to the grave of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and said : "O Messenger of Allah, ask Allah rain for your community : they perish." The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, appeared to him in a dream and said : "Go to Umar : convey him from me the salam, and inform him they shall be watered ; and say to him : be wise, be wise." The man came and informed Umar, who wept and said : "O my Lord, I neglected only what I was powerless over."

Anas said : the belly of Umar rumbled from oil eaten in the year of the Ash ; he had forbidden himself butter ; he struck his belly with his finger and said : "We have nothing else, till the people live."

Al-Waqidi said : Hisham ibn Sa'd told us, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from his father : when the year of the Ash came, the Arabs came from every side and arrived at Medina. Umar had charged men with their affairs ; I heard him say one night : "Count those who sup with us." They counted them from arrival : seven thousand men ; and they counted the sick men and the families : forty thousand ; then, days after, men and families reached sixty thousand. And they ceased not until Allah sent the sky. When it rained, I saw Umar entrust them to men who took them to the desert, giving them food and mounts to their camp. Death had come among them, and it seemed to me

a third of them died. The cauldrons of Umar were tended with wealth from dawn : they made broth and porridges.

Aslam reported : we used to say : had Allah not lifted the trial in the year of the Ash, we would have thought Umar would die.

Sufyan ath-Thawri said : whoso claims Ali was more worthy of the command than Abu Bakr and Umar has erred concerning Abu Bakr and Umar, the Muhajirun and the Ansar.

Sharik said : none prefers Ali to Abu Bakr and Umar but there is good in him.

Abu Usama said : know you who are Abu Bakr and Umar ? They are the father and mother of Islam.

Al-Hasan ibn Salih ibn Hayy said : I heard Ja'far ibn Muhammad as-Sadiq say : "I am quit of whoso mentions Abu Bakr and Umar otherwise than well."

The wives and children of Umar

Mention of his wives and children :

He married Zaynab bint Maz'un, who bore him Abdallah, Hafsa and Abd ar-Rahman.

He married Mulayka al-Khuza'iyya, who bore him Ubaydallah ; it is said his mother was Umm Zayd the younger, Umm Kulthum bint Jarwal.

He married Umm Hakim bint al-Harith ibn Hisham al-Makhzumiyya, who bore him Fatima.

He married Jumayla bint Asim ibn Thabit, who bore him Asim.

He married Umm Kulthum, daughter of Fatima az-Zahra, paying her forty thousand, and she bore him Zayd and Ruqayya.

He married Luhayya, a woman of the Banu Man, who bore him Abd ar-Rahman the younger.

He married Atika bint Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl, whom az-Zubayr married after his death.

The conquests in his time

The conquests in his time :

Al-Layth ibn Sa'd said : Umar was invested, and there was the conquest of Damascus ; then the Yarmuk in the year fifteen ; then al-Jabiya in the year sixteen ; then Iliya and Sarugh in the year seventeen ; then the Ash and the plague of Amwas in the year eighteen ; then Jalula in the year nineteen ; then the conquest of Bab Layun and Caesarea in Syria, and the death of Heraclius, in the year twenty ; in that year Egypt was opened ; in the year twenty-one Nahawand was opened ; Alexandria was opened in the year twenty-two ; in that year Istakhr and Hamadan were opened ; then Amr ibn al-As campaigned against Tripoli of the Maghrib ; there were the expedition of Amorium, commander of Egypt Wahb ibn Umayr al-Jumahi, and commander of the people of Syria Abu al-A'war, in the year twenty-three. Then Umar was slain, barring the pilgrimage, at the end of the year.

Khalifa said : the engagement of Jalula was in the year seventeen.

The martyrdom of Umar ibn al-Khattab

His martyrdom :

Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib said : when Umar departed Mina, he alighted at al-Batha, made a mound of beaten earth, lay upon it, raised his hands to the sky, then said :

"O Allah, my age has grown heavy, my strength has weakened, and my flock has spread : take me then to You, neither lost nor negligent." And Dhu al-Hijja was not finished before he was stabbed and died.

Abu Salih as-Samman said : Ka'b said to Umar : "I find you in the Torah slain a martyr." He said : "And how should I have martyrdom, being in the peninsula of the Arabs ?"

Aslam reported, from Umar, that he said : "O Allah, grant me martyrdom in Your path, and make my death in the town of Your messenger." Al-Bukhari reported it.

Mu'dan ibn Abi Talha al-Yamuri said : Umar preached on the Friday, mentioned the prophet of Allah and Abu Bakr, then said : "I saw as it were a cock pecking me once or twice ; I see it only as the coming of my term ; and folk bid me appoint a successor : but Allah would never let His religion nor His caliphate be lost. If my term hastens, the caliphate shall be consultation between these six men with whom the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, died well pleased."

Az-Zuhri said : Umar permitted not a grown captive to enter Medina. Al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, governing Kufa, wrote mentioning to him a slave he had, skilled, and asked leave to send him to Medina, saying : "He has many crafts profitable to the people : he is smith, engraver, carpenter." He permitted sending him, and al-Mughira allotted him a hundred dirhams a month. He came to Umar complaining the harshness of the land-tax. He said : "Your land-tax is not much." He went off displeased, grumbling. Umar stayed some nights, then summoned him and said : "Did I not tell you that you said : were I willing, I would make a mill that ground by the wind ?" The slave turned to Umar, frowning, and said : "I shall make you a mill men will talk of." When he withdrew, Umar said to his companions : "Did the slave just now threaten me ?" Then Abu Lulu'a seized a two-pointed dagger, planting its haft in its midst, and lay in wait in an angle of the mosque at first light.

Amr ibn Maymun al-Awdi said : Abu Lulu'a, Fayruz, son of al-Mughira, stabbed Umar with a two-pointed dagger, and struck with it twelve men, of whom six died ; a man of Iraq cast a garment over him, and, feeling himself caught, he slew himself.

Amir ibn Abdallah ibn az-Zubayr said : I came from the market and Umar was being carried ; Abu Lulu'a passed before us and looked at Umar with such a look that, had it not been for my place, he would have pounced upon him. After that, I came to the mosque at dawn : I was between sleep and waking when I heard Umar say : "The dog has slain me." The people tumulted an hour ; then it was the recitation of Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf.

Thabit al-Bunani reported, from Abu Rafi : Abu Lulu'a was a slave of al-Mughira : he made millstones, and al-Mughira drew from him daily four dirhams. He met Umar and said : "O Commander of the Believers, al-Mughira burdens me heavily : speak for me." He said : "Be good to your master." Umar having intended to speak of him to al-Mughira, he grew angry and said : "The justice of all men suffices me, save him" ; he plotted his slaying, made a dagger, whetted and poisoned it. Umar was wont to say : "Straighten your ranks," before pronouncing the takbir. The slave came, stood beside him in the rank, struck him at the shoulder and the flank ; Umar fell. He stabbed with him thirteen men, of whom six died. They carried Umar to his family : the sun was near rising. Ibn Awf prayed with the people the shortest of suras ; they brought Umar an intoxicant : he drank, and it came out of his wound, and he knew not himself ; they gave him curdled milk : it came out of his wound. They said : "No harm upon you." He said : "If there be harm in the blow, I have been slain." The people ceased not saying to him : you did, you did. He said : "By Allah, I would I had gone forth from this world with nothing for me nor against me, and that the companionship of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, had been whole for me."

Ibn Abbas praised him and said : "Had I the breadth of the earth in gold, I would ransom myself with it from the terror of the appearing. He made the matter consultation between Uthman, Ali, Talha, az-Zubayr, Abd ar-Rahman and Sa'd." He ordered Suhayb to pray with the people, and granted the six three days.

Amr ibn Maymun reports that Umar said : "Praise be to Allah who made not my death at the hand of a man claiming Islam." Then he said to Ibn Abbas : "You and your father loved that the needy should multiply in Medina." Now al-Abbas was the most tender of them.

Then he said : "O Abdallah, look what debts I have." They estimated and found eighty-six thousand, or thereabouts. He said : "If the wealth of the family of Umar suffices, pay them of their wealth ; else ask among the Banu Adi ; and if their wealth suffices not, ask among Quraysh. Go to Umm al-Muminin Aisha and say : Umar asks leave to be buried with his two companions." He went to her, and she said : "I desired that spot for myself ; but today I prefer it for him to myself."

He says : Abdallah returned and said : "She has given you leave." He praised Allah.

Then Umm al-Muminin Hafsa came, with the women covering her : when we saw her, we rose ; she stayed by him an hour, then the men asked leave and she entered ; then we heard her weeping. It was said to him : "Make your bequest, O Commander of the Believers, and appoint a successor."

He said : "I see none more worthy of this matter than these men with whom the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, died well pleased" ; and he named the six, then said : "Abdallah ibn Umar shall witness with them, but he shall have nothing of the matter," in the manner of condolence ; "if the command reach Sa'd, that is it ; else, let him of you who commands seek his aid ; for I deposed him not for incapacity nor treachery." Then he said : "I counsel the caliph after me the fear of Allah ; I counsel him the Muhajirun and the Ansar ; and I counsel him the good of the people of the provinces" : after that manner of counsel.

When he died, we went out with him walking. Abdallah ibn Umar advanced and said : "Umar asks leave." Aisha said : "Let him enter" : he entered and laid him there, with his two companions.

When they had finished burying him and returned, those notables gathered. Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf said : "Reserve your affair, save three of you." Az-Zubayr said : "I have reserved my affair to Ali." Sa'd said : "I have reserved my affair to Abd ar-Rahman." Talha said : "I have reserved my affair to Uthman." Those three withdrew. Abd ar-Rahman said : "I, I desire it not : which of you two withdraws from this matter, that we may set it upon him ? By Allah, upon him and upon Islam : we shall look to the best of them in his own person, and the most careful for the welfare of the community." Ali and Uthman, the two elders, were silent. Abd ar-Rahman said : "Commit it to me : by Allah, upon me, I shall not swerve from preferring the best of you." They said : "Yes." He took Ali aside and said : "You have, in Islam and kinship, what you know : Allah asks you : if I entrust you the matter, you shall be equitable ; and if I entrust you to another, you shall hear and obey." Then he took the other aside and said to him the like. When he had taken their covenant, he pledged Uthman allegiance, and Ali followed him.

Al-Musayyab ibn Mukhrama said : when Umar rose for the prayer of the morrow, stabbed as he was, they hastened to him and said : the prayer ! He hastened and said : "Yes ; and there is no share in Islam for whoso abandons the prayer." He prayed, his wound gushing blood.

An-Nadr ibn Chumayl said : Abu Amir al-Khazzaz told us, from Ibn Abi Mulayka, from Ibn Abbas : when Umar was stabbed, Ka'b came and said : "By Allah, were the Commander of the Believers to invoke, Allah would keep him alive and raise him for this community, until he did this and that," mentioning the hypocrites among what he mentioned. I said : "Shall I convey him what you say ?" He said : "I said it only desiring you convey it." I rose, passed beyond the people, sat at his head and said : "O Commander of the Believers." He raised his head ; I said : "Ka'b swears by Allah that, were the Commander of the Believers to invoke, Allah would keep him alive and raise him for this community."

He said : "Summon me Ka'b." They summoned him, and he said : "What say you ?" Ka'b said : "I say this and that." He said : "No, by Allah, I shall not invoke Allah : woe to Umar, did Allah forgive him not." Then Suhayb came, saying : "O son of Safiyya, O my friend, O son of Sahm !"

He said : "Stay, O Suhayb : has it not reached you that he from whom recovery is hoped is punished by some weeping of his family over him ?"

Ibn Abbas reported : Abu Lulu'a was a Magian.

Zayd ibn Aslam reported, from his father : Ibn Umar said : "O Commander of the Believers, what have you to weary yourself, then commit the people to a man ?" Umar said : "Seat me." Abdallah said : I wished between him and me the breadth of Medina, hearing him say : seat me. Then he said : "Whom are you bidden by mouth ?" I said : "So-and-so." He said : "If you commit them, he shall care for your grey hairs." Then he turned to Abdallah and said : "May your mother lose you ! See you al-Walid, growing a child with a child and aging with him : will you know him among his progeny ?" He said : "Yes, O Commander of the Believers." He said : "What shall I answer Allah should He ask me of him to whom I committed the people, and I say : so-and-so, knowing better than he what I know ! No, by Him in whose hand my soul is : I shall return it to Him who gave it me the first time, and I would that upon it were one better than I : that fails nothing of what Allah gave me."

Salim ibn Abdallah reported, from his father : Uthman entered upon Umar, and Ali, az-Zubayr, Ibn Awf and Sa'd, Talha being absent. He looked at them, then said : "I have considered for you the affair of the people and found among the people no schism, save perhaps in you. Your people, in truth, will invest none of you but three. If you hold aught of the affair of the people, O Abd ar-Rahman, never load the sons of Abi Mu'ayt upon the necks of the people ; if you hold aught of the affair of the people, O Uthman, never load your kinsmen upon the necks of the people ; if you hold aught of the affair of the people, O Ali, never load the Banu Hashim upon the necks of the people. Rise, consult, and invest one of you." They rose and consulted.

Ibn Umar said : Uthman called me once or twice to enter me into the matter, and Umar permitted me not ; and, by Allah, I would not have loved being with them, knowing of him that there would befall their affair what my father said. By Allah, never did I hear what he said about his lips but it was true. When Uthman pressed me with calling, I said : "Do you not reason ! You would be invested while the Commander of the Believers lives !" By Allah, it was as if I had wakened them. Umar said : "Give us respite : should aught befall me, let Suhayb pray with the people three days ; then gather on the third day the notables of the people and the emirs of the armies, and invest one of you ; and whoso is invested without consultation, strike his neck."

Ibn Umar said : the head of Umar was upon my thigh ; he said : "Lay my cheek upon the earth." I laid it, and he said : "Woe to me, and woe to my mother, should my Lord have not mercy on me."

Abu al-Huwayrith reported : when Umar died and was laid for the funeral prayer, Ali and Uthman advanced, each wishing to pray over him. Abd ar-Rahman said : "This one shows but greed of command : you both know this returns not to you, and other than you two was ordered. Forward, O Suhayb : pray over him." He prayed over him.

Abu Ma'shar reported, from Nafi, from Ibn Umar : Umar was laid between the grave and the pulpit. Ali came and stood between the ranks and said : "May the mercy of Allah be upon you : there is no creature dearer to me than to meet Allah with your record after the record of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, in this mosque wherein his shroud was folded." The like is reported from Ali by several paths.

Mu'dan ibn Abi Talha said : Umar was struck on Wednesday, with four nights remaining of Dhu al-Hijja ; Zayd ibn Aslam and more than one said the like.

Isma'il ibn Muhammad ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas said : he was buried on Sunday, at the start of Muharram.

Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib said : Umar died at the age of fifty-four or fifty-five : thus az-Zuhri reported from him.

Ayyub and Ubaydallah reported, from Nafi, from Ibn Umar : Umar died at the age of fifty-five. Salim ibn Abdallah, Abu al-Aswad, the orphan of Urwa, and Ibn Chihab said the like.

Abu Asim reported, from Hanthala, from Salim, from his father : I heard Umar, a year or two before dying, say : "I am fifty-seven or fifty-eight." Abu Asim alone reported it.

Al-Waqidi said : Hisham ibn Sa'd informed us, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from his father : Umar died at sixty. Al-Waqidi said : that is the firmest account ; and Malik said the like.

Qatada said : Umar was slain at the age of sixty-one.

Amir ibn Sa'd al-Bajali reported, from Jarir ibn Abdallah, that he heard Mu'awiya preach, saying : "The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, died at sixty-three, and Abu Bakr and Umar died both at sixty-three."

Yahya ibn Sa'id said : I heard Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib say : Umar died having completed sixty-three. Another saying of Ibn al-Musayyib has passed before.

Ash-Sha'bi said the word of Mu'awiya.

Most reported is the saying of Ibn Jurayj, from Abu al-Huwayrith, from Ibn Abbas : Umar died at the age of sixty-six ; Allah knows better.

The events of the caliphate of Umar al-Faruq

The year fourteen :

In it were opened Damascus, Homs, Baalbek, Basra and al-Ubulla, took place the engagement of the Bridge of Abu Ubayd in the land of the Najd, and the engagement of Fahl in Syria, according to Ibn al-Kalbi.

As for Damascus, al-Walid ibn Hisham reported, from his father, from his grandfather : Khalid commanded the people and concluded peace with the people of Damascus ; he had not finished the peace when he was deposed and Abu Ubayda appointed, who maintained the peace of Khalid, changing not the writing.

That account is coarse, for Umar had deposed Khalid upon his investiture : so said Khalifa ibn Khayyat, reporting from Abdallah ibn al-Mughira, from his father : Abu Ubayda concluded peace with them upon half their churches and dwellings, and upon their heads being kept, on condition they be not barred from their feasts.

Ibn al-Kalbi said : the peace fell on Sunday, mid-Rajab of the year fourteen : Abu Ubayda concluded peace with them.

Ibn Ishaq said : Abu Ubayda concluded peace with them in Rajab.

Ibn Jarir said : Abu Ubayda marched on Damascus, Khalid at the head of the people ; the Byzantines had rallied to a man called Bahan at Damascus, Umar having deposed Khalid and appointed Abu Ubayda over all. Muslims and Byzantines met around Damascus : the fighting was fierce, then Allah routed the Byzantines ; they entered Damascus, which shut its gates, the Muslims besetting it till it was conquered, and the tribute was granted them. The letter had reached Abu Ubayda with his command and the deposition of Khalid, and Abu Ubayda was ashamed to hand Khalid the letter till Damascus was conquered and the peace made by the hand of Khalid ; he wrote the letter in his name. Damascus having made peace, Bahan joined Heraclius, king of the Byzantines. It is said : the siege of Damascus lasted four months.

Muhammad ibn Ishaq said : Umar bore resentment against Khalid ibn al-Walid for his slaying of Ibn Nuwayra ; he wrote to Abu Ubayda to remove his turban and divide his wealth. When he informed him, Abu Ubayda said : "I am not one to disobey the Commander of the Believers : do what seems good to you." He divided his wealth, till Khalid had but the sandal of one foot.

Ibn Jarir said : the first besieged in Syria were the people of Fahl, then the people of Damascus. Abu Ubayda sent Dhu al-Kala until he was between Damascus and Homs as a reserve. They besieged Damascus : Abu Ubayda on a side, Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan on a side, Amr ibn al-As on a side, and Heraclius was then at Homs.

They besieged the people of Damascus some seventy nights, a hard siege with mangonels ; the soldiers of Heraclius came in aid of Damascus, and the troops with Dhu al-Kala occupied them. When the people of Damascus were certain the aid would not reach them, they weakened and fainted.

The lord of Damascus had just had a child born to him : he made food and busied himself that day ; and Khalid ibn al-Walid slept not, nor let sleep : he had prepared cords like ladders. At evening he prepared his companions, advanced with al-Qaqa ibn Amr, Mudh'ur ibn Adi and their like, and said : "When you hear our takbir upon the wall, join us and burst the gate."

When Khalid and his companions reached the trench, they cast the cords toward the crest, bearing on their backs the skins wherewith they crossed the trench. Al-Qaqa and Mudh'ur climbed : every rope cast they fixed at the crest. That spot was the strongest of Damascus ; a company of his companions stood upon the wall, cried Allah is greater, and Khalid descended to the gate and slew the gatekeepers. The people of the town rushed to their posts, knowing not what was toward : the people of every side were taken up with what concerned them. Khalid opened the gate and his companions entered by force. The Muslims had called them to peace and partition, and they refused ; seeing the calamity, they offered peace : their overseer answered. They accepted and said : "Enter, and bar us the folk of that gate." The folk of every gate entered with peace over what concerned them. Khalid and the emirs met in the midst of the town : these in display and plunder, those in peace ; the side of Khalid was kept in peace by partition. They wrote Umar of the conquest.

Umar wrote Abu Ubayda to equip an army to Iraq in aid of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas : he equipped him ten thousand under Hashim ibn Utba. Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan remained at Damascus with a band of the reinforcements of Yemen ; Yazid sent Dahiya ibn Khalifa al-Kalbi with horse toward Palmyra, and Abu al-Azhar to al-Bathaniyya and the Hawran.

They made peace with them, and a band marched to Beit She'an : peace made.

That year, as has reached us, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas was over the alms of Hawazin. Umar wrote him to choose men of counsel and aid among those having weapon or steed. The book of Sa'd came : "I have chosen you a thousand horse." Then he came to him, who set him over the war of Iraq and equipped him with four thousand fighters. Some refused of Sa'd, save to march to Syria : Umar equipped them to Syria.

Then Umar aided Sa'd after his march with a thousand Najdis and two thousand Yemenites. Sa'd wintered at Zarud ; al-Muthanna ibn Haritha commanded the Muslims in what Allah had opened of Iraq : he died of the wounds he took on the day of the Bridge of Abu Ubayd, having left over the people as deputy Bachir ibn al-Khasasiyya. Sa'd wintered at Zarud, and Bachir received the delegations of the people of Iraq. Then Sa'd marched to Iraq, and al-Ash'ath ibn Qays came to him with a thousand seven hundred Yemenites.

The engagement of the Bridge :

Umar had sent in the year thirteen an army, over it Abu Ubayd ath-Thaqafi, may Allah be pleased with him. He met Jaban in the year thirteen, or it is said : at the start of the year fourteen, between al-Hira and al-Qadisiyya.

Allah routed the Magians ; Jaban was taken, Mardanchah slain. Jaban ransomed himself by two slave lads, not knowing it was the commander. Then Abu Ubayd marched to Kaskar : he met Narses and routed him ; then he met Jalinus and routed him.

Then Kisra sent Dhu al-Hajib, granting him command of twelve thousand, delivering him great arms and the white elephant. Abu Ubayd learned of their march : he crossed the Euphrates to them and cut the bridge. Dhu al-Hajib encamped at Qass an-Natif, the Euphrates between him and Abu Ubayd. He sent to Abu Ubayd : "Either you cross to us, or we cross to you." Abu Ubayd said : "We cross to you." Ibn Salub tied him the bridge, and they crossed : they met in the narrows, in Chawwal. Dhu al-Hajib brought Jalinus with the elephant : the fighting was hardest ; Abu Ubayd struck the elephant's front, and Abu Muhjan struck its tendon.

It is said that Abu Ubayd, seeing the elephant, declaimed :

"O you, the four-legged, how great you are ! / With the sword I shall strike your front ;

and if I be slain, my son Jabr is yours ; / if he be slain, Habib ibn Rabi, brother of Abu Muhjan, is yours ; if he be slain, my brother Abdallah is yours." All the emirs were slain ; the slaying spread among the Muslims, who sought the bridge. Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha took the banner and shielded them, a company of the steadfast remaining with him. Abdallah ibn Yazid outpaced them to the bridge and cut it, saying : "Fight for your religion." The people plunged into the Euphrates, and many drowned ; then al-Muthanna tied the bridge and the people crossed.

There were slain that day, so Khalifa says : a thousand eight hundred ; Sayf says : four thousand, between slain and drowned.

Ash-Sha'bi said : Abu Ubayd perished with eight hundred Muslims.

Another said : al-Muthanna ibn Haritha ach-Chaybani remained over the people, wounded, till he died, having left over the people Ibn al-Khasasiyya, as we mentioned.

Homs :

Abu Mash'ar said : Abdallah ibn Salim told me : Abu Ubayda marched on Homs with twelve thousand, of them six thousand of the Sakun : he opened it.

Abu Uthman as-Sana'ani said : when we had opened Damascus, we went out with Abu ad-Darda in the band of Barza ; then we advanced with Abu Ubayda, and Allah opened Homs by us.

It has come that Homs and Baalbek were opened by peace at the end of the year fourteen,

and Heraclius, king of the Byzantines, fled from Antioch to Constantinople.

It is said : Homs was opened in the year fifteen.

Basra :

Ali al-Madaini reported, from his elders : Umar sent in the year fourteen Churahbil ibn Amir, one of the Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr, to Basra : he was a reserve of the Muslims ; he marched to the Ahwaz and slew Badaris. Umar sent that year Utba ibn Ghazwan al-Mazni, who stayed months without campaigning.

Khalid ibn Umayr al-Adawi said : we campaigned with Utba to al-Ubulla and opened it ; then we crossed to the Euphrates ; Utba passed the site of al-Marbad, found thick pottery, and said : "This is Basra : alight in the name of Allah."

Al-Hasan said : Utba opened al-Ubulla, and seventy Muslims were slain at the site of the mosque of al-Ubulla ; then he crossed to the Euphrates and took it by force.

Chu'ba reported, from Aqil ibn Talha, from Qabisa : we were with Utba at al-Khariba.

That year : Utba ibn Ghazwan ordered Muhjan ibn al-Adra to trace the great mosque of Basra and had it built of reeds. Then Utba went on pilgrimage, leaving Mujashi ibn Mas'ud, ordering him the raid, and ordered al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba to pray with the people till Mujashi returned. Utba died on the way.

Umar appointed al-Mughira over Basra and sent Jarir ibn Abdallah over the Sawad. Jarir met Mihran and slew him. Then Umar sent Sa'd and ordered Jarir obey him.

That year : Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr was born, the first born at Basra.

That year died a great company of martyrs, and a band died :

Aws ibn Aws ibn Thabit, slain in martyrdom the day of the Bridge of Abu Ubayd, two days from Kufa, between it and the Najd.

Bachir ibn Anbas ibn Yazid adh-Dhafri, he attended Uhud and was the cousin of Qatada ibn an-Nu'man ; he was known as the horseman of al-Hawa, the name of his horse ; he was slain that day.

Thabit ibn Atik, of the Banu Amr ibn Mabdhul, Ansari, having the Companionship ; slain that day.

Tha'laba ibn Amr ibn Muhsin, slain the day of the Bridge ; one of the Banu Malik ibn an-Najjar ; he was a Badri, may Allah be pleased with him.

Al-Harith ibn Atik ibn an-Nu'man, Abu Akhzam, slain that day ; he was of the Banu an-Najjar, having attended Uhud ; he was brother of Sahl, who attended Badr.

Al-Harith ibn Mas'ud ibn Abda, having the Companionship ; slain that day.

Al-Harith ibn Adi ibn Malik, slain that day ; he had attended Uhud ; both were of the Ansar.

Khalid ibn Sa'id ibn al-As al-Umawi ; it is said he was slain in martyrdom the day of Marj as-Suffar, and that day was in Muharram of the year fourteen, already mentioned.

Khuzayma ibn Aws ibn Khuzayma al-Achhali, the day of the Bridge.

Rabi ibn al-Harith ibn Abd al-Muttalib ; Ibn Qanab declined him.

Zayd ibn Suraqa, the day of the Bridge.

Sa'd ibn Salama ibn Waqch al-Achhali.

Sa'd ibn Ubada al-Ansari ; it is said he died that year.

Salama ibn Aslam ibn Harich, the day of the Bridge.

Salama ibn Hisham, the day of Marj as-Suffar, mentioned before.

Sulayt ibn Qays ibn Amr al-Ansari, the day of the Bridge.

Damra ibn Ghuziyya, the day of the Bridge.

Abdallah, Abd ar-Rahman and Ibbad, sons of Mirba ibn Qaydhi ibn Amr, slain that day.

Uqba and Abdallah, sons of Qaydhi ibn Qays : they attended with their father the day of the Bridge of Abu Ubayd and were slain that day.

Umar ibn Abi al-Yasar, the day of al-Hassar.

Qays ibn ath-Thakan ibn Qays ibn Za'ura ibn Haram ibn Jundab ibn Amir ibn Ghanm ibn Adi ibn an-Najjar, Abu Zayd al-Ansari an-Najjari, famed by his kunya. He attended Badr and was slain in martyrdom the day of the Bridge of Abu Ubayd, as Musa ibn Uqba mentions.

Al-Waqidi and Ibn al-Kalbi said : he is one of those who gathered the Quran in the time of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; the proof is the word of Anas, who said : "one of my maternal uncles," the two meeting in the forbidden. So too Ibn al-Kalbi related the genealogy of Abu Zayd, but he put Zayd in place of Za'ura. No weight has the word of him who claims the gatherer of the Quran was Abu Zayd

Sa'd ibn Ubayd al-Awsi : the word of Anas ibn Malik, "one of my maternal uncles," refutes him who says he is Sa'd ibn Ubayd, he being an Awsite. It is confirmed also by what Qatada reported from Anas : the Aws and the Khazraj boasted, and the Aws said : "Of us is he washed by the angels, Hanthala ibn Abi Amir ; of us he whom the scorpion guarded, Asim ibn Thabit ; of us he at whose death the Throne trembled, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh ; of us he whose witness was accepted with two witnesses, Khuzayma ibn Thabit." The Khazraj said : "Of us are four who gathered the Quran in the time of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : my father, Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Zayd ibn Thabit, and Abu Zayd."

Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha ach-Chaybani, he who took the banner and drew apart with the Muslims the day of the Bridge.

Nafi ibn Ghaylan, that day.

Nawfal ibn al-Harith ; it is said he died that year ; he was older than his uncle al-Abbas.

Waqid ibn Abdallah, that day.

Hind bint Utba bint Rabi ibn Abd Shams, mother of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan : she died at the start of the year.

Yazid ibn Qays ibn al-Khattim, with fatha of the kha of Khi, al-Ansari adh-Dhafri. A Companion, he attended Uhud and the battles, and was wounded the day of Uhud with several wounds ; his father was among the great poets. Yazid was slain the day of the Bridge.

Abu Ubayd ibn Mas'ud ibn Amr ath-Thaqafi, father of al-Mukhtar and of Sufiyya, wife of Ibn Umar.

He embraced Islam in the time of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; Umar appointed him and marched him on a dense army to Iraq,

and to him is ascribed the bridge of Abu Ubayd : the engagement was at that bridge, as we said ; Abu Ubayd was slain that day : may Allah have mercy on him ; the bridge is between al-Qadisiyya and al-Hira. None mentioned him among the Companions save Ibn Abd al-Barr, and it is not far that he had vision and Islam.

Abu Quhafa, Uthman ibn Amir at-Taymi, in Muharram, at ninety-seven ; he had embraced Islam the day of the conquest : his son Abu Bakr as-Siddiq brought him, leading him, for his age and frailty, his head like a date. He embraced Islam, and the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Why did you not leave the elder, that we might come to him ?" honoring Abu Bakr ; and he said : "Change this whiteness of hair, and keep the black from it."

Abdallah ibn Sa'sa'a ibn Wahb al-Ansari, one of the Banu Adi ibn an-Najjar ; he attended Uhud and what came after, and was slain the day of the Bridge of Abu Ubayd : so says Ibn al-Athir.

The year fifteen :

At its start, Charhabil ibn Hasana opened all the Jordan by force, save Tabariyya, whose people made peace with him, by the command of Abu Ubayda.

The Day of the Yarmuk :

It was a famous engagement. The Byzantines descended to the Yarmuk in Rajab of the year fifteen ; it is said : in the year thirteen, and that seems right to me. They were more than a hundred thousand, and the Muslims thirty thousand ; the commanders of Islam : Abu Ubayda, with the commanders of the hosts. The Byzantines had chained themselves by fives and sixes in chains, lest they flee. When Allah routed them, each fell into the valley of the Yarmuk, dragging with him those with him in the chain, till they filled the valley ; they lay, it is said, upon its two banks, and the horses trampled them : died a countless host. There were wounded that day several commanders of the Muslims.

Muhammad ibn Ishaq said : the Byzantines descended to the Yarmuk, a hundred thousand, over them Saqlab, eunuch of Heraclius.

Ibn al-Kalbi said : the Byzantines were three hundred thousand, over them Mahan, a man of the sons of Firasa, a Christian who had joined the Byzantines. He says : Abu Ubayda joined its sides, and Umar aided him with Sa'id ibn Amir ibn Hadhaym ; Allah routed the polytheists after fierce fighting, on the fifth of Rajab of the year fifteen.

Sa'id ibn Abd al-Aziz said : the Muslims, the day of the Yarmuk, were twenty-four thousand, over them Abu Ubayda ; the Byzantines a hundred twenty thousand, over them Bahan and Saqlab.

Ibrahim ibn Sa'd reports, from his father, from Ibn al-Musayyib, from his father : the voices were stilled the day of the Yarmuk, the Muslims fighting the Byzantines, save the voice of a man saying : "O aid of Allah, draw near ! O aid of Allah, draw near !" I raised my head : behold Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, under the banner of his son Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan.

Al-Waqidi : Abd al-Hamid ibn Ja'far told us, from his father, from Ibn al-Musayyib, from Jubayr ibn al-Huwayrith : I attended the Yarmuk : I heard only the clashing of iron, save a crier crying : "O company of Muslims, a day of the days of Allah : be tried therein by Allah with a fair trial !" And it was Abu Sufyan under the banner of his son.

Suwayd ibn Abd al-Aziz reported, from Husayn, from ash-Sha'bi, from Suwayd ibn Ghafla, who said : when we routed the enemy the day of the Yarmuk, we came upon tunics of brocade and wore them ; we came to Umar seeing that pleased him, accosted him and greeted him : he reviled us and stoned us with stones till we outstripped him fleeing. Some of us said : "He has learned the worst of you," and some of the people said : "Perhaps it is your garb" : put it off. We put off those garments and greeted him : he welcomed us, asked after us, and said : "You came in the garb of the people of unbelief, and now you are in the garb of the people of faith : brocade and silk befit only thus," and he joined four fingers.

Malik ibn Abdallah said : I never saw nobler than a man I saw the day of the Yarmuk : a Byzantine came out to him and he slew him ; then another, and he slew him ; then another, and he slew him ; then they fled and he followed them, and he followed them ; then he returned to a great pavilion and alighted, called for the bowls and called those around him. I said : "Who is this ?" They said : "Amr ibn Ma'di Karib."

Urwa reported : slain that day were an-Nadr ibn al-Harith ibn Alqama al-Abdari, and Abdallah ibn Sufyan ibn Abd al-Asad al-Makhzumi.

Ibn Sa'd said : slain that day was Nu'aym ibn Abdallah an-Nahham al-Adawi. I say : already mentioned.

It is said : the flank of Abu Ubayda that day was commanded by Qabath ibn Achyam al-Kinani al-Laythi.

It is said : slain that day were Ikrima ibn Abi Jahl, Abd ar-Rahman ibn al-Awwam, Ayyach ibn Abi Rabi, and Amir ibn Abi Waqqas az-Zuhri.

The engagement of al-Qadisiyya :

The engagement of al-Qadisiyya took place in Iraq at the end of the year, as has reached us. Over the people : Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas ; over the polytheists : Roustam, with Jalinus and Dhu al-Hajib.

Abu Wail said : the Muslims were between seven and eight thousand ; Roustam at sixty thousand ; it is said : forty thousand, with seventy elephants.

Al-Madaini mentions they fought fiercely three days, at the end of Chawwal ; it is said : in Ramadan ; Roustam was slain and they were routed ; it is said : Roustam died of thirst. The Muslims followed them : Jalinus and Dhu al-Hajib were slain ; they pursued them from the Khourar

to as-Silhyn, to an-Najf, till they drove them to the cities (al-Mada'in) ; they besieged them there till they ate the dogs, then they went out against the people of Bayal, who marched and encamped at Jalula.

Abu Wail said : we followed them to the Euphrates : Allah routed them ; we followed them to as-Sira : Allah routed them ; we drove them to the cities.

Abu Wail said : I saw myself crossing the trench afoot, over men, some slaying others.

Habib ibn Suhayban said : we came upon that day vessels of gold, till a man would say : "yellow with white," meaning gold with silver.

Al-Madaini said : then Sa'd marched from the Qadisiyya pursuing them. The people of al-Hira came to him : "We are upon our covenant." Bastam came to him : peace made. Sa'd cut the Euphrates ; he met a host against them at Sabhour : Zuhra ibn Hawiyya slew it ; then they met at Kutha a host under Fayrouzan : they routed them ; then they met a great host at the monastery of Ka'b under al-Farrukhan : they routed them. Then Sa'd marched with the people till he encamped at the cities and opened them.

Muhammad ibn Jarir, for his part, mentions the Qadisiyya in the year fourteen, and mentions that in the year fifteen Sa'd entered Kufa, and that in it Umar instituted the shares of pension and the registers, granting the veteran the bounty.

He says : when Allah granted the Muslims the spoils of Roustam, and the conquests of Syria and Iraq came to Umar with the mass of the Muslims, he said : "What is lawful for the governor of this wealth ?" They said : "As for his private spending : his food and his family's, without excess nor extravagance, his clothing and theirs, two mounts for his war and his needs, his conveyance to pilgrimage and umra ; and the equal share : to give the people of trial to the measure of their trial, and administer the affairs of the Muslims and tend them." Among them stood Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, silent. He said : "What say you, O Abu al-Hasan ?" He said : "May Allah set you right : treat yourself and your household with equity."

It is said : Umar sat upon the provision of Abu Bakr till his need grew hard : they would increase it, but he refused them.

His governors that year : Utab ibn Asid, so says Ibn Jarir, the death of Utab having passed ;

he says : over Ta'if, Yala ibn Umayya ; over Kufa, Sa'd ; over its judgments, Abu Qurra ; over Basra, al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba ; over the Yamama and the Bahrain, Uthman ibn Abi al-As ; over Oman, Hudhayfa ibn Muhsin ; over the marches of Syria, Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah.

Those who died that year :

Sa'd ibn Ubayd ibn an-Nu'man, Abu Zayd al-Ansari al-Awsi.

One of the reciters who memorized the Quran in the time of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; slain in martyrdom

at the engagement of the Qadisiyya ; it is said he is the father of Umayr ibn Sa'd az-Zahid, governor of Homs for Umar. Sa'd attended Badr and other battles ; he was called Sa'd the reciter.

Muhammad ibn Sa'd mentions the Qadisiyya was in the year sixteen, and that he was slain therein at sixty-four years.

Qays ibn Muslim reported, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Layla, from Sa'd ibn Ubayd, that he preached them and said : "We meet the enemy tomorrow, and we are slain tomorrow : wash not from us the blood, and shroud us but in the garment that was upon us."

Sa'id ibn al-Harith ibn Qays ibn Adi al-Qurashi as-Sahmi, he and his brothers : al-Hajjaj, Ma'bad, Tamim, Abu Qays, Abdallah and as-Sa'ib, all emigrants to Abyssinia ; Ibn Sa'd mentions them.

Most of them were slain the day of the Yarmuk and the day of Ajnadayn, may Allah be pleased with them.

Abdallah ibn Sufyan.

He is the son of the brother of Abu Salama ibn Abd al-Asad al-Makhzumi ; he had the Companionship, the emigration to Abyssinia, and transmission. Narrated from him : Amr ibn Dinar, discontinuously ; he was slain in martyrdom at the Yarmuk.

Amr ibn Umm Maktum the blind.

He was the muezzin of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and his deputy over Medina outside campaigns ; it is said the banner was with him the day of the Qadisiyya, and he was slain in martyrdom that day.

Ibn Sa'd said : he returned to Medina after the Qadisiyya, and we heard not that he was mentioned after Umar.

I say : narrated from him were Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Layla and Abu Razin al-Asadi ; he has a long tarjama in the book of Ibn Sa'd.

Amr ibn at-Tufayl ibn Amr ibn Tarif, slain at the Yarmuk.

Ayyach ibn Abi Rabi, Amr ibn al-Mughira ibn Ayyach al-Makhzumi, companion of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, whom he named in the qunut and prayed for deliverance.

It is reported from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him. Narrated from him : his son Abdallah and others. He was brother of Abu Jahl by the mother ; his kunya : Abu Abdallah. Slain in martyrdom the day of the Yarmuk.

Firasa ibn an-Nadr ibn al-Harith ; it is said : slain in martyrdom at the Yarmuk.

Qays ibn Adi ibn Sa'd ibn Sahm, of the emigrants to Abyssinia, slain at the Yarmuk.

Qays ibn Abi Sa'sa'a, Amr ibn Zayd ibn Awf al-Ansari al-Mazni.

He attended Aqaba and Badr ; he has a hadith by the path of Ibn Lahi'a, from Hibban ibn Was ibn Hibban, from his father, from him : I said : "In how long may I learn the Quran, O Messenger of Allah ?" He said : "In fifteen." I said : "I find myself stronger than that." In it is proof he gathered the Quran. He was one of the commanders of the cavalries the day of the Yarmuk.

An-Nadr ibn al-Harith ibn Alqama ibn Koulda ibn Abd Manaf ibn Abd ad-Dar ibn Qusayy al-Abdari al-Qurashi.

Of the pleasant life of the conquest and the mildness of Quraysh ; it is said the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, gave him a hundred camels of the spoils of Hunayn, thereby drawing him. He hesitated to take them and said : "I will not be bribed against Islam" ; then he said : "By Allah, I sought them not, nor asked them : it is a gift from the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him," and he took them. His Islam was fair, and he was slain in martyrdom the day of the Yarmuk ; his brother an-Nadr was slain an unbeliever, in a sortie at Badr.

The year sixteen :

It is said : the engagement of the Qadisiyya was at its start, and two hundred were slain that day ; it is said : a hundred twenty men.

Khalifa said : that year the Ahwaz was opened, then they disbelieved. Al-Walid ibn Hisham told me, from his father, from his grandfather : al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba marched to the Ahwaz, and the Bayruwan made peace with him upon a million and eight hundred thousand dirhams ; then the Ash'ari campaigned against them after him.

At-Tabari said : that year the Muslims entered the city of Beharchir and opened the cities : Yazdjard, son of Chahriyar, fled.

When Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas encamped at Beharchir, the city wherein dwelt Kisra, he sought ships to ferry the people to the farthest city : he managed nothing of it, finding they had assembled the ships ; he stayed days till Upplaj guided them to a ford ; he refused, then resolved to force the Tigris : the Muslims forced it, the brimming water casting foam. The people of Fars were confounded by a matter past their reckoning : they fought an hour, then fled, leaving the mass of their wealth ; the Muslims took possession of all that. Then they came to the White Palace, wherein folk had fortified themselves, then made peace.

It is said : when the Persians saw the Muslims forcing the water, they were bewildered and said : "By Allah, we fight not men, we fight none but jinn" : and they fled.

Sa'd encamped at the White Palace and took the iwan for a mosque ; therein were figures of plaster : he moved them not.

When he reached the throne of Kisra, he began reciting : {How many gardens and springs they left behind, how many tilths} (Surah ad-Dukhan, verses 25-26).

They said : Sa'd completed the prayer the day he entered it, for he meant to abide there ; it was the first Friday gathered in Iraq, in Safar of the year sixteen.

At-Tabari said : Sa'd divided the spoils after taking the fifth of them : the horseman received twelve thousand, and the whole army were horsemen.

Sa'd divided the houses of the cities among the people, who dwelt in them ; Sa'd gathered the fifth, putting into it everything of the garments of Kisra, his ornaments and his sword, and said to the Muslims : "Does it please you to ease your souls over the four fifths of this carpet, that we send it to Umar, that he lay it where he sees, and that it stand with the people of Medina a standing ?" They said : "Yes." He sent it as it was : sixty cubits by sixty cubits, one carpet the measure of an arpent, with roads like trumpets, jewels like stars, and flowers like pearls ; its borders like a tilled land, the land like a garden of plants in spring, of silk upon stalks of gold ; its flowers of gold and silver, and the like. Umar cut it and divided it among the people : Ali received a piece of it and sold it for twenty thousand.

The Muslims took possession in three years of the throne of the kingdom of Kisra,

and in three years of the throne of the kingdom of Caesar, and upon the two thrones of the kingdom of the two lands. The Muslims took spoils the like of which was never heard : gold, gems, silk, captives, cities, and palaces. Glory to Allah, the Most Great, the Opener.

Kisra and Caesar, and the kings before them, reigned long in their dynasties. The Kisras, the Persian Magians, ruled Iraq and Persia some five hundred years ; the first of their kings was Dara, whose reign was long : it is said he abode in kingship two hundred years ; the number of their kings was twenty-five persons, of them

two women ; the last of them was Yazdjard, who perished in the time of Uthman. Among them reigned Dhu al-Aktaf, Sapor : command was granted him while he was in his mother's womb, his father having died while she was with child ; the soothsayers said : this one shall rule the earth ; the crown was set on the mother's belly, and letters were written of him to the horizons while he was yet an embryo : never was the like heard. He was surnamed Dhu al-Aktaf because he tore the shoulders of him who angered him ; he it was who built the great iwan, founded Nishapur and founded Sistan.

Among the latest of their kings : Anushirvan, a resolute and reasonable man ; he had twelve thousand wives and concubines, fifty thousand beasts, a thousand elephants save one ; and our Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, was born in his time. Anushirvan died at the time of the death of Abd al-Muttalib. When the Companions took possession of the iwan, they burned its curtains : there came forth from it a million mithqals of gold.

The engagement of Jalula :

In that year, says Ibn Jarir at-Tabari : Allah slew of the Persians a hundred

thousand ; the slain of al-Mahal, its approaches and its rears were glorified : whence Jalula was named. Another said : it was in the year seventeen. Abu Wail said : Jalula was named for the covering of the evil wherewith it was covered. Sayf says : it was in the year seventeen.

Khalifa ibn Khayyat said : Yazdjard, son of Kisra, fled the cities to Hulwan, wrote to the mountains, gathered the armies and directed them to Jalula : a great host rallied to him, under Kharzad ibn Jarmahar. Sa'd wrote Umar informing him ; he wrote him : "Abide where you are, and direct toward them an army : Allah will aid you and fulfil His promise." He granted command to his uncle's son Hashim ibn Utba ibn Abi Waqqas, and they met. The Muslims made their round, then Allah routed the polytheists, and a great many of them were slain ; the Muslims seized their camp and took immense wealth and captives : the spoils reached eighteen millions. It comes from ash-Sha'bi that the spoil of Jalula was divided among thirty millions. Abu Wail said : Jalula was named "the conquest of conquests."

Ibn Jarir said : Hashim ibn Utba encamped at Jalula, and al-Qaqa ibn Amr went out after the people to Khanqin : he slew those he overtook, slew Mihran, and Fayrouzan escaped. When that reached Yazdjard, he withdrew to Rayy.

That year : Sa'd equipped a host that opened Takrit and divided it, took the fifth of the spoils, and the horseman received of it three thousand dirhams.

That year : Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, marched on Syria and opened Bayt al-Maqdis,

and came to al-Jabiya,

which is the capital of the Hawran, and there delivered the famous sermon, mutawatir from him. Zuhayr ibn Muhammad al-Marwazi said : Abdallah ibn Muslim ibn Harmz told me that he heard Abu al-Ghudiyya al-Mazni say : Umar came to us at al-Jabiya, upon a white camel with yellowish reins, his bald head shining to the sun ; upon him was neither turban nor hood, between two staves ; his saddle was a Najdi ram's fleece, his bed when he alighted ; his satchel a blanket or skin stuffed with fiber, and that was his pillow ; upon him a shirt part torn, its pocket thick. Isma'il al-Mu'addib reported it from Ibn Harmz, who says : from Abu al-Ala the Syrian.

Qinnasrin :

That year : Abu Ubayda sent Amr ibn al-As, after the Yarmuk, to Qinnasrin : peace with the people of Aleppo, Manbij and Antioch upon the tribute, and the rest of the lands of Qinnasrin was opened by force.

That year : Sarugh and ar-Rouha were opened by the hand of Iyad ibn Ghanm.

And therein says Ibn al-Kalbi : Abu Ubayda marched, Khalid ibn al-Walid at his head, besieged the people of Iliya, who asked peace on condition Umar be the one to grant it and write them the assurance. Abu Ubayda wrote Umar, who came to the sacred land, made peace with them, abode days, then returned to Medina.

That year : the engagement of Qarqisiya ; al-Harith ibn Yazid al-Amiri besieged it, and it was opened by peace.

That year : the era was dated, in Rabi al-awwal. From Ibn al-Musayyib : "The first to date the era was Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, two years and a half of his caliphate : he dated the sixteenth year of the Hijra, upon the counsel of Ali, may Allah be pleased with him."

That year : Rub'i ibn al-Afkal was dispatched for the war of the people of Mosul.

The year seventeen :

It is said : therein was the mentioned engagement of Jalula.

And in it : Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, went out to Sarugh, leaving Zayd ibn Thabit deputy over Medina ; he found the plague in Syria and returned, what Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf related him from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, concerning the plague.

That year : Umar enlarged the mosque of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, making it as it was in the time of the Prophet.

That year : dearth struck the Hijaz, and it was named the year of the Ash ; Umar prayed rain for the people with al-Abbas, uncle of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him.

That year : Umar wrote Abu Musa al-Ash'ari the command of Basra, and to march to the districts of the Ahwaz. He marched, leaving Imran ibn Husayn deputy over Basra. Abu Musa opened the Ahwaz, by peace and by force ; Umar assigned him over it ten million dirhams and four hundred, and pressed him in his command to part force from peace : he could not.

Khalifa says : that year testified Abu Bukra, Nafi son of al-Harith, Chabl ibn Ma'bad, and Ziyad against al-Mughira concerning fornication ; then some of them retracted : Umar deposed him from Basra and appointed over it Abu Musa.

Khalifa said : Rayhan ibn Isma told us : Umar ibn Marzuq told us, from Abu Farwa : we were with Abu Musa al-Ash'ari in the Ahwaz, and on his horses saddle-cloths of brocade.

That year : Umar married Umm Kulthum, daughter of Fatima az-Zahra, and paid her, it is said, forty thousand dirhams.

The year eighteen :

That year, says Ibn Ishaq : Umar prayed rain for the people and went out with al-Abbas, saying : "O Allah, we ask You rain by the uncle of Your prophet."

That year : Abu Musa opened Jundisapur and as-Sous by peace, then returned to the Ahwaz.

And in it : Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas directed Jarir ibn Abdallah al-Bajali to Hulwan after Jalula, and he opened it by force. It is said : rather Hashim ibn Utba ; then they disbelieved till they marched to Nahawand ; then Hashim marched to Mah, exiled them to Azerbaijan, then peace was made.

It is said : that year Abu Musa opened Ram-Hormuz, then marched to Tustar and engaged it.

Abu Ubayda ibn al-Muthanna said : that year Hormuz ibn Hayyan besieged the people of Dastmayzan, and saw their king a woman eating her child of hunger ; he said : "Now I shall make peace with the Arabs" : he made peace with Hormuz on condition the town be left them.

That year : the people settled at Kufa, which Sa'd built of clay ; they had built it of reeds, and a vast fire broke out in it.

That year : the plague of Amwas raged in the region of the Jordan, and a multitude of Muslims perished in it in martyrdom. It is said no plague befell Mecca nor Medina.

That year : Abu Musa al-Ash'ari opened ar-Rouha and Samosata by force.

At the start of it : Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah directed Iyad ibn Ghanm al-Fihri to the Jazira ; he was met by Abu

Musa, come from Basra : they marched and opened Harran, Nisibis and a band of the Jazira by force ; it is said : by peace.

That year : Iyad ibn Ghanm marched to Mosul and opened it and its regions by force.

That year : Sa'd built the great mosque of Kufa.

The year nineteen :

Khalifa said : that year Caesarea was opened, commander of the army Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan and Sa'd ibn Amir ibn Hadhaym, each commander over his host : Allah routed the polytheists, and a great many of them were slain ; Ibn al-Kalbi declined it.

Ibn Ishaq, for his part, said : the year twenty.

That year : the engagement of Sufayya, in the land of Fars, in Dhu al-Hijja ; over the Muslims al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As : Sahrak, vanguard of the polytheists, was slain.

Khalifa said : that year the Byzantines took prisoner Abdallah ibn Hudhayfa as-Sahmi.

It is said : Takrit was opened that year.

It is said : Jalula was in that year : it was another engagement, among the Persians or in Fars.

That year : Umar directed Uthman ibn Abi al-As to Armenia the fourth, wherein was some fighting, wherein was wounded : Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal ibn Rakhda as-Sulami adh-Dhakwani.

That year : died, in one saying, Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan, mentioned before.

The year twenty : the conquest of Egypt :

That year : Egypt was opened.

Khalifa, from more than one, and others, report that Umar wrote that year to Amr ibn al-As to march to Egypt. He marched, and Umar sent az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam in aid, with Busr ibn Arta'a, Umayr ibn Wahb al-Jumahi and Kharja ibn Hudhayfa al-Adawi, till he came to Bab Layoun where they fortified themselves : he opened it by force, and the people of the citadel made peace with him. Az-Zubayr was the first who scaled the wall of the city, then the people followed him. Az-Zubayr asked Umar to divide it among those who opened it ; Amr wrote Umar, who wrote : "A share of plunder, and shares of plunder are better than plunder : confirm it."

Amr ibn al-As reported that he said upon the pulpit : "I have sat upon this seat of mine, and no Copt of Egypt has against me covenant or compact : if I will, I slay ; if I will, I sell ; if I will, I take the fifth, save the people of Antioch, for they have a covenant maintained."

Ali ibn Ribah reported : all the Maghrib was opened by force.

Ibn Umar reported : Egypt was opened without covenant ; so said a group.

Yazid ibn Abi Habib said : all Egypt made peace, save Alexandria.

The expedition of Tustar :

Al-Walid ibn Hisham al-Qahdhami reported, from his father and uncle, that Abu Musa, having finished the Ahwaz, the river Tiri, Jundisapur and Ram-Hormuz, turned to Tustar, encamped at its eastern gate, and wrote seeking the aid of Umar. He wrote Ammar ibn Yasir to aid him, who wrote Jarir, then at Hulwan, to march to Abu Musa : he marched with a thousand and they stayed a month. Then Abu Musa wrote Umar : "They gained nothing." Umar wrote Ammar to march himself, and aided him from Medina.

Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Bukra reported : they stayed a year or so ; then a man of Tustar came and said to Abu Musa : "I ask you to guard my blood, my family and my wealth, on condition I guide you to the entrance." He granted it, and said : "Fetch me a swimming man of reason, who bring you a clear matter." He sent with him Mujazzi'a ibn Thawr as-Sadousi, who entered by the issue of the water that splashed, now floating on his belly, now crawling, till he entered the city and knew its ways ; and there appeared to him the Byzantine al-Hurmuzan, its lord. They moved to slay him, then recalled the word of Abu Musa : "Outrun me not in a command." He returned to Abu Musa, then entered with thirty-five men like ducks swimming ; they climbed the wall and cried Allah is greater, fighting, they and those with them, upon the wall. Mujazzi'a was slain, and those folk opened the town. Al-Hurmuzan fortified himself in a tower.

Qatada reported, from Anas : that day we came not to the dawn prayer till mid-day ; and all the world would not please me for that prayer.

Ibn Sirin said : slain that day was al-Bara ibn Malik.

It is said : the first who entered Tustar was Abdallah ibn Mughaffal al-Mazni.

Al-Hasan said : Tustar was besieged two years.

Ash-Sha'bi said : Abu Musa besieged them eighteen months, then al-Hurmuzan submitted to the judgment of Umar.

Hamid reports, from Anas : al-Hurmuzan submitted to the judgment of Umar. When we brought him to Umar with al-Hurmuzan, he said : "Speak." He said : "Speech of a living man, or speech of a dead ?" He said : "Speak : no harm." He said : "We and you, O assembly of Arabs : Allah never parted between us and you : we vexed you, slew you, and did ; when Allah brought Islam, we had no hold on you." He said : "O Anas, what say you ?" I said : "O Commander of the Believers, he leaves behind him a great number and a fierce thorn : if you slay him, the people will despair of living, and their thorn will be the harder." He said : "Should I be ashamed before the slayer of al-Bara and of Mujazzi'a ibn Thawr !" When I sensed his will to slay him, I said : "There is no way to his slaying : I said to him : speak, no harm." He said : "Bring me a witness other than you." I met az-Zubayr, who witnessed with me : Umar desisted ; al-Hurmuzan embraced Islam, Umar assigned him a pension, and he dwelt in Medina.

That year died Heraclius, king of the Byzantines, he to whom the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, wrote, calling him to Islam ; his son Constantine succeeded him.

That year : Umar divided Khaybar and expelled from it the Jews, divided the Wadi al-Qoura, and expelled the Jews of Najran to Kufa : so Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari.

The year twenty-one :

It is said : therein Amr ibn al-As opened Alexandria : it has passed.

That year : the people of Kufa complained of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and accused him of obstinacy : Umar removed him and appointed Ammar ibn Yasir over the prayer, Ibn Mas'ud over the treasury, and Uthman ibn Hanif over the survey of the lands of the Sawad.

That year : Uthman ibn Abi al-As marched and encamped at Tawwadj and opened it.

He sent Sawwar ibn al-Muthanna al-Abdi to Sabour : he was slain in martyrdom. Uthman ibn Abi al-As raided Sayf al-Bahr and the coasts, and sent al-Jaroud ibn al-Mu'alla : al-Jaroud too was slain.

Al-Mufadhdhal ibn Fadala reports, from Ayyach ibn Abbas al-Qitbani and more than one, that Amr marched from Palestine with the army, without the command of Umar, to Egypt and opened it. Umar blamed him for not informing him ; he wrote asking leave to confront the people of Alexandria. Amr marched in the year twenty-one, leaving Kharja ibn Hudhayfa al-Adawi at Fostat. He met the Copts and routed them after fierce fighting ; then they met at the Karions : fierce fighting ; then he reached Alexandria. Al-Muqawqis sent him seeking peace and truce : he refused, applied to fighting till he entered it by the sword, took the spoils of the Byzantines, placed over them a garrison under Abdallah ibn Hudhayfa as-Sahmi, and sent Umar the conquest. The news reached Constantine, son of Heraclius, who sent a eunuch called Manuel in three hundred ships : they entered Alexandria, slew the Muslims there, spared the fugitives, and its people revolted. Amr marched on it with fifteen thousand, raised the mangonels upon it, fought till he opened it by force, and razed its walls. Amr was seen razing them with his hand. Hammad ibn Salama reported it, from Abu Imran, from Alqama.

Nahawand :

An-Nahhas ibn Qahm reported, from al-Qasim ibn Awf ach-Chaybani, from as-Sa'ib ibn al-Aqra, who said : the Muslims were marched upon with a march the like of which was never seen : the people of Mah, of Isfahan, of Hamadan, Rayy, Qumis, Nahawand and Azerbaijan marched against them. That reached Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, who consulted the Muslims. Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, said : "You are the best of us in counsel, and the most knowing of your enemies." He said : "I shall appoint over the people a man to whom the first spear is addressed : O Sa'ib, bear my letter to an-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin : let him march with two-thirds of the people of Kufa, send to the people of Basra, and you shall have a share of their spoil ; if an-Nu'man is slain, Hudhayfa is the emir ; if Hudhayfa is slain, Jarir ibn Abdallah. If this army is slain, I desire to see you no more."

Alqama ibn Abdallah al-Mazni reported, from Muqil ibn Yasar, that Umar consulted al-Hurmuzan concerning Isfahan, Fars and Azerbaijan : which to begin ? He said : "O Commander of the Believers, Isfahan is the head, Fars and Azerbaijan the two wings : if you cut one wing, the head profits with the other wing ; if you cut the head, the two wings fall." Umar entered the mosque, found an-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin praying, dismissed him, and marched him with az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman, al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, Amr ibn Ma'di Karib, al-Ash'ath ibn Qays and Abdallah ibn Umar. He marched till he came to Nahawand ; the hadith is mentioned to his words : when the two hosts met, an-Nu'man said : "If I am slain, let none succeed me, and I call Allah with a call : secure yourselves" ; then he called : "O Allah, grant me martyrdom by the victory of the Muslims and the opening over them." The people secured themselves and charged : an-Nu'man was the first fallen.

Khalifa reported with a chain : they met at Nahawand on Wednesday, and the right flank of the Muslims gave way somewhat ; they met on Thursday : the right stood, the left gave way ; they met on Friday : an-Nu'man came preaching them, urging the charge, and Allah opened for them.

Ziyad al-A'jam said : Abu Musa came to us with the letter of Umar to Uthman ibn Abi al-As : "As to what follows : I have reinforced you with Abu Musa ; you are the emir : aid one another ; and peace." When the siege of Istakhr lengthened, Uthman ibn Abi al-As sent several emirs who raided the districts.

Ibn Jarir said, of the engagement of Nahawand : when an-Nu'man reached Nahawand with his army, they cast for him iron spikes ; he sent spies who marched unknowing ; some checked his horse, a spike having entered its hoof : it stirred not ; he dismounted, found the spike, presented it, and informed him. An-Nu'man said : "What see you ?" They said : "Withdraw till they deem you fled, and they will come out seeking you : you will take them." An-Nu'man withdrew, and the Persians swept the spikes and came out ; an-Nu'man turned upon them, arrayed his ranks, the people preached, and he said : "If I succeed, Hudhayfa is your commander ; if I am slain, Jarir al-Bajali ; if Jarir is slain, Qays ibn Mashshuh." Al-Mughira felt hurt that he was not named successor. The Persians came out, having chained themselves in chains lest they flee ; the Muslims charged them : an arrow struck an-Nu'man and slew him. His brother Suwayd ibn Muqarrin wrapped him in his garment and concealed his slaying till Allah opened for them, and he passed the banner to Hudhayfa.

Allah slew Dhu al-Hajib, their vanguard, and Nahawand was opened : the Persians had no gathering after.

Umar sent as-Sa'ib ibn al-Aqra, client of Thaqif, who was a scribe and accountant, and said : "If Allah opens for the people, divide them their spoil, and drop the fifth." As-Sa'ib said : "I was dividing among the people when a Persian came to me and said : Do you warrant me and my family, on condition I guide you to a treasure yours and your companion's ?"

I said : "Yes," and sent with him a man : he brought two great skins holding nothing but pearls, beryls and rubies. He says : "I loaded them with me and presented them to Umar, who said : put them into the treasury. I did, and returned quickly to Kufa ; the messenger of Umar overtook me not till I was in Kufa : he tied his camel at the hock of my camel and said : Go to the Commander of the Believers. I returned till I came to him. He said : What have I to do with the son of the mother of as-Sa'ib, and what has the son of the mother of as-Sa'ib with me ? I said : And what is that ? He said : By Allah, nothing but that I slept, and angels drew me by night toward those two skins, blazing with fire, saying : you shall be burned by them. I say : I shall divide them among the Muslims. They say : Take them, may your father be your ransom : go to them and sell them in the gifts and pensions of the Muslims." He says : I brought them out and laid them in the mosque of Kufa ; the merchants covered me : Amr ibn Harith bought them of me for a million dirhams, then carried them to the land of the Persians and sold them four millions : he remained the richest of the people of Kufa.

That year : Amr ibn al-As marched to the Barqa and opened it : peace with its people upon thirteen thousand dinars.

That year : Abu Hashim ibn Utba ibn Rabi ibn Abd Shams made peace over Antioch, Malliya, and others.

Abu Hashim was of the pleasant life of the conquest ; his Islam was fair ; he has hadiths in "the Sunan of an-Nasa'i" and elsewhere. Narrated from him : Abu Hurayrah and Samra ibn Sahm, maternal uncle of Mu'awiya. He attended the conquests of Syria.

The year twenty-two :

That year : Azerbaijan was opened by the hand of al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba : so says Ibn Ishaq ; it is said he made peace with them upon eight hundred thousand dirhams.

Abu Ubayda said : Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri opened it with the people of Syria by force, and the people of Kufa with him, among them Hudhayfa : he opened it after fierce fighting. Allah knows better.

That year : Hudhayfa marched on the city of Dinawar and opened it by force ; it had yet been opened for Sa'd, then revolted.

Then Hudhayfa marched on Mah Sabadhan and opened it by force, khulf therein ; it is said : Sa'd opened it, then they disbelieved.

Tariq ibn Shihab said : the people of Basra marched on Mah, the people of Kufa aiding them, over them Ammar ibn Yasir : they would share the spoils, and the people of Basra refused ; Umar wrote them : "The spoil is for whoso attended the engagement."

Abu Ubayda said : then Hudhayfa marched on Hamadan and opened it by force, it having not been opened : there ended the conquests of Hudhayfa. And all this in the year twenty-two.

He says : it is said al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba opened Hamadan in the year twenty-four, and it is said : Jarir ibn Abdallah opened it by the command of al-Mughira.

Khalifa ibn Khayyat said : that year Amr ibn al-As opened Tripoli of the Maghrib ; it is said : the year after.

That year : Ammar was deposed from Kufa.

That year : Jurjan was opened.

That year : Suwayd ibn Muqarrin opened Rayy, then encamped, marched to Qumis and opened it.

In it was born Yazid, son of Mu'awiya.

Muhammad ibn Jarir said : Umar confirmed at the gate of the Bab Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabi al-Bahili and ordered him the campaign against the Turks. He marched with the people till he crossed the Bab. Chahriran said to him : "What would you do ?" He said : "Punish them in their homes ; and by Allah, I have with me folk who, did our emir grant us to persist, would reach the Wall."

When Abd ar-Rahman entered upon the Turks, Allah parted between them and sallying against him ; they said : "None dared this matter but that with them angels ward off death" ; then they fled and fortified : he returned with victory and spoil. Then he campaigned them twice under the caliphate of Uthman : peace and spoil ; then he fought them and was slain in martyrdom, I mean Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabi : may Allah the Most High have mercy on him. His brother Salman ibn Rabi took the banner and drew apart with the people. He says : the Turks, they it is, pray for rain over the body of Abd ar-Rahman to this day.

The report of the Wall :

Al-Walid : Sa'id ibn Bachir told us, from Qatada, who said : two men inform me, from Abu Bukra ath-Thaqafi, that a man came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and said : "I have seen the Wall." He said : "How saw you it ?" He said : "Like a dyed cloth." Sa'id ibn Abi Uruba reported it, from Qatada, as relay, adding : "a black way and a red way" ; he said : "I have seen it : he means the redness of copper and the blackness of iron."

Sa'id ibn Abi Uruba, from Qatada, from Abu Rafi, from Abu Hurayrah, raised to the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : "Gog and Magog dig it every day ; when they are near to see the ray of the sun, he who is over them says : return, you will dig it tomorrow ; Allah restores it then harder than it was ; when their term comes, they dig it ; when they are near to see the sun, he who is over them says : return, you will dig it tomorrow, Allah willing ; they come back to it as it was when they left it, and dig it ; then they come out upon the people, who fortify in their strongholds ; they cast their arrows at the sky : they return blood-tinted ; they say : we have conquered the people of earth, and we are over the people of heaven ; Allah sends then upon them a worm which slays them."

Ibn Jarir mentions in "his Tarikh", from the hadith of Amr ibn Ma'di Karib, from Matar ibn Balj at-Tamimi, who said : I entered upon Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabi at the Bab, Chahriran with him. A man of ashen face advanced, entered upon Abd ar-Rahman and sat by Chahriran. Matar wore a Yemenite cloak, the earth red and his turban black. They asked after one another, then Chahriran said : "O emir, know you whence this man comes ? He is a man I sent toward the Wall two years ago, to see its state and what is beyond it ; I furnished him great wealth, wrote for him to my subjects, gifted him, asked him to write beyond, and furnished him a gift for every king : he did so with every king between him and it, till he reached that Wall at its top. He wrote to his agent over that land, who came to him ; he sent with him his falconers and his eagle, and gave him silk. When we arrived, behold two mountains, between them a Wall closed, rising over the two mounts ; before the Wall a trench blacker than night for its depth. I looked at all that, searching it, then would turn back. The falconer said to me : I shall reward your course, for none succeeds a king but he draws near Allah with the best of his world, which he casts into that flame. He cut a piece of flesh and cast it into the air : the eagle fell upon it ; he said : if you catch it before it falls, well and good ; the eagle came out, the flesh in its talons, and behold a ruby stuck in it : he gave it me, and here it is.

Chahriran took it and saw it red ; Abd ar-Rahman took it then returned it. Chahriran said : "This is better than that, meaning the Bab ; and by Allah, you are dearer to me in kingship than the family of Kisra ; were I in their power and they learned its story, they would tear it from me ; and by Allah, nothing of yours shall stand, if you render, or if your greatest king dies."

Abd ar-Rahman turned to the messenger and said : "What is the state of the Wall, and what is it like ?" He said : "Like this garment upon Matar." Matar said : "The man spoke truth, by Allah : he saw from afar and described the iron and the red."

Abd ar-Rahman said to Chahriran : "What was the worth of that ruby ?" He said : "A hundred thousand in my land, and three millions in those lands."

Salaman the interpreter relates : when he who trusts in Allah saw the Wall that Dhu al-Qarnayn built was opened, he sent me, saying : "Behold it and bring me its news" ; he joined me fifty men, furnished us, gave us two hundred mules bearing provision ; we set out from Samarra with his letter to Ishaq, then at Tiflis ; Ishaq wrote the possessor of the throne, who wrote for us the king of the Lan, who wrote us to Vilan-chah, who wrote the king of the Khazars, who joined us five guides. We set out from him twenty-six days, then came to a black, rank land, wherein we smelled vinegar ; we marched it ten days ; then we came to ruined cities wherein none was : we marched it twenty-seven days ; we asked the guides of those cities : they said : "Those are what Gog and Magog battered, then ruined." Then we came to fortresses by the Wall, wherein were people speaking Arabic and Persian, Muslims reciting the Quran, having mosques and schools ; they asked us ; we said : "We are messengers of the Commander of the Believers." They marveled, saying : "The Commander of the Believers !" We said : "Yes." They said : "An elder, or a youth ?" We said : "A youth." They said : "Where is he ?" We said : "In Iraq, in a city called Samarra." They said : "Never heard we of it."

Then we came to a smooth mountain, no green upon it ; and behold a mountain cleft by a valley of a hundred cubits broad ; we saw two pillars built on the mountain side of the two sides of the valley, each pillar twenty-five cubits broad, emerging from beneath ten cubits beyond the gate ; all of brickwork of iron sunk in copper,

fifty cubits thick, mounted on the two pillars, ten cubits on each, in breadth five ; above the wall a building of that iron brick to the head of the mountain, its height beyond sight ; above that an iron battlement with two horns locking each into the other ; and a gate of iron, two leaves shut, a hundred cubits broad in a hundred cubits long, five cubits thick, with a lock seven cubits long, thick as an arm ; above it, some two men's heights, a bolt longer than the lock, its two staples two cubits each ; upon the bolt a hanging key a cubit and a half, in a chain of eight cubits, in a ring like the ring of the mangonel.

The chief of those fortresses rides every Friday with ten horsemen, each horseman an iron mace : they strike the lock with those maces three blows ; behind the gate the blows are heard, and they know there are keepers ; and these know those have changed nothing of the gate. When they strike the lock, they set their ears and listen : they hear a noise like thunder.

Near this place a great fortress ; at the gate two fortresses, each two hundred cubits by two hundred ; on the gate of each fortress a tree ; between the two fortresses a sweet spring ; in one of the fortresses the tool of the building of the Wall : cauldrons, shovels, and bricks fastened one to another of rust, the brick a cubit and a half by its like, a span thick. We asked the people of the place : saw they any of Gog and Magog ? They mentioned that once they saw numbers of them above the battlement : a black wind blew and cast them to their side ; the stature of a man of them was a span and a half. When we departed, the guides took us toward Khurasan : we marched till we came out behind Samarkand nine parasangs ; the people of the fortresses had furnished us sufficient.

Then we came to Abdallah ibn Tahir, says Salaman the interpreter : I told him our story ; he sent me a hundred thousand dirhams, and to every man with me five hundred dirhams ; we reached Samarra twenty-eight months after going out. The author of the "Book of Roads and Kingdoms" said : thus dictated to me Salaman the interpreter.

The year twenty-three :

That year : Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, was preaching when he said : "O Sariya, the mountain !" Umar had sent Sariya ibn Zunaym ad-Dayli to Fassa and Darabjird, who besieged them. They concerted, came to him from every side, and met at a place ; on the Muslims' side rose a mountain : had they leaned upon it, none had reached them but from one side. They took refuge at the mountain, then fought them and routed them. Sariya took the spoils, among them a case of jewels he sent Umar, who returned it, ordering it divided among the Muslims, and asked the people of Medina of the conquest : had they heard aught ? They said : "Yes : O Sariya, the mountain, the mountain ! We all but perished : we took refuge at the mountain, and there was the victory." It is related that Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, was asked later of his word "O Sariya, the mountain" : he mentioned it not.

That year : Kirman was opened, its commander Suhayl ibn Adi.

That year : Sistan was opened, its commander Asim ibn Amr.

And therein : Makran was opened, its commander al-Hakam ibn Uthman ; it is of the land of the mountain.

That year : Abu Musa al-Ash'ari returned from Isfahan, having opened its lands.

That year : Mu'awiya made the summer raid till he reached Amorium.

Mention of those who died under the caliphate of Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, in brief :

Al-Aqra ibn Habis at-Tamimi al-Mujashi'i.

One of the hearts reconciled and one of the nobles to whom Abu Bakr allotted a domain ; he and Uyayna ibn Hisn had a pension, which Umar suspended, erasing the writing Abu Bakr had written them two. Both were among the greats of their people. Al-Aqra attended with Khalid the war of the people of Iraq, at the vanguard.

It is said : Abdallah ibn Amir appointed him over an army marched to Khurasan, and he was smitten, with the army, by the plague of Juzjan, under the caliphate of Uthman.

Ibn Durayd said : his name is Firasa ibn Habis ibn Aqal, surnamed al-Aqra for the baldness upon his head.

Al-Hubbab ibn al-Mundhir ibn al-Jamuh, Abu Amr al-Ansari, one of the Banu Salama ibn Sa'd ; it is said : his kunya was Abu Amr, and he was called the man of counsel.

He counseled the day of Badr that the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, alight at the last water of Badr, that the polytheists remain without water. He is the one who said the day of the Saqifa of the Banu Sa'ida : "I am the polished pillar and the propped arm : of us an emir, and of you an emir." The pillar : a wood set up for galled camels to rub against. The palm : the palm-tree ; the propping : that the noble palm be propped with a building of stones or wood, when it is feared, for the weight of its load, it will fall : one says : I propped it, it is propped. Narrated from him : Abu at-Tufayl ;

he died at Medina under the caliphate of Umar.

Alqama ibn Ulatha ibn Awf al-Amiri al-Kilabi, of the hearts reconciled.

He embraced Islam at the hand of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; he was of the nobles of his people ; he was in the Tahama ; he came to Damascus before its conquest for an inheritance of his, and visited Umar in his caliphate. Narrated from him : Anas.

Alqama ibn Mujazziz ibn al-Awar ad-Dayli.

The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, appointed him over some of his armies ; as-Siddiq gave him the war of Palestine ; he attended al-Jabiya with Umar, then Umar marched him with an army to Abyssinia, three hundred : all drowned ; it is said that was in the days of Uthman ibn Affan. His father Mujazziz is the famed physiognomist.

Amr ibn Awf, ally of the Banu Amir of Lu'ayy, born at Mecca ; Ibn Ishaq names him Amr, Musa ibn Uqba Umayra. He attended Badr and Uhud. Al-Musayyab ibn Mukhrama reported from him the hadith of the coming of Abu Ubayda with wealth from the Bahrain : al-Bukhari reported it, and Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, prayed over him.

Amara ibn al-Walid, brother of Khalid ibn al-Walid, al-Makhzumi.

Al-Waqidi said : Abdallah ibn Ja'far told me, from Ibn Abi Awn : when befell the affairs of Amr ibn al-As in Abyssinia, and the Negus dealt Amara ibn al-Walid as he dealt him, ordering the trumpets blown in his posteriors, he wandered with the wild beasts. Under the caliphate of Umar, his cousin Abdallah ibn Abi Rabi went out seeking him, and found him on a water of the land of Abyssinia to which he returned ; he came on among the red beasts ; when he smelled the scent of man, he fled till thirst overcame him and he returned to drink. Abdallah said : I seized him, and he fell to saying : "O Bahira, release me : I die should they seize me." Abdallah was called Bahira. He says : I mastered him, and he died in my hand on the spot ; I buried him and departed, his hair having covered all his body.

Ghaylan ibn Salama ath-Thaqafi : he had the Companionship and transmission ; he is the one who embraced Islam having under him ten wives ; he was a fine poet ; he came before Islam to Kisra, asking him build him a fortress at Ta'if. He embraced Islam in the time of the conquest. Narrated from him : his son Urwa and Bachr ibn Asim.

Ma'mar ibn al-Harith ibn Ma'mar ibn Habib ibn Wahb al-Jumahi, brother of Hatib and Khattab ; their mother Qayla was sister of Uthman ibn Maz'un.

Ma'mar embraced Islam before the entering of the house of al-Arqam, emigrated, and the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, made brotherhood between him and Mu'adh ibn Afra ; he attended Badr.

Mayssara ibn Masruq al-Ansi : a righteous elder ; it is said he had the Companionship, attended the Yarmuk, and narrated from Abu Ubayda. Aslam, client of Umar, narrated from him. He entered the Byzantines as emir over six thousand : he raided there, slain, captives and spoil ; the Byzantines gathered against him : that was in the year twenty ; he engaged them, and Allah gave him victory over them ; it was a great affair.

Al-Hurmuzan, lord of Tustar : his affair passed in the year twenty ; he was among the kings under the hand of Yazdjard.

Ibn Sa'd said : Abu Musa al-Ash'ari sent him to Umar with twelve Persians, clad in brocades, ornaments of gold and bracelets of gold ; they were brought to Medina, and the people marveled at their appearance. They entered and found Umar in the mosque, asleep, his cloak for pillow. Al-Hurmuzan said : "And this is your king ?" They said : "Yes." He said : "Has he then no chamberlain nor guard ?" They said : "Allah guards him till his term comes to him." He said : "This is the blessed king."

Umar said : "Praise be to Allah who abased this king and his sect by Islam." Then he said to the delegation : "Speak." Anas ibn Malik said : "Praise be to Allah who fulfilled His promise, honored His religion, forsaken who contradicted Him, made us inherit their land and their homes, and bestowed on us their children and their wealth." Umar wept, then said to al-Hurmuzan : "How see you the work of Allah with you ?" He answered him not. He said : "What has you that you speak not ?" He said : "Speech of a living man, or speech of a dead ?" He said : "Are you not living ?" Al-Hurmuzan asked water : Umar said : "Slaying and thirst shall not be gathered upon you." They brought him water, which he held. Umar said : "Drink : no harm upon you." He cast the vessel and said : "O assembly of Arabs : you were, and you were upon no religion : we worshipped you and slew you, and you were the worst of nations in our sight ; when Allah was with you, none had power against Allah."

Umar ordered him slain. He said : "Did you not warrant me !" He said : "How so ?" He said : "You said to me : speak, no harm upon you ; and you said : drink, I slay you not till you drink." Az-Zubayr and Anas said : "He spoke truth." Umar said : "Allah slay him : he took assurance and I knew not." They took off what was upon him. Umar said to Suraqa ibn Malik ibn Ju'sham, who was black and lean : "Put on the bracelets of al-Hurmuzan." He put them on and wore his garment.

Umar said : "Praise be to Allah who stripped Kisra and his people of their ornaments and garments, and clothed them upon Suraqa." Then he called al-Hormuzan to Islam : he refused. Ali ibn Abi Talib said : "O Commander of the Believers, grant these respite." Umar embarked al-Hurmuzan, Jafina and others upon the sea, saying : "O Allah, break them by them," and meant to march them to

Syria : he broke them by them, and they drowned not ; they returned, embraced Islam, and Umar assigned each of them two thousand. He named al-Hurmuzan Arfaja.

Al-Musayyab ibn Mukhrama said : I saw al-Hurmuzan at ar-Rouha in ihram of the lesser pilgrimage, with Umar.

Ibrahim ibn Sa'd reported, from his father, from his grandfather : I saw al-Hurmuzan in ihram of the lesser pilgrimage with Umar, wearing a precious garment.

Ali ibn Zayd ibn Judan reported, from Anas : I never saw a man of flatter belly, nor broader between the shoulders, than al-Hurmuzan.

Abd ar-Razzaq, from Ma'mar, from az-Zuhri : Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib informs me that Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, upon whom a lie was never proven, said : "I came to al-Hurmuzan, Jafina and Abu Lulu'a, who were Christians, and I followed them ; there fell from among them a two-pointed dagger, its haft planted in its midst. Abd ar-Rahman said : consider then with what Umar was slain." They considered and found a dagger of that description. Ubaydallah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab then went out, girt with the sword, till he came to al-Hurmuzan, and said : "Accompany me : let us seek a horse for me" ; al-Hurmuzan was a judge of horses. Al-Hurmuzan went out, walking before him : Ubaydallah struck him with the sword ; when the sword reached the neck, he said : "There is no deity but Allah," and he slew him. Then he came to Jafina, who was a Christian : when he saw him, he struck him with the sword and crucified him between the two eyes. Then he came to the daughter of Abu Lulu'a, a little slave-girl claiming Islam, and slew her ; and the earth darkened that day upon its people.

Then he advanced, the sword bared in his hand, saying : "By Allah, I shall not leave Medina without slaying this one and others," menacing men of the Muhajirun, who fell to saying : "Cast the sword," but he refused, and they feared to come near him, till Amr ibn al-As came and said : "Give me the sword, O nephew." He gave it him. Then Uthman leapt upon him : he took him by the head, and they wrestled till the people parted between them. The governor of Uthman ceased not, saying : "Counsel me on this matter which has rent Islam with a rent." The Muhajirun counseled slaying him, and a company of the people said : "Umar slain yesterday, and his son follows him today !" May Allah remove al-Hurmuzan and Jafina ! Amr said : "Allah has excused you that this matter be in your command : pardon." The people inclined to the word of Amr, and Uthman paid the blood-price of the two men and the slave-girl.

Ibn Sa'd reported it from al-Waqidi, from Ma'mar, adding : Jafina was of the Christians of al-Hira, a friend of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, teaching the people writing at Medina ; and he said : "I think not Umar was that day in Medina, but in Egypt, unless he had made pilgrimage." He says : the earth darkened : that weighed upon the souls, who feared a punishment.

Abu Wajza reported, from his father : I saw Ubaydallah that day wrestling with Uthman, who said : "May Allah slay you ! You slew a man who prayed, a little slave-girl, and another under protection : nothing of right withholds you." Ubaydallah ibn Umar remained, and was slain the day of Siffin with Mu'awiya.

Ma'mar reports, from az-Zuhri : Hamza ibn Abdallah ibn Umar informs me that his father said : "May Allah have mercy on Hafsa if she was of those who stirred Ubaydallah to the slaying of al-Hurmuzan and Jafina."

Ma'mar said : it reached us that Uthman said : "I am the guardian of al-Hurmuzan, of Jafina and of the slave-girl : I have made it the blood-price."

Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari mentions, with a chain, that Uthman demanded the penalty from the children of al-Hurmuzan concerning Ubaydallah : the children of al-Hurmuzan pardoned him to them.

Hind bint Utba bint Rabi ibn Abd Shams al-Abchamiyya, mother of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan.

She embraced Islam in the time of the conquest and attended the Yarmuk. She is the one who said to the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : "Abu Sufyan is a niggardly man : he gives me not what suffices me and my child." He said : "Take what suffices you and your child, with equity."

Her husband, before Abu Sufyan, was Hafs ibn al-Mughira, paternal uncle of Khalid ibn al-Walid, in the Jahiliyya.

Hind was among the finest women of Quraysh and the most reasonable of them. Then Abu Sufyan divorced her at the end ; she asked Umar four thousand dirhams of the treasury, went to the land of Kalb, bought and sold. She came to her son Mu'awiya, then governor of Syria for Umar, and said : "O my son, Umar works for Allah ; he has fine poetry."

Waqid ibn Abdallah ibn Abd Manaf ibn Uzayr al-Han dhali al-Yarbui, ally of the Banu Adi.

Among the very first converts : he embraced Islam before the house of al-Arqam, attended Badr and all the battles. The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, made brotherhood between him and Bachr ibn al-Bara ibn Ma'rur. Waqid was in the expedition of Abdallah ibn Jahch to Nakhla : Waqid slew Amr ibn al-Hadrami, and were thus the first slayer and first slain in Islam. Waqid died under the caliphate of Umar.

Abu Khirach al-Hudhali the poet, whose name is Khuwaylid ibn Murra, of the Banu Qird ibn Amr al-Hudhali.

Abu Khirach was of those who ran upon his feet and outstripped horses ; he was, in the Jahiliyya, among the brigands of the Arabs, then he embraced Islam.

Ibn Abd al-Barr said : after Hunayn and Ta'if remained no Arab but he embraced Islam : some came and some came not ; Abu Khirach embraced Islam, and his Islam was fair. He died in the time of Umar : Hajjaj came to him, he walked to the water to fill it for them, and a viper bit him. He returned in haste, gave them the water, a sheep and a cauldron, not telling them what had befallen him ; then he passed the night dying : they left not till they buried him.

Abu Layla al-Mazni, whose name is Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ka'b ibn Amr.

He attended Uhud and what came after ; he was one of the weepers concerning whom descended : {They turned away, their eyes flowing with tears in sorrow, that they find not what to spend} (Surah at-Tawba, verse 92).

Abu Muhjan ath-Thaqafi : his name has sayings ; he came with the delegation of Thaqif and embraced Islam ; he has no narration. He was the knight of Thaqif in his time, but he drank wine at times ; Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, availed himself of him, and he was flogged many times, till Umar exiled him to an island : he fled and joined Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas at the Qadisiyya. Umar wrote Sa'd, who confined him. The day of Qass an-Natif, the fighting being joined, Abu Muhjan asked a concubine of Sa'd to loose his shackles and give him a horse of Sa'd, covenanting her, did he escape, to return to his shackles. She loosed him and gave him a horse : he fought and bore himself admirably, then returned to his shackles.

Ibn Jarir said : it reached me he had the wine-penalty seven times.

Ayyub reported, from Ibn Sirin : Abu Muhjan ceased not being flogged for wine ; when he multiplied, they imprisoned him. The day of the Qadisiyya, he saw them, spoke to the mother of the son of Sa'd, who loosed him and gave him horse and arms. He ceased not charging a man and slaying him, dashing his neck ; Sa'd looked at him, wondering : "Who is the horseman ?" They delayed not to rout them, and Abu Muhjan returned and shackled himself. Sa'd came, telling the woman : "We met and met, till Allah sent a man upon a piebald horse : had I not left Abu Muhjan in the shackles, I would have deemed it somewhat of his manner." She said : "By Allah, it is Abu Muhjan," and related him. He summoned him, loosed his shackles, and said : "We shall flog you never for wine." He said : "And I, by Allah, shall never drink it : I meant to leave it you for your floggings" : and he drank it no more.

Abu Mu'awiya the blind reported the like, from Amr ibn Muhajjir, from Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Sa'd, from his father : the day of the Qadisiyya, they brought Abu Muhjan drunken, and Sa'd confined him ; and he mentions the hadith.

The traditionists relate that Abu Muhjan is he who said :

"When I die, bury me beside a vine / that water my bones after my death with its roots,

and bury me not in the steppe : I fear, / once dead, to taste not its grapes."

Al-Haytham ibn Adi claims that he who saw the tomb of Abu Muhjan in Azerbaijan, or said : in the regions of Jurjan, informed him that a vine had grown upon it, shaded and fruited : the man marveled and recalled his poetry.