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Caliph Umar (R. 634-644 CE) : Levant City Jerusalem

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Alina Binte Ejaz

Umar ibn Khattab became the second caliph after Abu Bakr's death in 634 CE. Under Umar's leadership, the Muslim army achieved major victories over the Sassanid and Byzantine empires, bringing Iraq and the Levant under Muslim control. Umar personally received the surrender of Jerusalem in 638 CE. He introduced important administrative and legal reforms and is remembered as one of the most important of the Rashidun caliphs. Umar maintained a strict commitment to justice, even when it involved punishing his own son. He was assassinated in 644 CE by a Persian slave seeking vengeance for the Muslim conquests.

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Caliph Umar (R. 634-644 CE) : Levant City Jerusalem

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Alina Binte Ejaz
26 views2 pages
Umar ibn Khattab became the second caliph after Abu Bakr's death in 634 CE. Under Umar's leadership, the Muslim army achieved major victories over the Sassanid and Byzantine empires, bringing Iraq and the Levant under Muslim control. Umar personally received the surrender of Jerusalem in 638 CE. He introduced important administrative and legal reforms and is remembered as one of the most important of the Rashidun caliphs. Umar maintained a strict commitment to justice, even when it involved punishing his own son. He was assassinated in 644 CE by a Persian slave seeking vengeance for the Muslim conquests.

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Umar ibn Khattab became the second caliph after Abu Bakr's death in 634 CE. Under Umar's leadership, the Muslim army achieved major victories over the Sassanid and Byzantine empires, bringing Iraq and the Levant under Muslim control. Umar personally received the surrender of Jerusalem in 638 CE. He introduced important administrative and legal reforms and is remembered as one of the most important of the Rashidun caliphs. Umar maintained a strict commitment to justice, even when it involved punishing his own son. He was assassinated in 644 CE by a Persian slave seeking vengeance for the Muslim conquests.

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26 views2 pages

Caliph Umar (R. 634-644 CE) : Levant City Jerusalem

Uploaded by

Alina Binte Ejaz
Umar ibn Khattab became the second caliph after Abu Bakr's death in 634 CE. Under Umar's leadership, the Muslim army achieved major victories over the Sassanid and Byzantine empires, bringing Iraq and the Levant under Muslim control. Umar personally received the surrender of Jerusalem in 638 CE. He introduced important administrative and legal reforms and is remembered as one of the most important of the Rashidun caliphs. Umar maintained a strict commitment to justice, even when it involved punishing his own son. He was assassinated in 644 CE by a Persian slave seeking vengeance for the Muslim conquests.

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Caliph Umar (r.

634-644 CE)
Abu Bakr had received the support of many influential men; one of such men was
Umar ibn Khattab (l. 584-644 CE), a senior companion of Muhammad, known for his
fiery temper and his unwavering stance on justice. Abu Bakr had preferred him as his
successor, and it was natural that after his death, Umar became the next caliph, he
added the phrase “commander of the faithful” after his title.

Umar continued Abu Bakr’s campaigns, and the year 636 CE brought two major
victories for the Caliphate. The Muslim army, under Sa’ad ibn abi Waqas (l. 595-674
CE), defeated a major Sassanian counterattack in the battle of Al Qaddissiya; as an
immediate result, this battle brought whole Iraq under Muslim control (while the rest of
the Sassanian Empire was conquered later on). Khalid ibn al Walid’s forces crushed the
Byzantines at the battle of Yarmouk – technically the army was under the command of a
senior man named Abu Ubaidah (l. 583-639 CE), but Khalid’s expertise saved the
day; the Levant was now under Rashidun control.

The city of Jerusalem was peacefully and bloodlessly surrendered to Umar, personally


(he had to come to the Levant and Syria to manage domestic affairs), in 638 CE. Umar
also demoted Khalid from his generalship at the morrow of his greatest achievement,
and this move has been highly debated upon. Some say that Umar had personal
problems with Khalid, while others press that Khalid was overly cruel (as there were
many controversies against him) and Umar, being inflexible in his parameters of justice,
was not ready to compromise. If the latter was the reason, Umar might have hesitated in
having the rogue general executed (as he naturally would have under normal
circumstances), owing to his recent achievements on the battlefield. Nevertheless, it was
clear that Umar preferred Abu Ubaidah as his potential heir, but the latter died in 639
CE due to the plague that devastated Syria and the Levant.

In his ten-year reign, Umar maintained a tight grip over his empire. To this day, he is
remembered as perhaps the most famous of the Rashidun Caliphs, and historian J. J.
Sauders refers to him as the “real founder of the Arab empire”. He introduced
the diwan – a primitive bureaucracy, which was responsible for paying soldiers their
salaries and pensions. Umar also safeguarded newly conquered locals from looting by
his armies by keeping armed forces separate from the rest of the population in
garrison cities such as Fustat in Egypt; and Kufa and Basra in Iraq. He introduced many
reforms and institutions of which the Arabs had no prior exposure to, such as the
police, courts, and parliaments, he even introduced the Islamic calendar, which started
from the year of the hegira – 0 AH / Zero “After Hegira”, the Prophet’s migration from
Mecca to Medina in 622 CE.

But of all the qualities he had, none are as praised as much as his piety and his love for
justice, which earned him the title of Farooq (the one who distinguishes between right
and wrong). A common story often associated with him dictates that one of his sons is
said to have been accused of adultery; the witness was a woman who claimed to be the
one with whom he had done so. Umar ordered his own son to be flogged, but the poor
lad could not take it and died. Later on the accusation was proven wrong, Umar was
crushed with grief but did not enact vengeance for his beloved son.

After Abu Ubaidah’s death, he appointed Muawiya (l. 602-680 CE) as the new governor
of Syria in 639 CE, the latter would in turn elevate his clan – Umayya, to the status of
caliphate in 661 CE. Umar was assassinated, as an act of vengeance, by a Persian slave
named Lu’lu in 634 CE, who was humiliated by the defeat of the Persians.

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