Was he resentful Omar? He could not forget that scene at dawn at Abu Bakr's; With a conquering air, all in arrogance, Ibn Al Walid had just won his case with the caliph. Between valiant warriors, with a similar physique in addition, the most innocuous gestures have their importance; challenge ones are explosive.
By Farhat Oyhman
In the time of the Jahiliya, these Dark Times – as the pre-Islamic period of Arab history was called – were both known for their bravery. And if the rallying of Omar to the cause of Islam was celebrated as a victory by his still few followers, Ibn Al Walid knew how to show his genius and his military know-how even before his conversion by winning Ouhod, the only battle won by Quraish at the expense of the prophet.
This battle must have left scars in Omar's unconscious. The prophet was wounded there and his uncle Hamza died there; disemboweled and mutilated, he even had his liver torn out and bitten with gusto by Hind, who was still the wife of Abou Soufiane, chief of Qoraïch and father of Mouawiya, future governor in Damascus.
But what must have hurt Omar the most was his own behavior on that ill-fated day. Many Muslims perished and the few survivors acted like cowards, thinking of saving their lives, hiding in the dunes, abandoning their prophet to his fate, his lip split and his forehead bleeding. Neither he nor Abu Bakr was able to save him from this ordeal.
Unconsciously, he had never forgiven himself for this shame; he had a strong desire to punish the person responsible for it; and it was the architect of the victory of Quraish who concentrated all his resentment: Khalid Ibn Al Walid, this man physically so similar to him, but morally so dissimilar.
However, Omar's conscience could not follow his impulses without proven and considered facts, untied from any personal or unconscious inclination. In his eyes, like an obsession, he had the journey of this warrior, certainly still valiant, but become even more cruel.
On each of its passages flowed blood; the heads tumbled at the feet of burnt human trunks and replaced, under the pots, the stones as points of support; the palm trees were adorned with crucified bodies and the foot soldiers of his armies swelled with captured women and children.
His victims were not all pagans or enemies of Islam, and sanctuaries such as convents and categories of protected persons, such as priests or children, did not escape the zeal of his men in full view of their chief, except with his consent and under his orders. Already, during the lifetime of the prophet, Khalid did not deprive himself of excess; sent to preach, he did not refrain from killing, leading the prophet to deplore his actions, to repair them, to even declare himself free from them before God.
Omar had an elephant's memory; he forgot nothing, especially what had to do with the prestige of the vicariate and the duties of the chiefs, whether in public management or in moral precepts or public conduct. Thus, he did not forgive a Quraish pundit for a repartee deemed detrimental to the dignity of the caliphal office.
It was still the period of passive resistance to Abu Bakr's choice. A month after the death of the Prophet, the governor of Yemen Khalid Ibn Said Ibn Al 'Ass was visiting Medina. In the presence of Omar and the caliph, he had the indelicacy to reproach Ali and Othmane, the two descendants of AbdManaf, ascendant of the prophet, of losing interest in a power, supposed to be their own thing, and abandoned to others.
This put Omar in all his states. Also, faithful to the crude morals that he willingly claimed, he called his people to him, unleashing them on the impertinent. And the brocaded cassock he wore was immediately torn to pieces at Omar's cries: — Tear it on him! How dare he wear silk? It is neglected by our men even in times of peace!
The cassock in shreds, Khalid Ibn Saïd Ibn Al 'Ass was ashamed, but always provocative, calling out in vain to the AbdManaf cousins: — So we dispossess you by force!
Ali tried in vain to calm him down, but he nevertheless continued to express deep resentment: — Is it a question of combat or of vicariate? Ali wondered unnecessarily.
'No one is better placed than you to take charge of this affair,' he proclaimed, drawing severe repartee from Omar and ensuring his enmity for the long term.
"How badly you talk!" By God, only a liar says such things and thereby only harms himself.
Using his usual magnanimity, remaining impassive to such incidents, Abu Bakr did not want to hold it against Ibn Al 'Ass for his exit by trusting him during the wars of apostasy, appointing him to the head of an army . But Omar did not stop denigrating the man, he finally gave in, going back on a decision appointing him to the head of the first army corps sent to Syria at the beginning of the year 13 Hijri, finally entrusting this charge to Yazid Ibn Abi Soufiane.
To Khalid Ibn Al Walid, either, Omar could not forgive his excesses despite his multiple successes haloing him with greater prestige. This was commensurate with his victories and the man's reported behavior on those occasions went beyond all reasonable limits.
During the siege of Damascus, the day after AlYarmouk's victory, when he was no longer the commander-in-chief of the armies of Syria, he dared to behave as if he still was, allowing himself to the authority of his replacement, thereby splashing the prestige of Islam.
Abu Obeida had concluded a treaty of surrender with the besieged and had the gates of the fortress opened to him when, at the same time, Khalid forced open the eastern gates and launched himself with his men into the city, killing and looting. He cared neither for the image of the Arab armies nor for the authority of the general-in-chief, with whom he allowed himself the luxury of an altercation before finally yielding to him and agreeing to obey him.
The first letter that the new caliph wrote was intended for the armies of Syria. To Abu Obeida, he wrote that he was giving him command instead of Khalid. But, conscientious and careful not to let his own feelings overwhelm his keen sense of justice, he surrounded this decision with a strict condition: that Khalid not recognize his wrongs and not make amends, otherwise he would keep his prerogatives. He knew he was too proud and too proud to agree to change his mind, to admit having dared to lie, to act badly.
Put by the new commander of the armies in front of the necessity of the choice, Khalid hesitated a moment and asked for a time of reflection, the night being able to bring advice. Omar had scripted his revenge well; he only left the choice in appearance, knowing full well that one would not be able to comply with such an injunction, agree to publicly acknowledge his wrongs to keep the command, commented Khalid's sister, consulted on the matter. She was even categorical: — By God, Omar doesn't love you! He only seeks to make you contradict yourself in order to take away the command all the same.
At the relevance of his judgment, his brother nodded, kissing him on the head; yes, she was right! Faced with his peers and his soldiers, at the risk of suffering the worst humiliation in front of them, he will not change his mind. Because in his thirst for justice feeding on the sources of an unconscious revenge, Omar had meticulously planned the protocol of degradation.
Friends, rivals and companions of the armies of Syria were all gathered under the tent of the new commander! As master of ceremonies officiated the first muezzin of Islam, Bilal, freed slave of Abu Bakr who had bought him from his former masters to save him from his martyrdom. He seemed even more zealous than the general-in-chief in applying Omar's instructions. Did he also have to free himself from something on his conscience? Did he regret the present he received while he was Abu Bakr's chamberlain, finally equating it with corruption?
In the heavy silence reigning in the tent, in a voice that wanted to be impassive and neutral, Bilal asked Abu Obeida to recall the orders of the new caliph: — What have you been ordered concerning Khalid?
“I was ordered to take off his turban and share all his possessions with him.
And Khalid complied, giving him half of what he was wearing, down to the pair of shoes. Later, when he goes to Medina, at each meeting, he will be yelled at by Omar: — Khalid, get God's goods out of your ass!
It will be in vain that he protests that he has nothing, he will only have peace when he has decided to propose a compromise to the caliph.
- Prince of believers, will he end up asking him one day, do you estimate what I earned during your reign at forty thousand dirhams?
- I agree to estimate it for you at this sum, Omar will answer, having finally decided to be conciliatory.
"She's yours," Khalid will offer.
"I'll take it," Omar concluded, putting an end to the dispute, considering his thirst for justice satisfied.
We will count the assets of Ibn Al Walid who was less endowed with money than with slaves; we will obtain the sum of eighty thousand dirhams of which Omar will take half which will be paid into the Treasury. When it was suggested to Omar a little later that he return his goods to Khalid, he replied: — I am only the trader of the Muslims. By God, he will never take them back!
His debt thus settled, freed from this shackles, the warrior Ibn Al Walid will not remain less far from the battlefields. However, he would have had the satisfaction of the recognition of his warrior value by Omar after the battle of Qinnisrine, in Syria. Won in the best possible way thanks to him but on behalf of the chief of the armies Abou Obeïda, it led the caliph to declare publicly, doing him justice: — God have mercy on Abou Bakr; he was much better connoisseur of men than I! God is my witness, I did not dismiss him out of suspicion, but rather for fear that glory would turn his head.
Born in Mecca around the year 25 before the Hegira, Khalid died in Medina in 642 on the edge of his forties; his great feats of arms would have worn him out too soon, unless his quarrels with Omar had undermined him, as cares undermine the health of a mercanti in debt.
Wanting to be a tradesman in the community for which he was responsible, without dishonesty, but willingly a profiteer for the religious cause, Omar was, like most of his compatriots in Quraish, originally a tradesman. Like his predecessor, he abandoned his former activity to devote himself to public affairs.
He was not fooled by human weaknesses. He even prided himself on being neither treacherous nor liable to be duped by any treacherous person. So he was convinced that the warriors of Islam remained men and did not act only in the name of the principles and high values of their religion, although they were launched across the vast lands surrounding Arabia to extend the dimensions of the land of Allah, the house of Islam.
He also knew that they could not resist luxury and its corollary, lust, for too long. Around him, he visualized it day by day and never stopped fighting against it. Among many of his compatriots and co-religionists, greed prevailed more and more over religious feeling; faith was no longer what it was; we fought less and less for God and for the hereafter, but much more for a paradise on earth.
In Mesopotamia, as in Syria, Egypt and as far as North Africa where we reached Barka and Cyrenaica, conquests in the name of Islam were in fact linked together. The weakening of the Persians and the Byzantines at the end of their incessant wars, their internal divisions and their internal struggles, enabled the Muslim Arabs to score brilliant successes despite a few rare defeats.
In addition to their new faith and their renowned bravery, they were able to count on the feelings of hostility animating the populations under the domination of the Persian and Byzantine empires as well as on the spirit of ethnic solidarity of many non-Muslim Arabs.
The caliph's invitation to attack these lions – as the ancient Arabs called them – was final and general, imposing itself by will or force on any Muslim in a position to fight. Those who sought to avoid it were publicly removed from the turban and delivered up to general reprobation.
However, after having cleaned up the situation in the armies in Syria, Omar wanted to raise new troops for Mesopotamia in order to support the war effort there; he then found that he needed more time than before to assemble troops. If, with the prospect of joining the armies heading for Syria, the volunteers came running, they dragged their feet when they learned that they were called to join the troops of Mesopotamia. The power of the Persians was overestimated and feared more than the Byzantines, whose country seemed to them more prosperous, concealing more wealth to glean.
In Medina, now, flowed wealth of all kinds, gold, silver, slaves of all ages and sexes and animals within the framework of the fifth legal reserved for the Treasury and taken from what was shared on the spot between soldiers and their leaders. Some military leaders yielded to temptation, such as Ibn Al Walid or Amr Ibn Al 'Ass.
Omar thus had to attack the latter who, subjugating Egypt, wanted to appropriate it. After having invested, after a siege of more than a month, the city of Al Farma with the help of the Egyptian Copts revolted against the Byzantines who mistreated them, Ibn Al'Ass successively overthrew Belbiss, Migdol , Oum Dannine and finally Aïn Chams from which – once it had become the seat of the Arab command – the subsequent siege and capture of Bablioun and Alexandria was decided.
By conquering the country, Amr arrogated to himself all the rights of the master. He founded Fustat there, made it the capital of the province of Egypt and succeeded, almost without interruption, in being its governor until his death. Perceiving the secret ambitions nourished by the man, Omar watched him closely, in particular as regards his duties with regard to the tax; often he did not fail to call him to order. Each time he was late in sending her his receipts, resorting to various pretexts, he did not fail to write her reminder letters: — I am surprised to write to you too much about your delays in sending me the receipts taxes as well as your writings limited to secondary subjects. I didn't send you to Egypt to make it your booty or that of yours, but to watch over the tax revenue and to manage the country well. Also, as soon as this mail arrives, hurry to bring me your tax receipts which are the property of the Muslims. You know very well that I am surrounded by people in difficulty and who have the greatest need of it.
Turbaned, carrying on his shoulders a cotton coat mended with ten pieces of leather and cotton, his inseparable cane in his hand, Omar was on his red camel covered with a large bag on each side with a waterskin. water on the saddle and a food bowl behind him; a Bedouin on foot held the animal's bridle, and behind them followed fierce warriors of equally rugged appearance.
Thus he advanced towards Jerusalem (Ilya) where he was led to go to personally sign the treaty of capitulation according to the terms of the agreement obtained by his troops to have the city delivered to them without a fight.
When he saw the escort come to welcome him, he did not believe his eyes; the princes and the leaders of the troops were clothed in brocade and silk, and the saddles of their mounts were of silver. Only their commander-in-chief, Abou Obeïda, rode a camel whose bridle was in hair and had on him only a cotton coat. Mad with anger, he promptly dismounted and, picking up handfuls of earth and stones, he threw them at them, shouting at the top of his voice: "How quick you are to change your skin!" And you dare to welcome me in such an outfit? For barely two years, you have eaten your fill, and here you are, victims of gluttony!
His anger only subsided somewhat when he was assured that these men were indeed wearing armor and weapons below the brocade.
He barely shed his bad humor to return the favor to the patriarch of the conquered city, Sophronios, his supreme magistrate, who gave him a welcome worthy of his rank, even going so far as to allow himself to offer him a new coat that he had the pride to refuse.
To make him evacuate his bad mood, the leaders of his armies tried to occupy him by the project of a mosque in the city which was to bear his name. They made him trace the apse after Friday prayers on the fifth day of his entry into the city; but this did not make him lose his lucidity on the state of mind of the members of his community.
Visiting with the patriarch of the city the site from where the prophet made his heavenly journey, discovering the Christian holy places of the city, he was in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher when the hour of prayer arrived. To his host, who invited him to pay it on the spot, he confided that he preferred to unroll the carpet outside the religious enclosure, for fear that, later, people would come to demand for Islam this place on the pretext of this prayer.
Throughout his ten days of stay, he did not stop cursing against the disorder in the morals of his subjects. Even the news of Al Qadissya's victory, which reached him in Jerusalem, did little to smoothen the fair features of his slightly tanned face; his reddened eyes were even more incandescent, his sparsely haired cheeks had a permanent grin and his vertebrae, though well developed, seemed crushed by an invisible load.
During his caliphate and as far as possible, Omar strove to suppress the inclinations of his subjects. Believing in the virtue of example, he went so far as to prohibit the Companions of the Prophet from leaving Medina to settle in properties acquired on land won from enemies. Yet he knew his fight was doomed; Could he contain an irresistible propensity embedded in human nature for too long?
Gradually, Arab society changed; imperceptibly, the Muslim state was born in opulence and its rules, its constraints had to deal fatally with it and its excesses. Omar contributed a great deal to this birth; he was even its artisan; but he knew full well that he would not be able to master the implications for too long.
To be continued…
“The Origins of Islam. Succession of the Prophet, Shadows and Lights”, novel by Farhat Othman, ed. East Africa, Casablanca, Morocco.
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