For wolf (zeib) some read sin (zanb). It is difficult to say what can have given rise to this strange tradition. Possibly Káb, seeing the sullen and threatening attitude of Abu Lulû, may have warned him accordingly.
[421] It is possible that Abd al Rahmân’s subsequent renunciation of the Caliphate in the coming conclave may have led to the tradition of this supposed conversation with Omar; but I give the tradition as I find it; and the facts as stated in the text are not in themselves improbable.
[422] The selection of Soheib was, no doubt, made advisedly. It will be remembered that Mahomet is thought to have, in a manner, pointed out Abu Bekr as his successor by nominating him, when he was himself laid aside, to preside at the public prayers. Soheib had, of course, no pretensions to the office. He had been a slave at Mecca, but was much revered because of his early conversion (Life of Mahomet, p. 72). So his appointment on this occasion was very suitable.
[423] A stalwart warrior. Mahomet used to say that in the field, the voice of Abu Talha was better than a thousand men. At Honein he slew twenty of the enemy with his own hand.
[424] Some traditions omit the words ‘Jews and Christians,’ giving thus to the sentence a general bearing; but the mention of covenant or treaties would seem to imply that tribes or people were meant other than Mahometans; and the best supported traditions are as in the text.
[425] Backî al Gharcad
[426] There is the tradition of a long conversation between Ibn Abbâs and Omar, in which the former pressed the right of his family to the Caliphate; and Omar answered, attributing the claim to envy. The whole is a mere Abbasside invention; for neither Aly nor Abbâs, nor any one of the house of Hâshim, seems even to have dreamed of any such pretension till after the dissensions which broke out after Omar’s death. Fâtima was the only discontented person, and that, as we have seen, was about the property left by the Prophet withheld from her by Abu Bekr, not about any claim to the Caliphate.
[427] As in the Oriental style, the bed, or matting, was spread upon the ground, Abdallah had but to raise his father’s head and remove it outside the pillow; so placing it on the ground, and afterwards raising it upon his lap.
[428] Some traditions give the date of his death three days later, i.e. on the last day of Dzul Hijj. This, no doubt, arises from that having been the date on which the new Caliph was chosen, and Omar’s reign is conventionally spoken of as also lasting up to that day—the last day of the year A.H. 23. There is another tradition that he was wounded on Wednesday, 23rd of Dzul Hijj, and buried on the Sunday following, i.e. on the 27th.
[429] Bilâl used to say that the only way to soothe Omar, when in a rage, was to recite in his hearing passages from the Corân, which invariably assuaged his wrath. This may, perhaps, have reference to the period of his conversion, when having struck his sister, and made blood to flow, he was moved to repentance by the reading of a Sura. (See Life of Mahomet, p. 96.)