Changes in the government of Kûfa.
To fill a vacancy requiring, beyond all others in the empire, skill, experience, and power, Omar unwisely appointed Ammâr, who, having been, as a persecuted slave at Mecca, one of Mahomet’s earliest converts, possessed a merit second to none in the Faith, but was a man of no ability, and, moreover, advanced in years.[403] The citizens of Kûfa were not long in finding out his incapacity; and, at their desire, Omar transferred Abu Mûsa from Bussorah to rule over them. But it was no easy work to curb the factious populace. They took offence at his slave for buying fodder as it crossed the bridge; and for so slight a cause the Caliph, after he had been governor for a year, sent him back again to Bussorah. Another nomination had already been determined on, when the artful Moghîra, finding Omar alone in the Great Mosque, wormed the secret out of him; and dwelling on the grave burden of a hundred thousand turbulent citizens, suggested that the new candidate was not fit to bear it. ‘But,’ said Omar, ‘the men of Kûfa have pressed me to send them neither a headstrong tyrant, nor a weak and impotent believer.’ ‘As for a weak believer,’ answered Moghîra, ‘his faith is for himself, his weakness falleth on thee; as for a strong tyrant, his tyranny injureth himself alone, and his strength is all for thee.’ Omar was caught in the snare, and, the scandals of Bussorah notwithstanding, was weak enough to confer on Moghîra the government of Kûfa. With all his defects, Moghîra was, without doubt, the strong man needed for that stiff-necked city; and he held his position there during the two remaining years of Omar’s reign.[404]
Evil arising from change of governors.
The vacillation of Omar, and his readiness, at the complaint of the citizens of Kûfa, once and again to shift their ruler, led that turbulent populace to know their power, and gave head to the factious temper already disquieting the city. It was a weak though kindly spirit which led the Caliph to nominate Ammâr to a post for which he had no aptitude whatever. Upon his recall, Omar asked whether his removal had caused him pain. ‘It did not much rejoice me,’ replied Ammâr, ‘when thou gavest me the command; but I confess that I was troubled when thou didst depose me.’ To which Omar responded amiably: ‘I knew when I appointed thee that thou wast not a man fitted to govern; but verily I was minded (and here he quoted from the Corân) to be gracious unto the weak and humble ones in the land; and to make them patterns of religion, and heirs of the good things in this present life.’[405] At the same time, he appointed another early convert of singular religious merit, Abdallah ibn Masûd, who had also been a slave at Mecca, to a post at Kûfa, for which, however, he was better fitted—the chancellorship of the treasury. He had been the body-servant of the Prophet, who was used to call him ‘light in the body, but weighty in the Faith.’ He was learned in the Corân, and had a ‘reading’ of his own, to which, as the best text, he held persistently against all recensions.[406]
Additional endowment to Bussorah.
There was still a considerable jealousy between Bussorah and its more richly endowed sister city. The armies of both had contributed towards the conquest of Khuzistan, and had shared accordingly. But Bussorah, with its teeming thousands, was comparatively poor; and Omar, to equalise the benefits of all who had served in the earlier campaigns, assigned to them increased allowances, to be met from the surplus revenues of the Sawâd administered by Kûfa.[407]
Officers of State: judicial, military, fiscal, and spiritual.
In the more important governments, the judicial office was discharged by a functionary who held his commission immediately from the Caliph.[408] The control of all departments remained with the governor, who, in virtue of his supreme office, led the daily prayers in public; and, especially on the Fridays, gave an address, or sermon, which had often an important political bearing. Military and fiscal functions, which vested at the first, like all other powers, in the governor’s hands, came eventually to be discharged by officers specially appointed to the duty. Ministers of religion were also commissioned by the State. From the extraordinary rapidity with which cities and provinces were converted, risk of error rose, in respect both of creed and ritual, to the vast multitudes of ‘new believers.’ To obviate this danger, Omar appointed teachers in every country, whose business it was to instruct the people—men and women separately—in the Corân and the requirements of the Faith. Early in his reign, he imposed it also, as an obligation to be enforced by the magistrate, that all, both great and small, should attend the public services, especially on every Friday; and that in the month of Ramadhan, the whole body of the Moslems should be constant in the assembling of themselves together in their Mosques.
Omar establishes era of Hegira. A.H. XVII.
To Omar is popularly ascribed, not only the establishment of the Dewân, and offices of systematic account, but also the regulation of the Arabian year. He introduced for this purpose the Mahometan Era, commencing with the new moon of the first month (Moharram) in the year of the Prophet’s flight from Mecca. Hence the Mahometan year was named the Hegira, or ‘Era of the Flight.’[409]