“The Arabian nation was the champion of Islam, and to fight its battles every Arab was jealously reserved. He must be the soldier, and nothing else. He might not settle down in any conquered province as cultivator of the soil; and for merchandise or other labour, a busy warlike life offered but little leisure. Neither was there any need. The Arabs lived on the fat of the conquered land, and captive natives served them. Of the booty taken in war, four parts were distributed to the army in the field; the fifth was reserved for the State; and even that, after discharging public obligations, was shared among the Arabian people. In the reign of Abu Bakr, this was a simple matter. But in the Caliphate of Omar, the spoil of Syria and of Persia began in ever-increasing volume to pour into the treasury of Medîna, where it was distributed almost as soon as received. What was easy in small beginnings, by equal sharing or discretionary preference, became now a heavy task. And there began, also, to arise new sources of revenue in the land assessment, and the poll-tax of subject countries, which, after defraying civil and military charges, had to be accounted for to the Central Government; the surplus being, like the royal fifth, the patrimony of the Arab nation.
“At length, in the second or third year of his Caliphate, Omar determined that the distribution should be regulated on a fixed and systematic scale. The income of the commonwealth was to be divided, as heretofore, amongst the Faithful as their heritage, but upon a rule of precedence befitting the military and theocratic groundwork of Islam. For this end three points only were considered: priority of conversion, affinity to the Prophet, and military service. The widows of Mahomet, ‘Mothers of the Faithful,’ took the precedence with an annual allowance of 10,000 pieces each; and all his kinsmen were with a corresponding liberality provided for. The famous Three Hundred of Bedr had 5,000 each; presence at Hodeibia (Ḥudaibīyah) and the Pledge of the Tree, gave a claim to 4,000; such as took part in quelling the Rebellion (immediately after Muḥammad’s death), had 3,000; and those engaged in the great battles of Syria and Irâc, as well as sons of the men of Bedr, 2,000; those taking the field after the actions of Câdesîya and the Yermûk, 1,000. Warriors of distinction received an extra grant of 500. And so they graduated downwards to 200 pieces for the latest levies. Nor were the households forgotten. Women had, as a rule, one-tenth of a man’s share. Wives, widows, and children had each their proper stipend; and in the register, every infant, as soon as born, had the title to be entered, with a minimum allowance of ten pieces, rising with advancing age to its proper place. Even Arab slaves (so long as any of that race remained) had, strange to say, their portion.
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“The Arabian aristocracy thus created was recognised by the whole Moslem world. The rank and stipend now assigned descended in the direct line of birth. Even rewards given for special gallantry in the field were heritable. By making thus the revenues of Islam the heritage of the nation militant, their martial genius was maintained, and their employment perpetuated as the standing army of the Caliphate.
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“To carry out this vast design, a register had to be drawn and kept up of every man, woman and child, entitled to a stipend from the State—in other words, of the whole Arab race employed in the interests of Islam. This was easy enough for the higher grades, but a herculean task for the hundreds and thousands of ordinary fighting men and their families who kept streaming forth from the Peninsula; and who, by the extravagant indulgence of polygamy, were multiplying rapidly. But the task was simplified by the strictly tribal composition and disposition of the forces. Men of a tribe, or branch of a tribe, fought together; and the several corps and brigades being thus territorially arranged in clans, the Register assumed the same form. Every soul was entered under the stock and tribe and class whose lineage it claimed. And to this exhaustive classification we owe in great measure the elaborate genealogies and tribal traditions of Arabia before Islam. The Register itself, as well as the office for its maintenance and for pensionary account was called the Dewân (Dīwān), or Department of the Exchequer.” (Sir W. Muir, Annals of the Early Caliphate, London, 1883, p. 228.)
It was fortunate for Islām, that the reign of Abū Bakr, short in duration, but pregnant with decisive issues, should precede that of ʿUmar. During the critical period, immediately after Muḥammad’s death, when three false prophets and a prophetess gathered increasing numbers round their rebellious standards, when in the north, east, and south of the Peninsula, tribe after tribe, apostatized from the newly-adopted creed, and when al-Madīnah itself was repeatedly threatened by hostile invasions of the neighbouring clans, it needed all the spirit of compromise and conciliation which blended in Abū Bakr’s character with penetrating shrewdness and dauntless courage, to steer the bark of the Muslim commonwealth through the dangers which were surrounding it on every side. ʿUmar’s irrepressible impetuosity would, at that time, probably have caused more harm than good, while, on the other hand, the unprecedented success which crowned Abū Bakr’s wise and temporising politics, taught him to temper his own impulses of bold enterprise with prudence and cautiousness, when, in his turn, the responsibilities of office rested on his shoulders.
The original violent bent of Umar’s nature is forcibly illustrated by the history of his conversion, as it is told in various traditions. In his youth and early manhood, a zealous and devoted adherent of the religion of his forefathers, he hated and persecuted Muḥammad as a dangerous innovator, who had come to lead his people astray, and to sow discord between them. Infuriated at some fresh success of the pretended Prophet, he sallied forth one day to kill him, when he met his kinsman, Nuʿaim ibn ʿAbdi ʾllāh, who, seeing him armed and fiercely excited, asked him: “Whither goest thou, and what is thy intent?” “I seek Muḥammad,” was ʿUmar’s reply, “and I will slay him; he has vilified our gods and dishonoured our ancestors.” “Passion blinds thee,” retorted Nuʿaim; “knowest thou not that, if thou killest Muḥammad, thou wilt draw the vengeance of the Hāshimites and the Banū Mut̤t̤alib upon thy head? Better far it would be for thee, to heed the welfare of thy own family, and to bring back to the right path those members of it who have forsworn their ancestral religion.” “And who are they,” asked ʿUmar. “Thy brother-in-law, Saʿīd ibn Zaid, and Fāt̤imah, thy very own sister,” answered Nuʿaim.
Forthwith the incensed man hurried on to the house of the culprits. Here K͟habbāb ibn al-Aratt, a devoted disciple of Muḥammad, the same who had made them acquainted with his teaching and won them over to Islām unknown to ʿUmar, was reading with them at that moment a new fragment of the Qurʾān. When he heard ʿUmar coming, he concealed himself, and Fāt̤imah tried to hide the manuscript in the bosom of her dress. On entering, ʿUmar asked: “What have you been reading just now? I heard your voices!” “Nothing,” she replied, “thou art mistaken.” “You have been reading something, and I am told that you belong to the sect of Muḥammad.” With these words he threw himself upon his brother-in-law, and struck him. Fāt̤imah rushed in between them. Both husband and wife boldly confessed: “Yes, we are Muslims; we believe that there is no god but God, and that Muḥammad is his sent one; kill us, if thou wilt.”
No sooner had ʿUmar seen the blood flowing from a wound which he had inflicted on his sister, than shame for his own unmanly act, coupled with admiration of their courageous conduct, brought about a powerful revulsion of his feelings. He asked to be shown the manuscript, and when, after his solemn promise not to destroy it, the fragment was handed over to him, he read:—