Umar ibn al-Khattab

Umar was from Banu Adi, a clan of Quraysh. He was literate at a time when few in Makkah were, physically imposing, and known for a forceful temper.

When the first Muslims began to be noticed, he was among those who opposed them hardest. This is not glossed over in the sources; it is part of how his story is told.

His acceptance of Islam in Makkah is one of the turning points of the Makkan period. The reports describe him setting out angry and returning a Muslim, having heard the Qur'an recited at his sister's house. This comes from the biographical literature rather than the hadith collections, and the versions differ from one another in their details.

The consequence the biographies record is practical: with Umar and Hamzah among them, the Muslims were able to pray at the Ka'bah openly, which they had not been able to do before.

Abu Bakr died in 13 AH and Umar succeeded him, leading for roughly ten years. The decade saw the territory under Muslim rule expand enormously, into Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Persia, and Jerusalem came under Muslim rule during his caliphate. The connected histories describing that decade were compiled well over a century afterwards.

Governing that much ground needed machinery the young state had not had: a register for paying stipends, judges appointed separately from governors, garrison towns. The historical tradition credits his caliphate with putting these in place, though the histories that describe them were compiled generations later, and the register itself is described as having been adapted from a Persian model rather than invented from nothing. Much of what he is remembered for is administrative rather than dramatic. It is also where the reports about his plain living sit — a man running a large territory who was still easy for an ordinary person to reach.

He fixed the calendar too. Dating had been informal; Umar's administration set year one at the Hijrah, which is why Muslim dates are counted from that migration and not from a birth, a conquest or a coronation.

Umar was attacked while leading the dawn prayer in Madinah in 23 AH by Abu Lu'lu'ah, an enslaved Persian craftsman in the city, and died of his wounds. The reports connect the attack with a grievance over a payment Abu Lu'lu'ah owed to the man who held him, which he had asked Umar to reduce and Umar had declined. He was buried beside the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr.

Before he died he did something unusual: rather than naming a successor, he appointed a small council of senior Companions and left them to choose from among themselves. Uthman ibn Affan was chosen.