Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/107

78 assembled in the court of the Mosque. ʿOmar himself was present, and hushed the noise, that they might hear. Then, desiring to obtain their assent, the dying Caliph bade his wife Asmā raise him to the window (for the Caliph's house looked out upon the Court); so she bore him, in her tattooed arms, to the window, from whence, with a great effort, he called out: "Are ye satisfied with him whom I have appointed over you? None of mine own kin, but ʿOmar son of Al-Khaṭṭāb. Verily I have done my best to choose the fittest. Wherefore, ye will obey him loyally." The people answered with one voice, "Yea, we will obey."

To the end, Abu Bekr's mind was clear and vigorous. On his last day he gave audience (as we have seen) to Al-Muthanna, and, grasping the crisis, commanded ʿOmar to raise, with all despatch, a levy for Al-ʿIrāḳ. During his illness, ʿÃisha repeated verses from a heathen poet supposed to be appropriate. Abu Bekr was displeased, and said: "Not so; say rather" (quoting from the Ḳorʾān)-''Then the agony of death shall come in truth. This, O man, is what thou soughtest to avoid.''"  His last act was to summon ʿOmar to his bedside, and counsel him at great length to temper severity with mildness. Shortly after, he expired with these words on his lips:—"Lord, let me die a true believer, and make me to join the blessed ones on high!"

Abu Bekr had reigned but two years and three months. According to his express desire, the body was laid out by the loving hands of Asmā. He was wound in the clothes in which he died; "for," said he, "new clothes befit the living, but old the mouldering body." The same Companions that bore the Prophet's bier, now bore that of Abu Bekr: and they laid him in the same grave, the Caliph's head close by his Master's shoulder. ʿOmar performed the funeral service, praying, as was customary, over the bier. The funeral procession had not far to go; it had only to cross the open court of the Sanctuary; for Abu Bekr died in the house appointed him by Moḥammad opposite his own."

During the greater part of his reign, he had occupied that house. For six months, indeed, after Moḥammad's death, he continued to live partly as before in As-Sunḥ, a suburb of Upper Medīna. There he inhabited a simple