Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/402

717–20] relatives. When a schoolboy at Medīna, the practice had been denounced to him by a holy man, whose teaching he adopted, and never departed from. ʿOmar had urged his father to discontinue it when Governor of Egypt; but he replied that the cessation, however otherwise right and proper, would damage the Umeiyad reign, and favour transfer of the Caliphate to the house of ʿAlī. The imprecation was resumed after ʿOmar's death. But its temporary abolition, whilst conciliating the feelings of the adherents of the house of ʿAlī towards ʿOmar himself, did no doubt stimulate the movement now taking shape against the ruling dynasty.

It says much for ʿOmar’s government that the Khawārij under his Caliphate did not unsheathe the sword. Sending for their leaders to argue their grievances and traitorous tenets with them, he heard their scruples patiently and answered them as far as he could. What troubled him most was their plea that, though he himself was orthodox and saintly, yet the godless Yezīd would succeed him. ʿOmar could only answer that with succession to the throne he could not interfere, as it had been so provided by the same authority from which his own title was derived. The faction was stimulated by ʿOmar's concessions to their prejudices; and equally so were the Umeiyad family troubled at his attitude, as dangerous to their dynasty.

There is not much to record of adventure, military or administrative, in the reign of ʿOmar. His first concern was to bring safely back what remained of the armament so bootlessly launched by his predecessors against Constantinople. Large supplies of food and carriage were sent to Maslama, and the withdrawal was thus successfully carried out. Elsewhere the efforts of ʿOmar were mainly marked by endeavours to convert the nations to Islām. Among the Berbers these were most successful. But in Spain the task was not so easy; and therefore, to reduce ‘the influence of the Christians, their lands were divided amongst the conquerors. A royal Mosque was also