Omar made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem to- wards the middle of the year 16 of the Hegira (A.D. 637). After conversing for a while with Sophronius, and addressing to him several questions on the antiqui- ties of the place, visiting the Church of the Resurrec- tion, and saying his prayers under its portico, he de- sired to be convej'ed to Bethlehem, where he also per- formed his devotions. Returning again to the city, he caused a magniticent mosque to be erected on the site of Solomon's Temple, the predecessor of that Avhich still bears his name and remains an object of great venera- tion to the Mussulmans. The taking of Jerusalem was followed by the reduction of all the principal cities of Palestine, while Khaled and Abu Obeydah made them- selves masters of Laodicea, Antioch, Aleppo, and Baal- bek. Omar next prepared to invade Persia, a kijigdom then ruled by a king named Yezdegerd, against which he had at the beginning of his reign unsuccessfully con- tended (G34). Saad ibn-Abi AVakas, who was now in- trusted with the command of the army, penetrated far into Persia ; defeated at Kadesiyah a powerful army commanded by Rustam, who fell in the battle; took possession of Bahr-Shir, in the western quarter of the city of Madayin, the ancient Ctesiphon; founded the city of Kufah, near the Euphrates (638) ; crossed the Tigris; and at last took Madayin, the capital of Yezde- gerd's kingdom. In the mean while Amru ibn-al-As, who commanded the armies of Egj-pt, completed the conquest of that country by the reduction of Alexandria (640). It was then that the famous library founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus is said to have been destroyed by the conquerors. Upon an application from Amru to the caliph to know his pleasure concerning its contents, an answer was returned commanding its destruction ; for, said Omar, " if the books of the Greeks agree with the book of God (Koran), they are superfluous, and need not be preserved; and if they disagree, they are perni- cious, and ought to be destroyed." In consequence of this decision, we are told, and (notwithstanding all Gib- bon's ingenuity to discredit the account) we are inclined to believe, that the manuscripts were delivered up to the four (others say five) thousand public baths in the city, to which they served as precious fuel for six months. The conquest of Egypt was followed by that
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of part of Africa. Amru pushed his victorious arms as far as the deserts of'l'ripoli and Barca. Armenia was in the mean while subdued by Mugheyrah (641), and Khorassan (642) by Ahnaf ibn-Kays, another of Omar's lieutenants. In the same year was fought the famous battle of Nehavend, which decided the fate of Persia. Firuz, who now commanded the armies of Yezdegerd, was killed; and the monarch himself was obliged to seek an asylum at Farghanah among the Turks, where he died soon after in poverty.
The success which attended the arms of Omar, his unflinching severity towards the vanquished who would not embrace the religion of the Prophet, and, more than all, the inexorable justice which he dealt among his own people, excited against him numerous enemies at home and abroad, and several attempts were made upon his life. labalah ibn-Ahyam, chief of the Arabian tribe of Ghosan, became one of his most implacable en- emies. Although a tributary to the Greek emperor, in Avhose states he lived with liis tribe, and though pro- fessing the Christian religion, labalah went to see Omar at Medina, swore obedience to him, and embraced Islam with all his followers. Omar then took him with him on a pilgrimage to jNIecca. While the neophyte was making, as usual, seven times the circuit of the Kaaba, an Arab of low extraction happened to run against him, and was the cause of the prince's cloak falling off his shoulders. labalah resented the incivility by immedi- ately striking the man a blow on the face. The man made his complaint to Omar, who, having summoned labalah to his presence, sentenced him to receive a sim- ilar blow from the complainant. Against this sentence, just as it was, labalah most warmly remonstrated, say- ing that he was a king among his own people, and that the offender deserved to be punished with death. "My friend," said Omar to him, "the religion that thou and I follow makes no distinction between the king and the subject." Rather than submit to the indignity, labalah secretly left Mecca with all his suite, abjured Islam, and sought the protection of the Greek emperor. He had, moreover, sworn to revenge the outrage. Having com- municated his plans to a resolute young slave of his, Wathek ibn-Musafer by name, he promised him his liberty if he should succeed in killing Omar. Having arrived at Medina (638), where the caliph was then re- siding, Wathek was informed that Omar was in the habit of sitting down every day under a tree on his way to the mosque. Wathek, having climbed up the tree, awaited the arrival of Omar, who took his seat beneath it and fell asleep. Wathek, according to the account of the Mohammedan historians, was upon the point of coming down for the purpose of stabbing Omar with his dagger, when, lifting up his eyes, he saw a lion walking around him and licking his feet. Nor did the lion cease to guard the caliph until he awoke, when the lion instantly went away. Wathek was so much struck by this circumstance that he came down, kissed the ca- liph's hand, confessed his intended crime, and embraced the iSIohammedru religion. Yet the life of Omar was finally cut short by assassination. A Persian slave of the JIagian sect, whose name was Abu Lulu Firilz, had been obliged by his master, Almugheyrah ibn-es- shaabah, to pay him two dirhems daily, in conformity with the Mohammedan custom, for the free exercise of this religion. Firftz, resenting this treatment, brought a complaint before the caliph, and requested that some part at least of the tribute exacted of him might be re- mitted ; but this favor being refused by Omar, the Per- sian swore his destruction, and some days afterwards, while Omar was performing his morning devotions in the mosque at jNIedina, he stabbed liim tlirice in the belly with a sharp dagger. The peojile fell upon the assassin, but he made so desperate a defence that, al- though he was armed with no other weapon than his dagger, he wounded thirteen of the .assailants, and seven of them mortally. At last one of the caliph's attend- ants drew his cloak over his head, and seized him ;