upon which he stabbed himself, and soon after expired. Omar languished five days. He died on a Friday, in the month of Dhu-1-hajjah, A.H. 23, answering to the month of November, A.D. 644. He was buried on the following Saturday, close to the Prophet and Abu-Bekr, in a mosque which he had founded at Medina, where his tomb is still visited with great respect by the Mus- sulmans. Having been asked, some time before his death, to name his successor, he refused ; and upon the suggestion of one of his courtiers that he should leave the caliphate to his son Abdullah, he remarked, " It is enough that one out of my family has been forced to bear this burden, and account afterwards to his God for the command and government of the faithful." Mo- hammedanism cannot boast of a more virtuous sovereign or a more zealous apostle. It has been said of him that he contributed more efhcacioush^ to the advancement of the Mohammedan religion than the Prophet himself. Khondemir, the celebrated Persian historian, thus reca- pitulates the praiseworthy acts of this caliph : " He took from the infidels 36,000 cities or castles, destroyed 4000 temples or churches, and founded or endowed 1400 mosques." The Prophet had the greatest esteem for Omar, whose daughter Hafsah he married. On a cer- tain occasion he was heard to say, " If God had wished to send a second messenger to this world, his choice would undoubtedly have fallen on Omar." The devo- tion, humility, and abstinence of this caliph had become proverbial among the Mussulmans. He never tasted any other food than barley-bread and dates; water was his only drink ; and he was often found asleep under the porch of a mosque or beneath a tree. He complied most strictly with all the precepts of the Koran. Eu- tychius tells us that during his caliphate he performed nine times the pilgrimage to Mecca. In order better to conform to the regulations of the Koran, he lived by the work of his hands, supporting himself entirely by the sale of leather belts which he manufactured. But the quality for which Omar was most conspicuous was justice, which he is said to have administered with an even hand to infidels as well as believers. The histo- rian Wakedi says that the staff of Omar was more dreaded than the sword of his successors. In the life- time of Mohammed, a Moslem, condemned for his in- iquitous treatment of a Jew, happening to appeal to Omar from the sentence of the Prophet, was immedi- ately cut down with the scimitar for not acquiescing in the sentence of so u]iright a judge. From this circum- stance Mohammed gave Omar the surname of A l-fari'ik which he retained ever afterwards, a word meaning the divider, or the discriminator, thus doubly alluding to his action and the discernment which prompted it. Several of the best Mohammedan institutions date from the reign of Omar. It was in his time that the rera of the Hegira, or flight of Mohammed, by which all Mo- hammedan nations compute their years, was established, and its beginning fixed on .July 16, A.D. 622. He was the first who kept armies under pay, and assigned pen- sions to officers out of the public revenue; he instituted a sort of police force to watch at night for the security of the citizens ; and he promulgated some excellent reg- ulations respecting the duties of masters towards their slaves. He was also the first who assumed the title of Amir cl-mumenni (commander of the faithful), instead of that of Khalifah-rasuli-llahi (vicar of the messenger of God), which his predecessor Abu-Bekr had used. Omar's memorj' is an object of the greatest veneration among Mussulmans of the Sunni, or orthodox sect ; not so among the Sliiites, or partisans of Ali, who look upon the first three caliphs, Abu-Bekr, Omar, and Othman, as usurjiers of the caliphate, to the prejudice of Ali, to whom, they pretend, it belonged as the nearest relative of the Prophet. Sec Abulfeda, A nnales Moslemici (transl. by Reiske, Hafniaj, 1790), i, 250 sq. ; Al-makin, Hist. Saracenicn (ap. Erpenium, Lugd. Batav. 1625), p. 20 sq.; Ibn-Shihnah (Mf'i.), Raudfiatn-l-maiiddfiir ; Ock- ley, //ij.V. of the iiaracetis, i, 300; Ibn - al - Khattib,
OMBAY
367
OMEN
Hist. Calipharum (ap. Casiri) ; Bib. Ar. Tlisp. Esc. ii, 177 sq. ; D'Herbelot, Bib. Or. s. v. Omar ben-al-Khat- tab, Khaleil, Damashk, Iskamlriah, et al. : Weil, Isla- mitische VOlke?; p. 4787 ; Wright, Christianity in Arabia, p. 180 sq. ; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ix, 222, etc. ; and especially the article in the Enr/lish Cyclop., which we have freely used.
Ombay, or Maloewa {Malmcci), an island be- tween Celebes and the north-west coast of Australia, lies to the north of Timor, from which it is separated bj" the Strait of Ombay, lat. 8° 8'-8^ 28' S., long. 124° 17' -125^ 7', and has an area of 9G1 square miles. The population amounts to over 200,000. The liills of Om- bay are volcanic, and the coasts steep and difficult to approach. The inhabitants are dark brown, have thick lips, flat nose, and woolly hair, appearing to be of mixed Negro and Malay origin. They are armed with the bow, spear, and creese, and live on the produce of the chase, with fish, cocoa-nuts, rice, and honey. A portion of the island formerly belonged to the Portuguese, but since Aug. C, 1851, it is entirely a Netherlands posses- sion. The Dutch postholder resides at the village of Alor, to which iron wares, cotton goods, etc., are brought from Timor, and exchanged for wax, edible nests, pro- visions, and other native products. Ombay has oxen, swine, goats, etc., and produces maize, cotton, and pep- per. Amber is also found, and the IJoeginese of Celebes import European and Indian fabrics, exchanging them for the produce of the island, which they carry to Sin- gapore (Chambers). The Dutch missionary societies are the only Protestant Christians who labor in Ombay, and thus far but little progress has been made in con- verting the^e Malayan Negritos.