122 No god but God
debate over the rights of the family of the Prophet. Indeed, a shura
might have led to the succession of Ali, who had, over the past two
years, become increasingly popular. The support he already enjoyed
from a number of influential clans and Companions could very well
have led uncommitted clans to back his candidacy. Granted, the vested
interests of the Quraysh aristocracy in maintaining the status quo
would not have made Ali’s selection certain. But had it come to a con-
test between the enormously popular Ali and the fiery, rigid, misogy-
nistic Umar, the latter would not have been assured of victory. To
avoid that outcome, Abu Bakr ignored both tribal tradition and Mus-
lim precedent, and simply handpicked Umar, though, again, the new
Caliph had to be approved by the consensus of the community.
As Caliph, Umar was exactly what Muhammad had always considered
him to be: a brilliant and energetic leader. Tall, brawny, and completely
bald, Umar was an intimidating presence who, when he walked, “tow-
ered above the people as though he were on horseback.” A warrior at
heart, he maintained the Caliphate as a secular position but empha-
sized his role as war leader by adopting the additional title Amir al-
Mu’manin, “the Commander of the Faithful.” His superior skills in
battle led to the defeat of the Byzantine army in southern Syria in 634
and the capture of Damascus a year later. With the help of the
oppressed Syrian Jewish community, whom he had freed from Byzan-
tine control, Umar then devastated the Iranian forces at Qadisiyyah on
his way to subduing the great Sasanian Empire. Egypt and Libya fell
easily to Umar’s army, as did Jerusalem: the crowning achievement of
his military campaigns.
Surprisingly, however, Umar proved to be a far better diplomat
than anyone could have imagined. Recognizing the importance of
appeasing the non-Arab converts, who even in his time were begin-
ning to outnumber the Arabs, the Caliph treated his vanquished ene-
mies as equal members of the Ummah and strove to eliminate all
ethnic differences between Arab and non-Arab (at this point, however,
the latter still had to become a client of the former to convert to
Islam). The wealth that poured into Medina as a result of his military
victories was distributed proportionately to everyone in the commu-
nity, including the children. Umar went out of his way to curb the