Umar I ibn al-Khattab, Caliph 707combine naturalism with particular attention to realism
and detail. He soon turned to ideas and practices of
perspective in painting. Back in Florence he painted
the equestrian FRESCO of the mercenary captain John
HAWKWOODin the cathedral of Florence in 1436 and a
series of frescoes on Noah and the flood in the cloister of
Santa Maria Novella in the same city in the 1440s. These
both demonstrated his innovative use of perspective and
foreshortening. He was also employed at Urbino and
PADUAabout the same time.
Around 1456, fulfilling a commission from the
MEDICIfamily, Uccello produced three panels depicting
the Battle of San Romano,now in Florence, PARIS, and
LONDON. The two small, almost surreal panels of a Saint
George and the Dragonand the Night Huntare among his
last documented works from about 1460. In a tax docu-
ment of 1469, he claimed to be poor and ill and to have a
sick wife. He died probably in poverty and isolation in
Florence in 1475.
Further reading:Franco Borsi, Paolo Uccello,trans.
Elfreda Powell (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1994); John
Pope-Hennessy, Paolo Uccello: Complete Edition,2d ed.
(1950; reprint, London: Phaidon, 1969); Jean Louis
Schefer, The Deluge, the Plague—Paolo Uccello,trans. Tom
Conley (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995).
ulama(ulema) Among the SUNNIMuslims the ulama
were (and are) men of knowledge trained in the reli-
gious sciences, who formed groups called alim.From
the early years or the classical age of ISLAM, they were
the formulators of the religion: the bearers of wisdom,
leaders of the religious community, civil servants, and
interpreters of Islam. This élite was required to have
extensive knowledge of the QURANand ability to apply
it to Muslim society often as QADIS, muftis, IMAMS, and
mullahs. The ulama were the teachers, preachers,
authors, social critics, and promoters of the status quo.
Some promoted Islamic change and revolution. They
could not be considered CLERGY, though they did have
considerable training and were all recognized for their
religious knowledge and roles as the custodians of
“orthodoxy.”
Further reading:Daphna Ephrat, A Learned Society
in a Period of Transition: The Sunni “Ulama” of Eleventh
Century Baghdad(Albany: State University of New York
Press, 2000); Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988); W.
Montgomery Watt, The Formative Period of Islamic
Thought(Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1998).
Ulphilas(Ulfilas, Wulfila Ulfila)(ca. 311–ca. 382)
apostle of the Goths, translator of the Bible into Gothic
Ulphilas was born in ANATOLIA about 311, perhaps in
Cappadocia or Romania, to a Christian family Captured
by GOTHS, he was eventually sent to CONSTANTINOPLE,
where he became fluent in LATIN, Greek, and Gothic.
After a Christian education, he was in about 338 made
bishop of the still-heathen VISIGOTHSby the Arian bishop
of Constantinople. Working initially in the area north of
the Danube but forced back into a safer area controlled
by the Byzantines, he slowly and with great difficulty suc-
ceeded in converting them to an Arian form of Christian-
ity which at the time had not been clearly branded as
HERESY. This Arianism then spread to many of the other
Germanic tribes. To accomplish this conversion, Ulphilas
and his collaborators devised a Gothic alphabet and
translated much of the BIBLEinto Gothic. Active in eccle-
siastical affairs throughout his life, he died in Con-
stantinople while attending a synod in about 382.
See alsoARIANISM.
Further reading:C. A. Anderson Scott, Ulfilas, Apos-
tle of the Goths Together with an Account of the Gothic
Churches and Their Decline(Cambridge: Macmillan and
Bowes, 1885); M. J. Hunter, “The Gothic Bible” in The
Cambridge History of the Bible,ed. G. W. H. Lampe (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969), 2.338–362;
James Woodrow Marchand, The Sounds and Phonemes of
Wulfila’s Gothic (The Hague: Mouton, 1973); E. A.
Thompson, The Visigoths in the Time of Ulfila(Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1966).Umar I ibn al-Khattab, Caliph(Omar, Abu Hafsa ibn
al-Khattab) (ca. 586–644)second Sunni caliph, companion
of Muhammad
A member of a patrician family, the clan of the Adi ibn
Kab of the tribe of the QURAYSHin MECCA, Umar I was
among the first to convert to ISLAMin 618. He fought in
the Battles of BADRand Uhud. He was a strong supporter
of ABUBAKRboth before and after his reign as caliph.
There has been some dispute about whether he was
appointed CALIPHby the dying Abu Bakr. As the second
caliph from 634 to 644, Umar I promoted Arab unity,
oversaw major territorial expansion, and was a great mili-
tary leader who earned the name “Commander of the
Faithful.”
Enjoying universal support, Umar led the ARABSto
the conquest of PALESTINE, SYRIA, EGYPT, and IRAQ. He
transformed Arab conquerors into a separate military
class who were to rule the newly conquered territories
and could not engage in AGRICULTUREor commerce. They
lived in tent cities. He permitted the conquered peoples
to practice their own religious rather than insisting on
conversion but required them to pay a poll tax for protec-
tion. He was instrumental in transmitting numerous
HADITH.He instituted the method of selecting caliphs by
means of a committee with election then accompanied by
the clasping of hands and the exchange of OATHSof alle-
giance to the successor. He was assassinated for his
tyranny in 644 in the MOSQUEat MEDINAby a Persian
slave, Abu Luluah.