rashid rida (d. 1935), and the deoband move-
ment in Indo-Pakistan. Despite these efforts, the
ulama found themselves blamed for the intellec-
tual backwardness and political weakness of their
societies by secular Muslims, on the one hand,
and advocates of political Islam like sayyid qUtb
(d. 1966) and abU al-ala maWdUdi (d. 1979),
on the other. Even though the ulama were abol-
ished in tUrkey in the 1920s and became little
more than government employees in countries
such as egypt, they have undergone a significant
transformation in a number of countries recently,
as exemplified by their influence in saUdi arabia
and their involvement in Pakistani politics and
the rise of the taliban in Afghanistan. The clear-
est example of this trend is that of iran, where
Shii ulama under the leadership of Ayatollah
rUhollah khomeini (d. 1989) established a revo-
lutionary Islamic government in 1979, an event
unprecedented in the history of Islam. The U.S.-
led invasion and occupation of iraq in 2003 gave
Shii ulama in that country, many with links to
neighboring Iran, an opportunity to take a leading
role in religious and political affairs.
See also ayatollah; biography; colonialism;
hisba; ijmaa; ijtihad; imam; islamism; mUllah; otto-
man dynasty; pakistan; reneWal and reForm
movements; secUlarism; shaykh; stUdent.
Further reading: Jonathan P. Berkey, Transmission of
Knowledge in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic
Education (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1992); R. Stephen Humphreys, Islamic History: A
Framework for Inquiry. Rev. ed. (Princeton, N.J.: Princ-
eton University Press, 1991), 187–208; Joseph A.
Kechechian, “The Role of the Ulama in the Politics of
an Islamic State.” International Journal of Middle East
Studies 18 (1986): 53–71; Ira M. Lapidus, Muslim Cities
in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1967); Mojan Momen, An Introduc-
tion to Shii Islam (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
Press, 1985); Stephen Sharot, A Comparative Sociol-
ogy of World Religions: Virtuosos, Priests, and Popular
Religion (New York: New York University Press, 2001),
Muhammad Qasim Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary
Islam: Custodians of Change (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 2002).Umar ibn al-Khattab (586–644)
(r. 634–644) second Muslim caliph, established the
political structure of the Islamic empire
A member of the Adi clan of the qUraysh tribe,
Umar ibn al-Khattab was born in mecca. Initially
an opponent of Muhammad, he converted to
islam in about 615. He went on to become one of
Muhammad’s closest advisers, accompanying him
to medina in 622 during the hiJra. He became the
Prophet’s father-in-law when Muhammad married
his daughter, Hafsa. After Muhammad’s death
in 632 Umar supported abU bakr (r. 632–634)
to succeed him; he himself succeeded Abu Bakr
shortly afterward, becoming the second of the
four Sunni “rightly guided” caliphs, or Rashidun,
which include Uthman ibn aFFan (r. 644–655)
and ali ibn abi talib (r. 656–661). Umar was the
first caliph to adopt the title Amir al-Muminin, or
commander of the faithful.
Under Umar’s rule, the Islamic state expanded
from a local principality to a major power. He
continued the military campaigns begun by Abu
Bakr, resulting in the conquest of syria, palestine,
egypt, iraq, and iran. Umar established guide-
lines for administering these new conquests. He
left the conquered peoples in possession of the
land and did not require them to serve in his army
or attempt to convert them to Islam; in return,
they paid tribute to the government. As governors
and administrators, Umar appointed skillful man-
agers who were loyal to him. He also established
garrison cities to administer the newly conquered
territory; they included Basra, at the head of the
Persian Gulf; Kufa, on the Euphrates River; and
Fustat, later to become cairo, just below the Nile
Delta. He instituted the empire’s judiciary, set up
a postal system, and introduced a system of taxes
to finance the state. Umar is also credited with
instituting the use of the Islamic calendar. InUmar ibn al-Khattab 685 J