644, Umar was assassinated by a slave who had a
personal grudge against him. Umar is said to have
appointed a committee to choose the next caliph;
they named Uthman as his successor.
See also companions oF the prophet.
Kate O’Halloran
Further reading: Hugh Kennedy, The Prophet and the
Age of the Caliphates (London: Longman, 1985); Wil-
ferd Madelung, The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of
the Early Caliphate (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1997).
Umar Tal (Al-Hajj Umar) (1797–1864)
Tijani Sufi shaykh who launched jihad to reform
Islamic practice and resist French colonial expansion in
West Africa during the mid-19th century
Born in Futa Toro (in modern-day Senegal), Umar
Tal joined the Tijani Sufi order at the age of 18.
As a young man, Umar departed his homelands
for an extended pilgrimage to mecca and the east-
ern Islamic lands. While in Mecca, Umar studied
under the Tijani shaykh Muhammad al-Ghali,
who appointed him as the representative for the
order in West aFrica. After three years in the east,
Umar returned to West Africa, staying in Sokoto
for some six years. In 1838 he settled in Futa Jal-
lon (Senegal), where he established a reputation
as a holy man and mystic.
By 1849 the local tribal authorities in Futa Jal-
lon became concerned by the large number of the
shaykh’s followers and his increasing vehemence in
preaching Islamic revival. Forced to leave the region,
Umar retreated to Dinguiray, where he established a
community. In imitation of the prophet mUhammad,
Umar declared that his flight had been his own hijra
and he began to recruit warriors and assemble weap-
ons in preparation for Jihad against the ungodly rul-
ers who opposed his message. During the next 15
years, Umar and his followers launched countless
attacks upon surrounding communities, resulting
in a state of some 150,000 square miles in the region
of modern-day Guinea, Mali, and Mauritania. In
1862 he conquered Hamdullahi on the Bani River
and sacked timbUktU. However, tribal resistance led
to a siege of Hamdullahi, in which Umar and his fol-
lowers were trapped for some eight months before
he ordered the town to be burned and fled to the
nearby cliffs of Bandiagara. Here he died mysteri-
ously in February 1864. The empire that he estab-
lished, bequeathed to his son, Ahmadu, collapsed
into civil war, and Ahmadu was finally driven out of
Nioro in 1891, effectively ending Umarian aUthor-
ity in the region. Despite the short duration of the
state he established, al-Hajj Umar’s jihad was one of
a number of similar reform movements that revived
Islam and resisted the spread of French colonial
authority in 19th-century West Africa.
See also reneWal and reForm movements.
Stephen CoryFurther reading: John H. Hanson, Migration, Jihad, and
Muslim Authority in West Africa (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1996); B. O. Oloruntimehin, The
Segu Tukulor Empire (London: Longman Group, 1972);
David Robinson, The Holy War of Umar Tal (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1985); John Ralph Willis, In
the Path of Allah: The Passion of al-Hajj ’Umar (London:
Frank Cass, 1989).Umayyad Caliphate (661–750)
The Umayyad Caliphate was a Sunni dynasty that
expanded the area of Islamic rule and developed
a distinct Islamic culture. During the years of
Umayyad rule, the Islamic state changed from a
coalition of Arab tribes to a centralized empire
that stretched from present-day Pakistan to the
Atlantic Ocean and included the Arabian Pen-
insula, iran, egypt, much of North Africa, and
the Iberian Peninsula. This vast area was held
together by an Islamic culture that included a
common language and coinage. At the same time,
the caliphate created permanent divisions within
the Muslim community, or umma.
The Umayyads came to power in the turbulent
period following the death of Uthman ibn aFFanK 686 Umar Tal