meat. ʿUmar asked, “What is this?” ʿĀṣim replied, “We felt a craving for it.” ʿUmar said, “So every time you crave something you eat it? It is enough extravagance for a person to eat everything he desires.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam related from his father, from his grandfather, that ʿUmar once said, “A longing for fresh fish crossed my mind.” Thereupon Rifāʾ saddled his camel, travelled four days there and back, bought a basketful, and returned with it. He then washed the camel and came to ʿUmar. ʿUmar said, “Come, let me see the mount.” When he examined it he remarked, “You forgot to wash this patch of sweat under her ear. You have made a dumb beast suffer for the whim of ʿUmar. By Allah, ʿUmar will not taste a single morsel from your basket.”

Qatādah said: While he was caliph, ʿUmar used to wear a woollen cloak patched in places with leather. He would patrol the markets with a whip slung over his shoulder, disciplining people with it. If he passed bits of loose fibre or date-stones in the road he would pick them up so that people could benefit from them.

Anas said, “I saw four patches between ʿUmar’s shoulders on his shirt.”

Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī said, “I saw on ʿUmar a waist-wrap patched with leather.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir ibn Rabīʿah said, “I performed Hajj with ʿUmar. He never pitched a pavilion or a tent; instead he would throw a cloak and a leather mat over a tree and rest in their shade.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim ibn Hurmuz reported from Abū al-Ghādiyah al-Shāmī: ʿUmar arrived at al-Jābiyah riding a grey camel, the sun shining on his bald head for he wore neither cap nor turban. His legs were wedged between the two sides of the saddle without stirrups. His saddle-cloth was a coarse woollen anbijānī cloak, which he used as his mattress when he dismounted. His saddlebag was stuffed with palm-fibre and served as his pillow. He was wearing a shirt of coarse karābīs cloth, soiled and torn at the collar, and he said: