of a beast; for that reason he came to be called “the Scarred One of the Umayyads,” and the grey had already begun to streak his hair.

Ḍamrah ibn Rabīʿah said: When ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was still a boy he went into his father’s stable, and a horse struck him and split his forehead open. His father wiped away the blood, saying, “If you are the Scarred One of the Umayyads, then you are indeed blessed.”

Ḍimām ibn Ismāʿīl narrated from Abū Qabīl that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz once wept while he was still a small child. His mother sent to him and asked, “What is making you cry?” He replied, “I was thinking about death.” At that time he had already memorised the Quran, and when that reached his mother she too wept.

Abū Khaythamah related: al-Mufaḍḍal ibn ʿAbd Allāh told us, from Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, who said: ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz came in through this door—meaning one of the doors of the mosque in Medina—and a man in the gathering remarked, “That profligate has sent us this son of his to study the obligatory duties and the Sunnah, claiming that he will succeed him as caliph and will follow the course of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, may Allah be pleased with him.” Dāwūd said to us, “By Allah, he did not die before we saw exactly that in him.”

It was said that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb declared, “From among my descendants there will be a man with a blemish on his face who will fill the earth with justice.”

Mubārak ibn Faḍālah narrated from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, from Nāfiʿ, that Ibn ʿUmar said, “Would that I knew who this man from ʿUmar’s progeny is who will fill it with justice as it has been filled with tyranny and oppression!”

Saʿīd ibn ʿUfayr reported: Yaʿqūb told us from his father that ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān sent his son ʿUmar to Medina to be schooled there, and he wrote to Ṣāliḥ ibn Kaysān instructing him to oversee the boy. Ṣāliḥ kept him diligent in performing the prayers. One day ʿUmar was late for the prayer, and he asked him, “What delayed you?” He replied, “My hairdresser was smoothing down my hair.” Ṣāliḥ said, “Has caring for your hair become so important that you prefer it to the prayer?” He wrote about this to the boy’s father. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz immediately dispatched a messenger to his son, and he did not address him until he had shaved his head.