the gathering said, “The libertine has sent us this son of his to learn the prescribed duties and the Sunnah, claiming he will not die before he becomes caliph and conducts himself like ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb!” Dāwūd remarked, “By Allah, he did not die before we saw that very thing realized in him.” (1)

Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār said: ʿUtbi related to me that the first unmistakable sign of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz’s maturity was his zeal for knowledge and his passion for good manners. When his father was appointed governor of Egypt, ʿUmar was still so young that people doubted he had reached puberty. His father wished to take him from Syria to Egypt, but ʿUmar said, “Father—if I may propose what might be more useful for both of us?” “And what is that?” asked his father. He answered, “Send me to Madinah so I may sit with its jurists and acquire their etiquette.” His father agreed, dispatched him to Madinah with servants, and there he sat with the elders of Quraysh, keeping clear of their youths. He remained upon that path until his reputation became widely known.

After his father’s death, his uncle, the Commander of the Faithful ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, brought him into the company of his own sons, gave him precedence over many of them, and married him to his daughter Fāṭimah—the very Fāṭimah of whom the poet says:

The caliph’s daughter—her grandfather a caliph;
Sister of caliphs, and a caliph her husband.

He continued, “To this day we know of no other woman whose lineage fits that description.”

ʿUtbi further said: Enviers of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz had nothing against him save his enjoyment of prosperity and a certain swagger in his walk. Al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays observed, “A man is complete when his slips can be counted—and they are indeed but few.”

ʿUmar and his brothers inherited from their father wealth, possessions, and livestock the like of which, to our knowledge, no one else inherited, as mentioned earlier.

On one occasion he entered upon his uncle ʿAbd al-Malik, walking with a sidelong sway. ʿAbd al-Malik asked, “O ʿUmar, why are you walking differently from your usual manner?” He replied, “I have a wound.” “And where is it on your body?” “Between the rānifah (2) and the ṣafan—meaning between the tip of the buttock and the skin of the testicle.” ʿAbd al-Malik then said to Rūḥ ibn Zinbāʿ, “By Allah, had a man of your tribe been asked about this, he could never have given such a reply.” (3)

They relate that when his uncle ʿAbd al-Malik died, ʿUmar mourned him and wore a hair-shirt beneath his clothes for seventy days. When al-Walīd assumed the caliphate he continued to treat ʿUmar as his father had, appointing him governor of Madinah, Mecca, and Ṭāʾif from 86 to 93 AH. ʿUmar led the people in the pilgrimage in 89 and 90 AH; al-Walīd led them in 91 AH; and ʿUmar again led the pilgrimage in 92 and 93 AH. (4)

During this tenure he rebuilt and expanded the Prophet’s Mosque at al-Walīd’s command, incorporating the blessed chamber into its confines.