Edward Gibbon is regarded as the greatest historian of the Enlightenment period and is often also regarded s the “first” modern historian. Edward Gibbon in his immortal work “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” (1890 ed., Vol. V., p. 400) heaps praise on Hazrat Umar bin Khttaab, the second Caliph of Islam. He talks about the humility of Hazrat Umar in following words:
“Yet the abstinence and humility of Omar (Umar) were not inferior to the virtues of Abubeker (First Caliph of Islam): his food consisted of barley-bread or dates; his drink was water; he preached in a gown that was torn or tattered in twelve places; and a Persian satrap, who paid his homage to the conqueror, found him asleep among, the beggars on the steps of the mosch (mosque) of Medina.”
Gibbon talks about the generosity of Hazrat Umar:
“Economy is the source of liberality, and the increase of the revenue enabled Omar to establish a just and perpetual reward for the past and present services of the faithful.
Careless of his own emolument, he assigned to Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet, the first and most ample allowance of twenty-five thousand drachms or pieces of silver.
Five thousand were allotted to each of the aged warriors, the relics of the field of Beder, and the last and the meanest of the companions of Mahomet was distinguished by the annual reward of three thousand pieces.”
Gibbon mentions the justice under the reign of Hazrat Umar:
“Under his reign and that of his predecessor, the conqueror of the East were the trusty servants of God and the people; the mass of the public treasure was consecrated to the expenses of peace and war; a prudent mixture of justice and bounty maintained the discipline of the Saracens, and they united, by a rare felicity, the despatch and execution of despotism with the equal and frugal maxims of a republican government.”
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