Khalif Omar--People in Osho's Talks

Omar, Khalif
581-644 CE 63 years

aka: Caliph Omar, Umar ibn Khattab (original
name), Omar the Great...

Arabic: عمر بن الخطاب

Muslim leader and successor to Abu Bakr, the first
successor to Mohammad in the Sunni tradition.

dates of rule as the Caliph were 634-644

born in Mecca to a respected merchant family

began as an opponent to Islam, but was converted

counselor to Mohammad, and confidant of Abu
Bakr.

said to be literate, which was uncommon at that
time.

during his reign as Caliph, Islam expanded greatly
through wars--into Iraq, Iran (Persia), Armenia,
Byzantine (Turkey/Greece), Egypt, Africa,....

supposedly assasinated by a Persian slave as
Omar was leading prayers--the man held a grudge
against him for some ruling Omar had made.

buried next to Mohammad and Abu Bakr.

One Mohammedan, Khalif Omar, burned the
greatest library of the world in those days, in
Alexandria. It had all the treasures and all the
developed literature, poetry and history of the
continent Atlantis – which has since drowned in
the Atlantic. It was immensely valuable because
Atlantis had reached almost to the same level of
civilization as we are now – thousands of years
before. From Atlantis they had gathered many
books. Alexandria's library was so big – you can't
imagine: when Omar burnt it, the fire continued for
six months to finish off the whole library...

--Osho
The Transmission of the Lamp, ch. 32