Reforms

Umar is regarded as one of the greatest political geniuses in history.[5] While under his
leadership, the empire was expanding at a unprecedented rate, he also began to build the political
structure that would hold together the vast empire that was being built. He undertook many
administrative reforms and closely oversaw public policy. He established an advanced
administration for the newly conquered lands, including several new ministries and
bureaucracies, and ordered a census of all the Muslim territories. During his rule, the garrison
cities (amsar) of Basra and Kufa were founded or expanded. In 638, he extended and renovated
the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) in Mecca and the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Mosque of the
Prophet) in Medina.[49] Umar also ordered the expulsion of the Christian and Jewish communities
of Najran and Khaybar allowing them to reside in Syria or Iraq. He issued orders that these
Christians and Jews should be treated well and allotted them the equivalent land in their new
settlements. Umar also forbade non-Muslims to reside in the Hejaz for longer than three days.[50]
He was first to establish army as a state department. Umar was founder of Fiqh, the Islamic
jurisprudence.[51] He is regarded by Sunni Muslims to be one of the greatest Faqih. Umar as a
jurist started the process of codifying Islamic Law. In 641, he established Bayt al-mal, a financial
institution and started annual state sponsored allowance for the poor Muslims in Makkah and Al
Madinah. A year later he also started allowance for the poor, underprivileged and old non-
Muslim citizens of the empire. As a leader, 'Umar was known for his simple, austere lifestyle.
Rather than adopt the pomp and display affected by the rulers of the time, he continued to live
much as he had when Muslims were poor and persecuted. In 639, his fourth year as caliph and
the seventeenth year 17 since the Hijra, he decreed that the Islamic calendar should be counted
from the year of the Hijra of Muhammad from Mecca to Madinah.