The Caliph gathered strength sufficient to finish the prayer in which he had been interrupted; “for he who deserts his prayers,” said he, “is not in Islam.”  Being taken to his house, he languished three days without hope of recovery, but could not be prevailed upon to nominate a successor.  “I cannot presume to do that,” said he, “which the prophet himself did not do.”  Some suggested that he should nominate his son Abdallah.  “Omar’s family,” said he, “has had enough in Omar, and needs no more.”  He appointed a council of six persons to determine as to the succession after his decease, all of whom he considered worthy of the caliphate; though he gave it as his opinion that the choice would be either Ali or Othman.  “Shouldst thou become caliph,” said he to Ali, “do not favor thy relatives above all others, nor place the house of Haschem on the neck of all mankind “; and he gave the same caution to Othman in respect to the family of Omeya.

Ibn Abbas and Ali now spoke to him in words of comfort, setting forth the blessings of Islam, which had crowned his administration, and that he would leave no one behind him who could charge him with injustice.  “Testify this for me,” said he, earnestly, “at the day of judgment.”  They gave him their hands in promise; but he exacted that they should give him a written testimonial, and that it should be buried with him in the grave.

Having settled all his worldly affairs, and given directions about his sepulture, he expired, the seventh day after his assassination, in the sixty-third year of his age, after a triumphant reign of ten years and six months.

Three days after the death of Omar, Othman Ibn Affan was elected as his successor.  He was seventy years of age at the time of his election.  He was tall and swarthy, and his long gray beard was tinged with henna.  He was strict in his religious duties, but prone to expense and lavish of his riches.

“In the conquests of Syria, Persia, and Egypt,” says a modern writer, “the fresh and vigorous enthusiasm of the personal companions and proselytes of Mahomet was exercised and expended, and the generation of warriors whose simple fanaticism had been inflamed by the preaching of the pseudo-prophet was in a great measure consumed in the sanguinary and perpetual toils of ten arduous campaigns.”

We shall now see the effect of those conquests on the national character and habits; the avidity of place and power and wealth superseding religious enthusiasm; and the enervating luxury and soft voluptuousness of Syria and Persia sapping the rude but masculine simplicity of the Arabian desert.  Above all, the single-mindedness of Mahomet and his two immediate successors is at an end.  Other objects besides the mere advancement of Islamism distract the attention of its leading professors; and the struggle for worldly wealth and worldly sway, for the advancement of private ends, and the aggrandizement of particular tribes and families, destroy the unity of the empire, and beset the caliphate with intrigue, treason, and bloodshed.