The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-07
Birthday Bio-Briiefs
 Famous Men
OMAR I.

i OMAR I.
 l If you are fortunate enough in lifa ! to make the pilgrimage to Jerusa- lem. the first object on which your i eyes will be focused-in the great i emotional and stUpendous moment as l Jerusalem engirdled by her noun 1 tains looms before the gaze-will be i the dome of the Mosque of Omar ] that stands on Mount Mortah where once the Temple of Solomon stood
 in defiant shining. We hope that YOU
 have come over the rolling hill coun-
 try by camel-train, or by carriage i from Jeppa, and have scorned tha i modern steam-tra that impudentIy ! puffs into the most sacred city aS i the world. Thus, you will get the view that the Crusaders got of old
 when they flung themselves out of their saddles, and fell D. ostrate to the ground. men of iron weeping like children, and passionate1y kissed the
 dust.
 Twelve hundred and sixty-five years ago today on NOV. 6, 644 A. D., Omar l., the second Caliph after Moha1nmed, was assassinated bv s jealous Persian slave. The first Cal lph to succeed the prophet was Abu Bekr.
 Omar had been one of the ah1as+ advisers both of Abu Bekr and of
 1ohanmed. His own reign saw the triumphant transforma ton of IsIan, from a mere religious sect to an inn peria1 power. Omar I. was a warrior statesman and a far-sighted rn1e,r The planning of his campaign was a masterpiece. First, the conquest of the Perslans, in 637. Thereupon. the of marched into Jerusalem in 637, and it | surrendered to him almost abtected- ly The brilliant conquest of Egvpt | IouoWed. Omar's treatment of the Christians in Jerusalem was most IenIent and nercifu1. It was when the Turk gained supremacy that inc trouble began which drew forth the | Crusaders.
 The Mosque of Omar that accunies 1 the site of the Temple of Solomon l was the site chosen by Omar him sell u IS the spot sacred to the tra- | dlt1on that on this piece of ground ] Abraham offered up Isaac It ts o-a or the three most holy Mosques in all 1 Islam; CD the Mosque at Mecca. (2l 1 the Mosque at Medina where Moharn med IS buried; (3) the Mosque of l Omar i'll Jerusalem. It is called 'srhe Dome of the Rock" The Mosque of | Omar is believed by the "fa aithrn1,. Of Islam to be the spot whither Mo- hammed's dream carried him, and 1 lIaI rom the Rock on which the hosque IS built Mohammed' ascended l into heaven-the seven heavens-and heard and saw the great visions a5d words which he afterwards asseu1bl- ed' as law, in the Koran, these wis lons enabling him to formulate the oral ana the written law
 The last words of the great Omar I'' commander of the Faithful" are replete with instruction for ever, shade f belief:-
 Give 1t as my dying request that ne this successor) 'tbe kind to the poor or the cfty-that he make much | of the virtues of Ten, and pass lightly over their faults. Oh. Allah. T have finishred my course!"
 The Mosques (House of Prayer, astonlsh the traveller by the grand r eur or their cupolas, domes and min arots. A dome Mosque Is usually the tomb for the Founder The ninare+s slender shafts of stone that pferca the Eastern air, are use for the Ffayer-caIl, five times a dav accord Ing 10 the laws of the Koran, by the hluezz1n who stands on a balcony and with shri1l voice of melancholy beauty "caI1s to prayer" Within the mosque there are no altars, paintings nor images, but arabesques of great beauty and gorgeous color adorn the walls. these being largely sentences rom the Koran. In the direction to- wards Mecca is the Mihrab or larea recess in the wall, which directs the eyes of the worshippers in prayer Near this is the nimbar or puinit The Mosques are often built in a quadrangular form with open cour+ where there are fountains for ablu- tons. To nearly every Mosque are at- tached schools for instruction in the Koran. The Mosque of El-Azhar tn l Cairo, the largest in the Mohamme- dan world, Is a University, and it's students number thousands from
 very part of the world, and from
 ne remote regions of Central Africa 70 Mohammedan may enter the mos
 ue without first removing his shoes.
 nd performing @the required abIU-
 ons. It IS rare that women are seen
 the mosque. They are supposed to
 arform their deVotions in the sec1u-
 on of the harem. A word-picture of
 Ae huge mosque of El-Azhar is to e found in Loti's Egypt