Caesar's Palm-Tree Letter to Umar

مكاتبة قيصر لعمر في شجرة النخل

Caesar wrote to Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him): my envoys came from your quarter claiming your land has a tree no creation equals — it puts out like donkey-ears, splits like pearls, greens like emerald, reddens like ruby, ripens to the sweetest faludhaj to eat, then dries to provision for the settler and wayfarer — 'if my envoys spoke true, I know this tree only as a tree of paradise'. Umar wrote back, from Abdallah Umar Commander of the Faithful to Caesar king of the Romans: your envoys spoke true — this tree with us is the tree God grew for Maryam when she bore Isa her son; fear God and take not Isa as a god beside Him.

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The Rashidun Caliphate
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Overview

The account relates that Caesar wrote to Umar ibn al-Khattab asking about a tree that his envoys had described to him, and that Umar answered him. 1

The two letters

In his letter Caesar described a tree that comes out like the ears of donkeys, then splits like pearls, turns green like emeralds and red like rubies, then ripens sweet to the taste, then dries and becomes provision for the resident and the traveller. He said he knew it only as a tree of Paradise, if his envoys were telling the truth. 1

Umar wrote in his reply that his envoys had told the truth, and that this tree, as they knew it, was the one that God caused to grow for Mary when she gave birth to Jesus. He called him to the fear of God and not to take Jesus as a god. 1

The source gives neither a page number nor the chain of the report. It needs an additional source.

Connections

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Had participant
Umar ibn al-Khattab

People and things also explored

The seven ahruf· Abu al-Mukhtar's Satire on the Ahwaz Officials· Abu Bakr leads the prayers during the final illness· The conversion of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb· Abu Sufyan's mission to Medina· Abu Ubayd's Dispatch to Iraq· al-Ahnaf's Petition to Umar for Basra· After Badr: the dead, the captives, the spoils, and the news in Mecca and Medina

Sources

  1. Tarikh al-Khulafa — al-Suyuti (Dar al-Minhaj edition)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Caesar's Palm-Tree Letter to Umar”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/caesar-palm-letter/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-17.

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The seven ahruf

The Prophet's saying 'the Qur'an was revealed in seven ahruf, so read of it what is easy' — narrated through Umar's dispute with Hisham ibn Hakim over Surat al-Furqan; its exact meaning is one of the widest debates in Qur'anic sciences.