Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan was an Umayyad caliph, born most probably in 61 AH in Medina; his mother was Umm Asim, daughter of Asim, the son of Umar ibn al-Khattab 1. Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik made him governor of Medina in Rabi' al-Awwal 87 AH, where he formed a consultative council of ten of the city's jurists 2. He was given allegiance as caliph after the death of Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik at Marj Dabiq in Safar 99 AH, by a testament Sulayman had written for him 3 4 5.
Al-Sallabi writes that he began the return of unjustly taken property with himself and then with the Umayyads, and that he wrote to his governor of Egypt to lift the jizya from those who became Muslim 6 7. He ordered the sunna collected and written down: he wrote to Abu Bakr ibn Hazm to record the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ because he feared that knowledge would fade, and he ordered Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri to gather it 8. In his time he dealt with the governors and the Kharijites, writing to his governor of Iraq to call them to act by the Book of God, and he had a dispute with Yazid ibn al-Muhallab 9 10. He died at Dayr Sim'an in the district of Homs in Rajab 101 AH, and al-Mas'udi gives his caliphate as two years, five months and five days 5. Al-Sallabi reports that the scholars counted him among the Rightly Guided Caliphs 11.
This narrative was written with AI help from the sources it cites, and has not yet been read by a human editor.