The Administration of the New Possessions

Abstract

How to administer such vast territories newly acquired and how to adapt the uncodified ordinances of a primitive Arabian society to the needs of a huge cosmopolitan conglomerate living under a multitude of conditions uncontemplated by the original lawgiver was the great task now confronting Islam. ‘Umar was the first to address himself to this problem. He is represented by tradition as the one who solved it and therefore as the founder of the second theocracy of Islam—a sort of Islamic Utopia—which, however, was not destined to last long.