Note 362 — Chapter XXIII · FAMINE AND PLAGUE. A.H. XVIII. A.D. 639.

He purposed to make a circuit of all the provinces subject to his sway. Aly, we are told, even recommended a second hijra, or transfer of the Caliph’s court to Kûfa (evidently a proleptic tradition anticipatory of the move eventually made by Aly himself to that capital). What induced Omar to give up the project of visiting Irâc is not very clear. The ordinary story is that Káb the Rabbin (a Jew from Himyar, converted about this time, who will be noticed more hereafter) dissuaded him from it: ‘Of evil,’ he said, ‘the East hath nine parts, and of good but one; while the dwellings of Satan and every kind of plague are there. On the contrary, the West hath nine parts good, and but one of evil.’ Thereupon, the tradition proceeds, Omar abandoned the idea of visiting Irâc.