Umar II

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz became the eighth Umayyad caliph in 717, inheriting an empire stretched across three continents. He restructured the central government to run leaner and more equitably, then mandated universal education and dispatched emissaries as far as China and Tibet with invitations to Islam. His reign saw withdrawals from Constantinople, Central Asia, and Septimania even as Umayyad forces gained ground in Iberia. Huge segments of Persian and Egyptian populations converted during these years. He died in February 720, three years in. Sunni scholars later called him the first mujaddid…