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Omar (Arabic: عُمَرْ) or Omar Farouk (Persian: عمر فاروق) is a historical Arab television drama miniseries-serial that was produced and broadcast by MBC1 and directed by the Syrian director Hatem Ali. Co-produced by Qatar TV, the series is based on the life of Omar ibn al-Khattab (also spelled 'Umar', c. 583–644), the second Caliph of Islam, and depicts his life from 18 years old until the moments of his death.
The series faced large controversy due to its depiction of Omar, Abu Bakr, Uthman and Ali, the four Rashidun Caliphs, along with other characters, who some Muslims believe should not be depicted, much like Mohammad. The series consists of 31 episodes and was originally aired in the month of Ramadan since July 20, 2012. It was made at a cost of 200 million Saudi riyals and filmed in Morocco, primarily in the cities of Marakesh, Tangiers, El Jadida, Casablanca and Mohammedia.
After the series was broadcast on MBC, it was dubbed into several languages for international broadcast and subtitled in English on YouTube; it received great support from many different Sunni scholarly bodies and people watching it.
The series starts with one of the pilgrimage of caliph Omar where he delivers speeches to the pilgrims. The next scene comes with an exploration on Mecca of the caliph where he emotionally flashbacks to his own 18 year's life when he was a young boy working for his rude father Khattab ibn Nufayl. The flashback perspective of Omar shows all the past story of his life from when he was a wrestler, a businessman and above all one of the leaders of the Quraish, and then to his life after his conversion into Islam being one of the closest companions of Muhammad and an immensely devoted believer, a brave inspiration for all the contemporary Muslims and a bold warrior in all the contemporary Islamic battles. The story goes through the Meccan victory, Muhammad's death, Abu Bakr's legacy as caliph and his death, and finally Omar's legacy. From viewer's eye perspective, his legacy as caliph shows the biographical stories of improvements and complexities of his own caliphate till his assassination by Abu Lulu.
