The two sheikhs

Author's name: Taha Hussein

Abu Bakr al-Siddiq and Umar ibn al-Khattab, the two founding companions and caliphs who presented two models of the Rightly Guided Caliphate, set a difficult example for those caliphs who followed them.
The Dean of Arabic Literature, Dr. Taha Hussein, tells us about them, chronicling their lives, scrutinizing the events of their eras, and correcting what had been previously written about them that veered towards exaggeration or understatement. Dr. Taha Hussein observed that some historians who preceded him in writing about these two illustrious companions had gone to the extreme of veneration, bordering on deification, while others had diminished their stature to the point of denying their achievements or criticizing their renowned wisdom and justice.