Ibn Sacd and al-Hakim narrated that Zirr said: I went out with the people of Madinah on the day of cEid and I saw cUmar walking barefoot, an old man, balding, of a tawny colour, left-handed, tall, towering over people as if he were on a riding beast. Al-Waqidi said: It is not known among us that cUmar was tawny, unless he saw him in the year of the drought, because his colour changed when he ate olive oil.

Ibn Sacd narrated that Ibn cUmar described cUmar and said: A man of fair complexion, with a ruddy tint prevailing, tall, balding and grey-haired.

He narrated that cUbaydah ibn cUmayr said: cUmar used to overtop people in height.

He narrated that Salamah ibn al-Akwac said: cUmar was left and right-handed, meaning that he used both hands together.

Ibn cAsakir narrated that Abu Raja’ al-cUtaridi said: cUmar was a tall stout man, extremely bald, fair but extremely ruddy, in the two sides of his beard a lightness, his moustache was large and at its extremities there was a redness at the roots of which there was black.

In the Tarikh of Ibn cAsakir by various routes there is that the mother of cUmar ibn al-Khattab was Hantamah the daughter of Hisham ibn al-Mughirah and she was the sister of Abu Jahl ibn Hisham, so that Abu Jahl was his maternal uncle.