In the more important governments, the judicial office was discharged by a functionary who held his commission immediately from the Caliph.[408] The control of all departments remained with the governor, who, in virtue of his supreme office, led the daily prayers in public; and, especially on the Fridays, gave an address, or sermon, which had often an important political bearing. Military and fiscal functions, which vested at the first, like all other powers, in the governor’s hands, came eventually to be discharged by officers specially appointed to the duty. Ministers of religion were also commissioned by the State. From the extraordinary rapidity with which cities and provinces were converted, risk of error rose, in respect both of creed and ritual, to the vast multitudes of ‘new believers.’ To obviate this danger, Omar appointed teachers in every country, whose business it was to instruct the people--men and women separately--in the Corân and the requirements of the Faith. Early in his reign, he imposed it also, as an obligation to be enforced by the magistrate, that all, both great and small, should attend the public services, especially on every Friday; and that in the month of Ramadhan, the whole body of the Moslems should be constant in the assembling of themselves together in their Mosques. [Sidenote: Omar establishes era of Hegira. A.H. XVII.] To Omar is popularly ascribed, not only the establishment of the Dewân, and offices of systematic account, but also the regulation of the Arabian year. He introduced for this purpose the Mahometan Era, commencing with the new moon of the first month (Moharram) in the year of the Prophet’s flight from Mecca. Hence the Mahometan year was named the _Hegira_, or ‘Era of the Flight.’[409] [Sidenote: Deterioration of social and domestic life.]