Christianity and Islam | Page 8

elsewhere, this defence was a necessity during the period of struggle,
but became a crushing burden during the peace which followed victory,
for the reason that it was regarded as inseparable from the wearer of it.
From this point of view the analogy with Christianity will appear
extremely striking, but it is something more than an analogy: the
Oriental Hellenism of antiquity was to Christianity that which the
Christian Oriental Hellenism of a few centuries later was to Islam.
We must now attempt to realise the nature of this event so important in
the history of the world. A nomadic people, recently united, not devoid
of culture, but with a very limited range of ideas, suddenly gains
supremacy over a wide and populous district with an ancient
civilisation. These nomads are as yet hardly conscious of their political
unity and the individualism of the several tribes composing it is still a
disruptive force: yet they can secure domination over countries such as
Egypt and Babylonia, with complex constitutional systems, where
climatic conditions, the nature of the soil and centuries of work have
combined to develop an intricate administrative system, which
newcomers could not be expected to understand, much less to recreate
or to remodel. Yet the theory has long been held that the Arabs entirely
reorganised the constitutions of these countries. Excessive importance
has been attached to the statements of Arab authors, who naturally
regarded Islam as the beginning of all things. In every detail of
practical life they regarded the prophet and his contemporaries as their
ruling ideal, and therefore naturally assumed that the constitutional
practices of the prophet were his own invention. The organisation of
the conquering race with its tribal subordination was certainly purely
Arab in origin. In fact the conquerors seemed so unable to adapt
themselves to the conditions with which they met, that foreigners who
joined their ranks were admitted to the Muhammedan confederacy only
as clients of the various Arab tribes. This was, however, a mere
question of outward form: the internal organisation continued
unchanged, as it was bound to continue unless chaos were to be the
consequence. In fact, pre-existing administrative regulations were so
far retained that the old customs duties on the former frontiers were
levied as before, though they represented an institution wholly alien to

the spirit of the Muhammedan empire. Those Muhammedan authors,
who describe the administrative organisation, recognise only the taxes
which Islam regarded as lawful and characterise others as malpractices
which had crept in at a later date. It is remarkable that these so-called
subsequent malpractices correspond with Byzantine and Persian usage
before the conquest: but tradition will not admit the fact that these
remained unchanged. The same fact is obvious when we consider the
progress of civilisation in general. In every case the Arabs merely
develop the social and economic achievements of the conquered races
to further issues. Such progress could indeed only be modified by a
general upheaval of existing conditions and no such movement ever
took place. The Germanic tribes destroyed the civilisations with which
they met; they adopted many of the institutions of Christian antiquity,
but found them an impediment to the development of their own genius.
The Arabs simply continued to develop the civilisation of post-classical
antiquity, with which they had come in contact.
This procedure may seem entirely natural in the department of
economic life, but by no means inevitable where intellectual progress is
concerned. Yet a similar course was followed in either case, as may be
proved by dispassionate examination. Islam was a rising force, a faith
rather of experience than of theory or dogma, when it raised its claims
against Christianity, which represented all pre-existing intellectual
culture. A settlement of these claims was necessary and the military
triumphs are but the prelude to a great accommodation of intellectual
interests. In this Christianity played the chief part, though Judaism is
also represented: I am inclined, however, to think that Jewish ideas as
they are expressed in the Qoran were often transmitted through the
medium of Christianity. There is no doubt that in Medina Muhammed
was under direct Jewish influence of extraordinary power. Even at that
time Jewish ideas may have been in circulation, not only in the Qoran
but also in oral tradition, which afterwards became stereotyped: at the
same time Muhammed's utterances against the Jews eventually became
so strong during the Medina period, for political reasons, that I can
hardly imagine the traditions in their final form to have been adopted
directly from the Jews. The case of Jewish converts is a different matter.
But in Christianity also much Jewish wisdom was to be found at that
time and it is well known that even the Eastern churches regarded

numerous precepts of the Old Testament, including those that dealt
with ritual, as