ABSTRACT
Under Abu Bakr the tribes thus brought into subjection made a wild but ineffectual attempt to revert to the old condition. After this we see what can only be likened to the overflow of the Nile. There is much misery and disruption at first, but wherever the flood has passed, it has fertilised the soil. The on-rush of the Saracens, chiefly induced by the hostility of the neighbouring nations, had this effect over people and countries. During the thirty years the Republic lasted, a wonderful change had come over the Arabs. Society was still archaic, but a taste for those accessories which first lead to its development and then to its deterioration was growmg up. The chief cities were embellished with beautiful buildings, and life became luxurious. The system of clientage in vogue in the Peninsula was introduced in the conquered countries; the Persians, Turks, and Greeks who adopted Islam becoming the
increasing the strength of the latter and gaining for themselves prestige. Though all the Saracens were dominated by the centralised religious Idea, their fusion was never complete. And hence at the close of the Republic, we see the dominion of Islam rent into two factions, just as Mecca was before Mohammed, one owning allegiance to his family (the Banti Hashim), the other to their bitter enemies-the family of Ommeya. Though the treachery of Amr, the son of al-Aas, caused an irreparable breach in Islam, and led eventually to bitter feuds between the Himyarites and the Modarites, as yet there were no religious sects. Even the Kharijis (the Covenanters of Islam) differed chiefly on the question of allegiance, refusing to recognise any Caliph after Omar.
