ABSTRACT
The areas which the Arabs overran and into which they were invited were at that time among the most civilized in the world; and the Muslims rapidly adopted much of this civilization. The Arabs had come out of the desert largely unfamiliar with higher civilization or culture, or-what especially concerns us-the techniques of managing empires made up of many diverse communities. Like other nomadic conquerors before them, they quickly and willingly adopted these skills from Islamized Syrians, Mesopotamians, Egyptians and Persians, and also from the Byzantines whom they displaced. The result was an eclectic and mixed culture and system of government which spread over much of the world. The Muslim synthesis was very successful in practice for about a thousand years. Some of the reasons for that success are relevant to international society today.
