ABSTRACT
The reign of Hisham (105-25:724-43) has long been recog nized as the crisis of the Umayyad Caliphate, that is to say, the moment at which the political organization of Islam was con fronted with the problem which every expanding organism must meet when it reaches the limits of its expansion. There are in history uncountable instances of imperial expansion, but very few in which the empire so created was able to attain to relative per manence and stability. To achieve this calls for a transformation of hitherto normal processes and habits of action, and the direc tion of energies into new channels designed to promote internal development, assimilation and cohesion. To use a biological simile, the organism which has furnished itself with the means and instruments for capturing its prey has to bring into play a new set of organs for assimilating it.
