ABSTRACT
The Persian system of government, having always been aristocratic and based on hereditary principles, came up against the democratic system of election of leaders which was more favoured by the Arabs. The Islamic Empire was becoming no longer predominandy Arab. In the very act of spreading the gospel of Islam over the world, the Arab State ceased to be Arab. They began to incorporate into their political system large numbers of illiterate nomads, like Turks, Khurds and North African Berbers. The Persians particularly despised their conquerors, calling them the ‘eaters of camels’ flesh and the drinkers of asses’ milk’; and they after a time found ways of undermining the Arab system from within. The patriarchal social system of the Arabs, the rule of ‘greybeards’ and heads of families and the election of ‘leaders’, was replaced by an hereditary ruling caste and a bureaucracy.
