Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/178

 635–6] brotherhood, is a spectacle probably without parallel in the world. The distinction also of early conversion was well conceived. In no other way could the susceptibilities of tribal rivalry have been reconciled. The proud chiefs of Ḳoreish, who did not join the Prophet till after the fall of Mecca, refused any allowance but the highest: "We know of none nobler than ourselves," they said; "and less than other we will not take." "Not so," answered ʿOmar; "I give it by priority of faith, and not for noble birth." "It is well," they replied; and no reason but this would have satisfied them. There were two further sources of danger: first, the rivalry between the Bedawi tribes and the "Companions" or men of Mecca and Medīna; and, second, the jealousies that sprang up between the house of Hāshim (the Prophet’s kinsman) on the one hand, and the Umeiyads and other branches of Ḳoreish on the other;—jealousies which by and by developed into larger proportions, and threatened the very existence of the Caliphate; but which, held in check by ʿOmar, were now for a time allayed by assuming an acknowledged test as the ground of precedence.

The blue blood of Arabia was universally recognised as the aristocracy of the Muslim world. Rank and stipend now assigned, and even rewards for special gallantry in the field, descended by inheritance. Implied in this inheritance was the continuing obligation to fight for the Faith: by it martial genius was maintained, and employment perpetuated for the standing army of the Caliphate. A nation composed thus of ennobled soldiery, pampered, factious and turbulent, formed too often a dangerous element of sedition and intrigue. But, nevertheless, it was the real backbone of Islām, the secret of conquest, the stay of the Caliphate. Crowded ḥarīms multiplied the race with marvellous rapidity. The progeny of the Arab sire (whatever the mother) was kept sedulously distinct, so as never to mingle with the conquered races. Wherever Arabs went they formed a class apart and dominant,—the nobles and rulers of the land. Subject peoples, even if they embraced Islām, were of a lower caste ; they could aspire to nothing higher than, as "clients" of some Arab chief or tribe, to court patronage and protection, Thus the Arabians set themselves apart, as a nation militant, for the sacred task of propagating Islām. Even after the