Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/73



and southern Syria belong properly to Arabia. The tribes inhabiting this region, partly heathen but chiefly (at least in name) Christian, formed an integral part of the Arab race and as such fell within the immediate scope of the new Dispensation. When, however, these came into collision with the Muslim columns on the frontier, they were supported by their respective sovereigns,—the western by the Kaiser, and the eastern by the Chosroes. Thus the struggle widened, and Islam was brought presently face to face in mortal conflict with the two great Powers of the East and of the West.

It is important, especially in the early part of this history, for the student to bear in mind that Arabian sources are practically all he has to guide him here. Byzantine annals disappear in the impending cataclysm; and it is many long years before any considerable help is available from western chronicles. The Persian Empire again was altogether swallowed up in the invasion of the Arabs, and consequently it is from the conquerors alone that we learn the events about to be told regarding it. Thus, both for East and West, we are almost entirely dependent on Arabian tradition, which itself at the first is but brief and fragmentary; and moreover, being entirely one-sided, we are left as best we can to draw a narrative just and impartial to all concerned.

In neither of the great Powers which Abu Bekr was about to try conclusions with, had the nerve and virtue of earlier days survived. Luxury, corruption and oppression, 46