Islamic state centred in Medina had come to an end,
even in Arabia, but by the steadfastness of the Caliph
Abu Bakr, backed by the religious enthusiasm of at least
a nucleus of the Medinan community and by the marvellous
ability which others, mainly Meccans, displayed as generals
and diplomatists — caravanning merchants turned soldier
statesmen — the defection of Arabia was overcome, and
the Arabs united under the banner of Islam poured out
to North-West and North-East, invading both the Roman
and the Persian Empires. The latter they soon overran
entirely; the former they deprived of Syria and Egypt,
and in course of time the whole of North Africa and
Spain. They even crossed the Pyrenees into France, and
their progress was only stayed by Charles Martel's great
victory at Tours, by rebellion in North Africa, and
by the internal troubles of the already overgrown empire.
In the east, Constantinople, which had been attacked
before fifty years had elapsed from the Hijra, held
firm, and for centuries remained the bulwark against
Islam. It was only taken by the Turks after it had been
fatally weakened by the misdirected crusading enthusiasm
of the West.
The course of these events it is not my purpose here
to trace, nor do I mean to discuss at any length the
causes which prepared the way for such an astonishing
collapse of more or less civilised empires before the
onset of a people who had hitherto played little or
no part in world history. These have been already to
some extent indicated. Both the Persian and the Roman
Empires had been weakened by internal troubles. |
