THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 181 most of their power in the West, but adding Syria to their possessions. Although great conquerors, the Arabs lacked the genius for lawmaking and empire-building of the ancient Romans. Never having developed a state worthy of the Arabian name in their native country, they could hardly P olltlcs be expected to prove equal of a sudden to the creation of a vast empire. Consequently their states seldom held to- gether for a long period. Both Arabs and Berbers naturally inclined toward the unorganized freedom of the desert, ex- cept that certain families regarded themselves as aristo- crats, and that the Arabs were prone to consider themselves superior to the rest of the population, whether unbelievers or converts to Islam. Therefore, while ambitious and able individuals often made use of the religious fanaticism of the masses to raise themselves to supreme power, and then ruled in the manner of Oriental despots, they had to be on their guard against the aristocracy and against the instinct toward freedom. Mohammed had ratified the relationship of patron and client which already existed among the Arabs, and the Moslem leaders rewarded their followers with grants of land, so that there was in the Middle Ages much the same tendency toward feudalism in the Mohammedan as in the Christian world. Although the Arabs lacked the Roman genius for govern- ment, they rivaled the Romans as adapters, preservers, and spreaders of civilization. The Koran, it is civilization true, is not favorable to philosophical speculation of Islam or to the scientific attitude, and the narrowly orthodox Mos- lem might hold that to commit the sacred book to memory was a sufficient education, and that it contained the entire law and theology of Islam. Nevertheless, learned Greeks, Syrians, and Persians living under Mohammedan rule were not bound by such scruples. And as the Arabs left behind their rude life in the desert and came in contact with the Hellenistic culture that was spread through the East, their mental horizon and sympathies expanded beyond the narrow limits of the Koran, Moreover, the Koran itself /
