contemporaries as their ruling ideal, and therefore naturally assumed
that the constitutional practices of the prophet were his own
invention. The organisation of the conquering race with its tribal
subordination was certainly purely Arab in origin. In fact the
conquerors seemed so unable to adapt themselves to the conditions with
which they met, that foreigners who joined their ranks were admitted
to the Muhammedan confederacy only as clients of the various Arab
tribes. This was, however, a mere question of outward form: the
internal organisation continued unchanged, as it was bound to continue
unless chaos were to be the consequence. In fact, pre-existing
administrative regulations were so far retained that the old customs
duties on the former frontiers were levied as before, though they
represented an institution wholly alien to the spirit of the
Muhammedan empire. Those Muhammedan authors, who describe the
administrative organisation, recognise only the taxes which Islam
regarded as lawful and characterise others as malpractices which had
crept in at a later date. It is remarkable that these so-called
subsequent malpractices correspond with Byzantine and Persian usage
before the conquest: but tradition will not admit the fact that these
remained unchanged. The same fact is obvious when we consider the
progress of civilisation in general. In every case the Arabs merely
develop the social and economic achievements of the conquered races to
further issues. Such progress could indeed only be modified by a
general upheaval of existing conditions and no such movement ever took
place. The Germanic tribes destroyed the civilisations with which they
met; they adopted many of the institutions of Christian antiquity, but
found them an impediment to the development of their own genius. The
Arabs simply continued to develop the civilisation of post-classical
antiquity, with which they had come in contact.