Arms and Society in Antiquity 21220), were long retained and readily restored, even after sporadic
breakdowns due to bureaucratic corruption or unusually severe
barbarian attacks.
Within any of the paradigms defined by a dominant weapons-
system, ups and downs of discipline and training constituted important
local variables; and the occasional appearance of great captains added
another dramatic dimension to the political-military scene. Alexander
the Great of Macedon (r. 336–323 B.C.) was such a figure, and without
him it is hard to believe that the Hellenic cultural imprint would have
traveled as far eastward into Asia as it did in the wake of his armies.
Mohammed’s career and that of the community of the faithful that
formed around him were still more remarkable. Moslem victories
rested entirely on a new social discipline and religious faith that united
all the tribes of Arabia into a single armed polity without affecting the
design of weaponry in the slightest. Yet the Moslems created a new,
relatively centralized empire in the Middle East and North Africa, and
shored up urban, mercantile, and bureaucratic elements in society
throughout a broad territory—all the way from Iraq to Spain—at a
time when the balance of military forces in adjacent lands favored
feudal devolution.
More unmistakably than any other major event in world history, the
rise of Islam and the establishment of the early caliphate proves that
ideas, too, matter in human affairs and can sometimes enter decisively
into the balance of forces so as to define long-lasting and fundamental
human patterns. In a given time and place, where alternate social
structures are in competition, conscious choice and emotional convic
tion can make the difference in determining which pattern will prevail.
The rise and propagation of Islam did so in the Middle East, giving
decisive impetus to the urban and bureaucratic as against the feudal
principle of military and social organization.
The power of Islam was never more tellingly demonstrated than in
Iran, where the conversion of rural cavalrymen to the new faith in
volved their abandonment of the military style of life that had for
centuries provided an effective guard against steppe raiding. The re
sult was that Iran became permeable once more to infiltration from
the steppe, as the appearance of Turkish raiders and rulers from the
tenth century onwards amply demonstrated.
Prior to A.D. 1000, the preponderance of command systems for
mobilizing human and material resources for large-scale enterprises
was never in doubt. Wars were fought and taxes were collected by
command. Public works were built by command. Settlement of border