showed no reluctance to serve under their new masters. Indeed, the change made their work
easier, since taxation was lightened very considerably. The populations, moreover, in order to
escape the tribute, very largely abandoned Christianity for Islam.
The Arab Empire was an absolute monarchy, under the caliph, who was the successor of the
Prophet, and inherited much of his holiness. The caliphate was nominally elective, but soon
became hereditary. The first dynasty, that of the Umayyads, which lasted till 750, was founded by
men whose acceptance of Mahomet was purely political, and it remained always opposed to the
more fanatical among the faithful. The Arabs, although they conquered a great part of the world in
the name of a new religion, were not a very religious race; the motive of their conquests was
plunder and wealth rather than religion. It was only in virtue of their lack of fanaticism that a
handful of warriors were able to govern, without much difficulty, vast populations of higher
civilization and alien religion.
The Persians, on the contrary, have been, from the earliest times, deeply religious and highly
speculative. After their conversion, they made out of Islam something much more interesting,
more religious, and more philosophical, than had been imagined by the Prophet and his kinsmen.
Ever since the death of Mahomet's son-in-law Ali in 661, Mohammedans have been divided into
two sects, the Sunni and the Shiah. The former is the larger; the latter follows Ali, and considers
the Umayyad dynasty to have been usurpers. The Persians have always belonged to the Shiah sect.
Largely by Persian influence, the Umayyads were at last overthrown, and succeeded by the
Abbasids, who represented Persian interests. The change was marked by the removal of the capital
from Damascus to Baghdad.
The Abbasids were, politically, more in favour of the fanatics than the Umayyads had been. They
did not, however, acquire the whole of the empire. One member of the Umayyad family escaped
the general massacre, fled to Spain, and was there acknowledged as the legitimate ruler. From that
time on, Spain was independent of the rest of the Mohammedan world.
Under the early Abbasids the caliphate attained its greatest splendour. The best known of them is
Harun-al-Rashid (d. 809), who was a contemporary of Charlemagne and the Empress Irene and is
known