they moved. It is necessary, however, also to take account of the forces which shaped and governed the events. Sir William Muir has given full weight to one of the most powerful of these, the perennial jealousy of the northern and the southern Arabian tribes; but this is done in much more detail in Wellhausen's Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz,[1] and many of his observations have been incorporated in the present edition. Chapter LVIII. on the rival fortunes of the clans in Khorāsān is drawn entirely from this work. Persons and events thus become connected together in the way of cause and effect; and the reader runs less risk of not seeing the wood for the trees.
The history of the Arab conquest of Egypt has yet to be written. A. J. Butler's monograph on that subject was published before the relative papyri were available. In the present edition the Arabic papyri from the Collection of the Archduke Rainer, edited by J. Karabacek, have been utilised, as well as the Greek papyri in the British Museum edited by H. I. Bell. From the latter the account of the administration at the end of Chapter XXII. has been drawn. The most important papyri bearing on the conquest itself have, however, it seems, yet to be published.
The narrative of the conquest of Syria in Chapters XIII. and XVII., is a condensed translation of Mémoire sur la Conquête de la Syrie by the late M. J. de Goeje, who was the leading Arabist of his day.
Lastly, the names of the leading schoolmen and men of letters have been mentioned in their proper place, as the influence of these has been after all more important and more enduring than that of the Caliphs. At the same time it must be remembered that this is a history of the Caliphate, and that in its later stages it was almost out of touch with the great literary and scientific movements of the time.
- ↑ Wellhausen delivered his closing lecture before retiring from his chair in the University of Gottingen, in August 1913. He took up the study of the literature of the Arabs only after that of the Hebrews ; but he has thrown almost more light upon it than upon the latter. I had the advantage of reading a large part of this work (which, like all that came from the hands of its author, is above praise) in a MS. translation by M. G. W., which, it is hoped, may some day be completed and published for the advantage of English readers.
