st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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THE MAHOMETAN RULE IN SYRIA. 15
bound together by the strongest of all ties, the sense
of a Divine calling."
The same preparedness of the
soil to receive the seed, which made the teaching of
Mahomet take root and germinate so quickly at
Medina, was the cause also of the rapid spread of
Mahometan conquests soon afterwards. At Yathrib,
better known thenceforward as Medina, 1 "
the City,"
the feuds of the Arabs and the Jews and, when the
latter were subdued, the internecine feuds of the
Arab tribes of Aus and Khazraj had ended in a
general feeling of insecurity and weariness of war,
such as makes men cast about for a strong ruler to
govern them. They were, in fact, on the point of so
choosing Abdallah, son of Obay, when the arrival of
Mahomet seemed to furnish them with the very
2
leader whom they sought.
In like manner, when the armies of Islam began
to invade the adjoining countries, Egypt on the west
and Syria on the north, their success might seem at
first out of all proportion to the means employed, or
to the time consumed. But the conflagration spread
rapidly because the trees were dry. Just as the
citizens of Yathrib had been weakened by their longcontinued
blood feuds, so the inhabitants of Syria
and Egypt were in a state of religious, as well as civil,
disunion and weakness. The majority in both those
countries were Nestorians or Monophysites, de
pressed by the imperial laws, and ready to welcome
1
More properly Medinct-al-Nabi, City of the Prophet."
Robertson s Hist, of the Christian Church," ii., p. 39, n.
2
Osborn, ubi. sup.) p. 42.