The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

A. D. 638-44] LUXURY AND INTEMPERANCE 185
clubs, and prayer at Mosque five times a clay. Ladies A.II. 17-23.
no longer appeared in public excepting as the\' flitted
along shrouded beneath " the veil." The light and grace,
the charm and delicacy, hitherto imparted by their presence
to Arab society were gone the softness, brightness, and
;
warmth of nature, so beautifully portrayed in ancient
Arab song, were chilled and overcast. Games of chance,
and suchlike amusements, were forbidden
;
even speculation
was checked by the ban on interest for mone)- lent. And
so, Muslim life, cut off, bc}'ond the threshold of the lianm,
from the ameliorating influences of the gentler sex, began
to assume outside the drear}-, morose, and cheerless aspect
ever since retained. I5ut nature is not to be for ever thus
pent up ; the rebound too often comes ; and in casting off"
its shackles, humanity not seldom bursts likewise through
the barriers of the Faith. 7 he gay youth of Islam, cloyed
with the dull delights of the sequestered /larljii, were
tempted thus when abroad to evade the restrictions of
their creed, and seek in the cup, in music, games, and
dissipation, the excitement which the young and lighthearted
will demand. In the greater cities, intemperance
and libertinism were rife. The canker spread, oftentimes
the worse because concealed. The more serious classes
were scandalised not only by amusements, luxuries, and
voluptuous living, inconsistent with their creed, but even
with immoralities which cannot here be named. Development
of this evil came later on, but tares were already
sown even under the strict regime of 'Omar.^
For the present such excesses prevailed only in foreign Simplicity of
parts. " At home, the Caliphs, fortified b\' the hallowed 'O'"-""'!
' r
'
...
associations of Medina, preserved the simplicit)' of ancient
Arab life. Severe simplicity, indeed, was not incompatible
.
(as in the case of Mohammad himself) with the indulgences
of the /larlin. But even in this respect, the first three
Caliphs, judged by the standard of Islam, were temperate
and modest. 'Omar, they say, had no passion for the sex.
Before the Hijra, he contracted marriage with four wives,
^
For a description of the shameless demoralisation that prevailed
in Damascus and ]>agdad, I must refer to the learned and elaborate
work of II. von Kremer, Culturgcschichte des Orients initcr (h-m
Chalifen.
domestic lile.