Reasons for the greatness and decline of the Arabs

The present state of Islam:

Reasons for the greatness of the Arabs:

We conclude the history of Arab civilization by summarizing the reasons for their greatness and decline in a comprehensive view. We say: The time in which the Arabs appeared was one of the preliminary factors in their strength, and the factor of preliminary time is of great importance in the lives of individuals and nations. There are qualities that only emerge at a certain time. If Napoleon had appeared during the time of Louis XIV, he would not have been able to become the master of Europe. If Muhammad had appeared during the reign of the Roman Empire, the Arabs would undoubtedly not have been able to leave their island, and history would have remained ignorant of them.

Muhammad was born in the best of times, and we have seen that the old world was cracked in every way, and Muhammad’s followers had only to shake it to collapse.

However, the elimination of a state is not sufficient to establish a civilization. The inability of the barbarians who inherited the Roman civilization in the West, as the Arabs inherited it in the East, indicates the difficulties involved in establishing civilizations. If this preliminary factor helps in establishing a new state and a new civilization, then other basic factors are necessary to establish them, which we are now identifying.

The effect of race is one of the most important factors that we mention:

We have seen that one of the most important characteristics of a race is that its individuals, in particular, are characterized by similar feelings and capacities, and that they direct their efforts toward one purpose. These similar feelings, which

It was formed through successive inheritance, that is, the national morality is composed of all of it. It is a heritage of the past that our ancestors helped to form, and we also help to form it for our descendants. These feelings, although they differ from one people to another, differ only slightly within a single people.

There is no doubt that every generation has an influence on what is essential to national morality, but this influence is weak, and several centuries must pass before the phase resulting from the inherited influences gradually accumulating becomes clear. Given the rapid development that education, environment, and conditions lead to, this development is only temporary.

In fact, the moral and mental characteristics of the race are as constant as the characteristics of the physical species. Today we know that these characteristics also change with time, even though naturalists previously considered them to be absolutely unchangeable.

Figure 2-1 : A street bread vendor in Jerusalem (from photographs)

I have tried to prove in another book that it is morals, which consist of an unconscious accumulation of feelings, not intelligence, that govern us. Therefore, anyone who wishes to understand the history of individuals and peoples must begin by investigating their morals. Julius Caesar’s statement about our ancestors: “They are lovers of revolutions, instigators of wars without cause, and impatient of the vicissitudes of time,” helps explain the events of our past.

It is easy to use historical incidents to prove that the results of morals vary according to circumstances, and that the advantages and shortcomings that were the cause of the greatness of a nation at a certain time may be the cause of its decline at another time, as is the case with the Arabs. A close examination shows that the different results are the result of the same causes. From this, it appears, at first glance, that there is a social gap between the Greek in the age of Pericles and him in the Byzantine era, even though it was the circumstances, not the moral essence, that changed in these two eras. That is, the delicacy of the Greek, his philosophical precision, and the beauty of his language turned into deception, verbal research, and Byzantine chatter due to the environment and the change of time. It may seem to the observer that the men of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages differed in their ardent faith and their strong instinctive memory from the contemporary Jacobites, who are characterized by extreme heresy and revolutionary instincts, although a little reflection shows that these two groups are similar, and that only the names of the beliefs are what changed

To the basic elements of national creation that are fixed, as fixed as vertebrates in vertebrates, are added secondary elements that vary, such as the difference in height, body shape, and color in vertebrates as well. These secondary elements are what it is correct to say with them: tastes and ideas change with the change of times, but changes like these do not affect the essential elements of creation. These essential elements can be likened to a rock that waves crash against without moving it, and these changes can be likened to what the waves place of sand, shells, and plants on this rock, so that they quickly take it back from it.

From the above, the reader learns that historical research must be based on the study of the basic elements of national morality in order to differentiate between nations. We have described – sufficiently – the elements of Arab morality, and there is no benefit in returning to them again. If we leave aside what we said about the intelligence of the Arabs, their enthusiasm, their artistic and literary readiness… and other qualities without which they would not have been able to reach the level of civilization, we mention their qualities.

Figure 2-2 : Arabs from the vicinity of Aswan: (Upper Egypt, from a photograph taken by the author) .

The inherent warfare that can be taken as a prominent example of our saying that the same abilities produce results that differ according to the different circumstances.

Before the advent of Muhammad, the Arabian Peninsula was nothing but a vast, permanent battlefield, due to the inherent warlike nature of the Arabs. When Islam came and united the hearts of the Arabs, they directed all their forces to foreign lands, and their warlike nature was one of the reasons for their victories. When the field was empty of enemies to fight, they turned their weapons on themselves due to their inherent warlike qualities. These qualities, which were the secret of their greatness, became the cause of their decline.

But our saying that a single moral element produces different results depending on the circumstances is not sufficient alone to explain the development of a nation; there are many other circumstances and factors that also have a great influence.