When the Muslim—bands of light horse with their modest im pedimenta carried on camels—came up against Transjordania, they were attacking from the rear a province which had always in earlier days been attacked from the front in serious war. Previous Arab raids had been mere Bedouin razzias : Syria's earlier dan gers had been from Parthian and Persian attacks from the north east, on the front along the Euphrates.
Clearly then this new attack was delivered against a disorgan ized group of provinces, with an apathetic or even disloyal popu lation, and under-garrisoned by an army which had recently been destroyed and reconstructed. The immense forces which the Arab romancers describe as arrayed against them never existed, and the Syrians and Egyptians made no more attempt to defend themselves against the Muslim than they had against the fire worshipping Persian twenty years back. The resistance was en tirely that of the Roman army, assisted by the strong walls of many towns which had been fortified in earlier and more pros perous ages. The army, such as it was, was weak in numbers; its main strength lay in the heavy cavalry which had replaced the ancient legions during the last two centuries ; infantry had sunk into decay many generations back.
The Arabs had not been a formidable foe in earlier centuries, because of their inveterate tribal and family feuds, which made combination impossible. It required the genius of Mohammed to unite old enemies, and bind them together by a fanatical fighting creed. Even after his death, when early victories ought to have bound them together, there was grave danger of disruption, which was only prevented by the tact and moderation of his successors the caliphs Abu-Bekr and Omar. With a little less self-denial on the part of their leaders, the Arabs might have relapsed into their habitual petty quarrels, and the creed of the prophet might have made no figure in history. But spirited exaltation prevailed over ancient jealousies—invasions of Syria and Persia began, and suc cess was, from the first, so brilliant, that their feuds were for the moment silenced, and a strong conviction of their own in vincibility came upon the Muslims.