It is not to be supposed that all men hold their religion so strongly that they desire to make converts ; savages who reverence gods because they are afraid of them do not extend their religion. But in proportion as they see that some things ought not to be done be cause they are wrong—because they are in the long run a waste of energy, in proportion as they see that some things ought to be done because they are right—because in the long run they save energy, in proportion as they realize the meaning of life, they desire to make converts, to bring other men to their way of thinking. This idea is scarcely present to the minds of ruder peoples, and though we find many wars, we find few religious wars ; the further we advance in history, however, the greater number of religious wars and disputes do we find. This may seem a set back, but it is not so, for it is a record of the fact that men are recognizing, however vaguely, that there is a purpose in life, and that that which directs the energy is of greater value than the energy itself.
We see, then, why the higher religions have made many converts while the lower religions have made few; in particular we see why the Arabs, when under the teach ing of Mohammed they realized what they knew, should have set forth to convert the world.
We have now seen why the Arabs are a people apart, why they came to have a monotheistic religion, and why they were thus marked out to spread this religion, and incidentally but necessarily their own temporal power. These are the results of geographical conditions. We must now notice precisely how far they realized what they attempted.
Now the time at which the attempt was made, and the conditions of the world on which the attempt was made must be noticed. The Arabs failed to Moham medanize the world partly because of geographical momentum, because of conditions that had arisen owing to the geography, partly because of the natural geographical conditions which always existed. We have seen that Palestine owed its importance to its situation between Egypt and Babylonia; it seems, then, to be naturally what we might call semi-eastern in character. But because it borders the sea—the Great Sea—ever since it has had a history it has looked west as well as east : in early days Phoenicia sent her man ners far westward, it came within the circle of Greek conquests, its people to a great extent accepted the Greek language, and when Christianity came into exist ence not only were the sacred books written in Greek, but the land itself formed a part of the Great Empire of the West—Rome.
It was natural, then, that Christianity, if it spread at all, should spread within the Roman Empire, and largely because of the momentum carried by the Roman Empire the Bishop of Rome became the acknowledged head of the Church, rivalled, indeed, by the Patriarch of the Eastern Roman Empire at Constantinople. Christianity of a kind did, however, spread east and south—east wards to Mesopotamia, Persia, across the plain even to China, southwards to Abyssinia, India and Ceylon. In Abyssinia and Malabar to this day a kind of Christianity survives. But there was a difference between the Chris tianity within the Roman Empire and that without. The government of the Church within the Empire was modelled on that of the Empire itself, and remained powerful long after the power of Rome was but a name. The Christianity of the lands which had been part of the Empire was a homogeneous whole, except in frontier lands such as Syria. and Egypt, where allegiance to both Church and State was less strong. The Christianity of the lands beyond the Empire was opposed to that within ; it was heterodox; nor did it ever gain a hold on all the members of a tribe : it was only a missionary Church, and as a result of this, as well as owing to natural differences of circumstance which transformed and weakened it by divisions, it was altogether a frailer thing. Thus the lands which had once been Roman withstood the power of Mohammedanism ; the others yielded to it.
There is another way in which geographical mo mentum affected history at this period. It was prob ably the existence of Christianity which in some way affected the mind of Mohammed, so that he realized what life meant, and he was impelled to start on his mission. It was merely, however, the match to the tinder, not only with the leader but with his followers. Unless their minds had been prepared by the teaching of the desert during long ages, they would never have accepted Mohammed's teachings as they did. We must notice, too, that Arabia—the real Arabia—was so protected from outside influences that Christianity in any but very debased forms had never penetrated to it. The Christianity of Malabar, for example, has lasted long, for though it may have been transformed by the conditions of its new home, yet it was superior to any form of religion in the lands around. The new religion founded by Mohammed was superior to all others with which it could at first be compared.