dapted themselves to the new
rule is very striking. Their nationality had been broken long ago, but
intrinsically it was more closely allied to the Arabian than to the
Greek or Persian. Their religious sympathy with the West was seriously
impaired by dogmatic controversies; from Islam they might at any rate
hope for toleration, even though their views were not in accordance with
the theology of the emperor of the day. The lapse of the masses from
Christianity to Islam, however, which took place during the first
century after the conquest, is to be accounted for only by the fact that
in reality they had no inward relation to the gospel at all. They
changed their creed merely to acquire the rights and privileges of
Moslem citizens. In no case were they compelled to do so; indeed the
Omayyad caliphs saw with displeasure the diminishing proceeds of the
poll-tax derived from their Christian subjects (see MAHOMMEDAN
INSTITUTIONS).

It would have been a great advantage for the solidity of the Arabian
empire if it had confined itself within the limits of those old Semitic
lands, with perhaps the addition of Egypt. But the Persians were not so
ready as the Greeks to give up the contest; they did not rest until the
Moslems had subjugated the whole of the Sassanid empire. The most
important event in the protracted war which led to the conquest of Iran,
was the battle of Nehawend in 641;[4] the most obstinate resistance was
offered by Persis proper, and especially by the capital, Istakhr
(Persepolis). In the end, all the numerous and partly autonomous
provinces of the Sassanid empire fell, one after the other, into the
hands of the Moslems, and the young king, Yazdegerd III. (q.v.), was
compelled to retire to the farthest corner of his realm, where he came
to a miserable end.[5] But it was long before the Iranians learned to
accept the situation. Unlike the Christians of western Asia, they had a
vigorous feeling of national pride, based upon glorious memories and
especially upon a church having a connexion of the closest kind with the
state. Internal disturbances of a religious and political character and
external disasters had long ago shattered the empire of the Sassanids
indeed, but the Iranians had not yet lost their patriotism. They were
fighting, in fact, against the despised and hated Arabs, in defence of
their holiest possessions, their nationality and their faith. Their
subjection was only external, nor did Islam ever succ