of normal development. Under normal circumstances, indeed, the
social organism functions like the human organism: it is being
incessantly destroyed and as incessantly renewed in conformity with the
changing conditions of life. These changes are sometimes very
considerable, but they are so gradual that they are effected almost
without being perceived. A healthy organism well attuned to its
environment is always plastic. It instinctively senses environmental
changes and adapts itself so rapidly that it escapes the injurious
consequences of disharmony.

Far different is the character of unrest's acuter manifestations. These
are infallible symptoms of sweeping changes, sudden breaks with the
past, and profound maladjustments which are not being rapidly rectified.
In other words, acute unrest denotes social ill-health and portends the
possibility of one of those violent crises known as "revolutions."

The history of the Moslem East well exemplifies the above
generalizations. The formative period of Saracenic civilization was
characterized by rapid change and an intense idealistic ferment. The
great "Motazelite" movement embraced many shades of thought, its radical
wing professing religious, political, and social doctrines of a violent
revolutionary nature. But this changeful period was superficial and
brief. Arab vigour and the Islamic spirit proved unable permanently to
leaven the vast inertia of the ancient East. Soon the old traditions
reasserted themselves--somewhat modified, to be sure, yet basically the
same Saracenic civilization became stereotyped, ossified, and with this
ossification changeful unrest died away. Here and there the radical
tradition was preserved and secretly handed down by a few obscure sects
like the Kharidjites of Inner Arabia and the Bettashi dervishes; but
these were mere cryptic episodes, of no general significance.

With the Mohammedan Revival at the beginning of the nineteenth century,
however, symptoms of social unrest appeared once more. Wahabism aimed
not merely at a reform of religious abuses but was also a general
protest against the contemporary decadence of Moslem society. In many
cases it took the form of a popular revolt against established
governments. The same was true of the correlative Babbist movement in
Persia, which took place about the same time.[284]

And of course these nascent stirrings were greatly stimulated by the
flood of Western ideas and methods which, as the nine