f decadence; the beginnings
of Islam may also have been influenced by the ideas of this
civilisation, which research is only now revealing to us: but these
points must remain undecided for the time being. South Arabian
civilisation was certainly not confined to the South, nor could an
organised township such as Mecca remain outside its sphere of
influence: but the scanty information which has reached us concerning
the religious life of the Arabs anterior to Islam might also be
explained by supposing them to have followed a similar course of
development. In any case, it is advisable to reserve judgment until
documentary proof can replace ingenious conjecture. The difficulty of
the problem is increased by the fact that Jewish and especially
Christian ideas penetrated from the South and that their influence
cannot be estimated. The important point for us to consider is the
existence of Christianity in Southern Arabia before the Muhammedan
period. Nor was the South its only starting-point: Christian doctrine
came to Arabia from the North, from Syria and Babylonia, and numerous
conversions, for the most part of whole tribes, were made. On the
frontiers also Arabian merchants came into continual contact with
Christianity and foreign merchants of the Christian faith could be
found throughout Arabia. But for the Arabian migration and the
simultaneous foundation of a new Arabian religion, there is no doubt
that the whole peninsula would have been speedily converted to
Christianity.

The chief rival of Christianity was Judaism, which was represented in
Northern as in Southern Arabia by strong colonies of Jews, who made
proselytes, although their strict ritualism was uncongenial to the
Arab temperament which preferred conversion to Christianity (naturally
only as a matter of form). In addition to Jewish, Christian, and Old
Semitic influences, Zoroastrian ideas and customs were also known in
Arabia, as is likely enough in view of the proximity of the Persian
empire.

These various elements aroused in Muhammed's mind a vague idea of
religion. His experience was that of the eighteenth-century
theologians who suddenly observed that Christianity was but one of
many very similar and intelligible religions, and thus inevitably
conceived the idea of a pure and natural religious system fundamental
to all others. Judaism and Christianity were the only religions which
forced themselves upon Muhammed's consciousness and with the general
c