Note 382 — Chapter II
Reading edition
The first Islamites, apart from the inner circle, were the least religious. See Renan, Études d'histoire religieuse, pp. 257-65; and Van Vloten, Recherches sur la domination arabe, Amsterdam, 1894, pp. 1, 2, 4, 7. Nöldeke (p. 15) speaks in the conventional way of the "wonderful intellectual outburst" which made possible the early triumphs of Islam. The case is really on all fours with that of the French Revolution—"la carrière ouverte aux talens." Cp. Milman, Latin Christianity, 4th ed. ii, 204, as to the readiness with which the followers of Moseilama turned to Mahommedanism.