Islam’s egalitarian message has been continuously contested by older river-valley social orders

Evidence

In a sense, the advent of Islam was itself a revolution, which after long struggles only partially succeeded. After the Islamic conquests of the seventh century, there was a continuing tension between the new religion and its message and the very old societies of the countries that the Muslims conquered. Islam came, not into a new world, like Christendom in Europe, but to lands of ancient civilization and deep-rooted traditions. This tension between Islamic dynamism and the older forces of the river-valley societies continued through medieval into modern times. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1491

Categorization

• XREF: This framing of Islamic revolution against older substrate civilizations complements the Said-adjacent cluster on how Western observers read Islamic political history; also feeds Lewis’s broader thesis contrast with Christendom-in-tabula-rasa. — connects to: Islam met ancient river-valley societies, unlike Christianity meeting new lands