To the next generation (250-300) belong Nahman bar Jacob, who reformed the legal procedure by introducing an oath in cases where formerly no oath had been necessary, Huna, Hisda, Shesheth and Judah bar Ezekiel, the last of whom was the founder of the new school of Pumbeditha, subsequently the most prominent of all Babylonian schools existing until the middle of the eleventh century. The characteristics of this age were the growth of dialecticism, Pilpul, and the neglect of Biblical studies. To the succeeding generation belong Rabba bar Nahmani and Rab Joseph. The latter is known as the author or compiler of the Aramaic translation of the prophets (Targum), more a paraphrase than a translation. In the succeeding generation we have (350-380) Abaje and Raba, whose teachings are quoted as the most pronounced type of keen dialecticism. The most important of Babylonian Amoraim is Rab Ashe (350-431) who compiled the commentaries and the discourses on the Mishnah, and so became, with his successor Rabina (died 499), the compilers of the Babylonian Talmud. The successors of these teachers are called Saboraim (reasoners). Of their chronology and work we know nothing with exactness except that they lived during the sixth and in the early part of the seventh century. They arranged the subject-matter of the Talmud, which they divided into chapters and to which they added some explanatory remarks. CHAPTER IV FROM THE RISE OF ISLAM (622) TO THE ERA OF THE CRUSADES (1096) Jews had been living in Arabia long before the time of Mohammed, perhaps as early as the pre-Christian era. Their mode of life was like that of the Arabs. They were divided into tribes, and had fortified places to which they retreated in case of feuds with their Arab neighbors. Like the Arabs they had their warriors, who were at the same time poets. A famous man from the time preceding Mohammed is Samuel ibn Adijah. He is known among the Arabs as a faithful friend, because when an Arab chieftain, one of his friends, sought refuge in his fortress, he allowed his son, who was in the hands of the enemy, to be killed rather than deliver the fugitive into their hands. Mohammed had frequent intercourse with the Jews, and received from them the first impetus to found a new religion in place of the crude worship of the old Arabs. He laid particular stress on converting the Jews to the new religion, which was to be a universal theocracy. For this purpose he adopted some of the Jewish ideas, customs, and modes of worship, the strict monotheistic idea, the fast of Yom Kippur and the turning toward Jerusalem in prayer. The Jews, however, were offended at his sensuality, and ridiculed him for his ignorance. He therefore became their enemy, and after the capture of one of their forts, killed the inhabitants who had surrendered. All other Jews were expelled from Arabia, which was to be a theocratically governed state, where only the religion of Mohammed would be tolerated.