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Notes -
I didn't say they were driven by their 'desertness'. The 'desert power' analogy is actually about how the Arabs (and the Fremen in Dune for that matter) were actually very sophisticated in military technology, not about poverty causing strength. Just as Britain dominated through its ability to attack anyone anywhere and then retreat behind their oceans to avoid counterattack, the Arabs could do the same in their deserts with their cavalry-centric armies and survival expertise.
The Arab rise to power coincided with the Eastern Roman Empire switching to a much more cavalry-centric army. At that time in military history, the vast infantry armies of antiquity were giving way to the cavalry-centric armies and armored knights of the middle ages. Infantry powers like Rome were supplanted by cavalry powers like the Arabs. Later the Arabs would sweep through Spain and only be stopped by another cavalry-centric army of Franks led by Charles Martel, which led in turn through the course of military evolution to the heavy cavalry-centric armies of France which dominated Europe. They were only supplanted in their supremacy by the Mongols, at which point cavalry peaked and went into decline with the rise of mass levies, pike-and-shot, and artillery warfare.
This is, in fact, what I am referring to when I talk about asabiyyah. A defining factor of the 'Fremen mirage' is that the barbarians are internally united by a common desire to conquer the wealthy civilized nations. This was true of both the Arabs in real life (Muslims have a notoriously us-vs-them mentality) and the Fremen in Dune (with their Green Paradise).
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