Like other Near Eastern peoples, the Arabs were already familiar with the legend of Gog and Magog, who appear even in the Quran ("Yaʾjūj wa-Maʾjūj"). Following the Muslim conquests, these perceptions were enhanced by incorporating many of the cultural conceptions of their new subjects. The nascent Muslim Caliphate regarded itself as heir to the Sassanid, and to a lesser extent, Byzantine, tradition and "civilizational consciousness". As a result, the Arab caliphs also adopted the notion that, in the words of Mako, it was their duty "to protect the settled, i.e. the civilized world from the northern barbarian". This imperative was further reinforced by the Muslim division of the world into the "House of Islam" or "Dar al-Islam" and the "House of War" ("Dar al-Harb"), to which the pagan Turkic steppe peoples like the Khazars were consigned.