What Elysian land is this?

And who were the people who saw it that way?

". . . that part of the world whose long years of civilization had taught the nations the folly of war, whose people lived in splendid houses, free alike from the dangers of fire and robbery, and whose rulers devoted themselves entirely to benevolent plans for the welfare of their subjects."

An unhelpful hint: this is from a footnote (p127) in Grunebaum's Modern Islam: The Search for Cultural Identity.

Answer