ABSTRACT
The period extending from the latter part of the thirteenth century to the end of the eighteenth is widely regarded by Arabs and Arabists alike as one of stagnation or decline. Convenient dates for marking the beginning and the end of this unhappy phase are the fall of Baghdad to Mongol invaders in 1256 and the Bonaparte expedition to Egypt in 1798. Actually, the first of these events is only the most dramatic of several incursions from the Far East into Islamic lands, and the second merely brings to a sharp point the growing ascendancy of Europe, already evident in the Christian reconquest of Andalusia in 1492, and gradually outpacing the Muslims in the arts and sciences, and – more threateningly – in exploration, trade, and the control of resources.
