ABSTRACT
Between the fifth century and the end of the eleventh century, the western world roiled with ideological and material pendulum swings. Ideas and material forces moved together. In the ideological dimension, fierce competition between Arianism and Nicene Christianity dominated the early medieval centuries, known—somewhat unfairly I might add—as the Dark Ages. Beginning with the seventh century onward Islam emerged as ideological contender with Christianity. As well it loomed large as a military and political threat to the Christian west, ultimately dismembering many of the Christian territories bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. In short order, Islamic armies managed to subdue much of the region that Hellenism followed by Roman armies had conquered. Between southern Iberia running through North Africa, through Egypt, through most Mediterranean waters, across much of Anatolia and the Arabian Desert, through Persia and even into northern India Islamic forces managed to cement together a huge empire rivaling in territorial terms anything Roman forces had been able to hold in sway.
