ABSTRACT
In the early Middle Ages before the revival of Europe, another Semitic people, the Arabs,
spread out over the southern and eastern half of the Roman Empire. The first great wave
of Arab expansion covered the other Semitic lands of Syria and Mesopotamia; and the
second soon afterwards brought in Persia, north Africa, Spain and the islands of the
Mediterranean. In France the Arabs nearly reached the Loire, but were thrown back to the
Pyrenees. With the Mediterranean effectively lost, Latin Christendom was confined to
western Europe.
