ABSTRACT
A Remarkable change in the balance of forces between Latin Christendom and the Islamic world took place in the eleventh century. Up till 1000 the West was a poor, backward and illiterate region, precariously defending itself against the assaults of barbarous nations by land and sea. The Vikings raided all along the Atlantic coasts and far inland, while the Magyars pushed their nomadic ravages as far west as northern Italy and the Rhineland. All this while, for nearly four centuries, Islam enjoyed an internal peace and security, untroubled save for domestic wars, and was thus enabled to build up a brilliant and impressive urban culture. Now the situation was dramatically transformed. Around 1000 the Vikings and Magyars were converted to Christianity, and so far as the West was concerned, the age of barbarian invasion was over. Trade and commerce revived; towns and markets sprang up; the population increased, with a resulting rising demand for food and clothing, and the arts and sciences were cultivated on a scale unknown since the days of the Roman Empire.
