How Global Was the Mediterranean in the Early Middle Ages?1

This chapter continues the comparison between Byzantium and the caliphate, shifting the focus however to the caliphate in Spain. The focus is economic. Manzano Moreno compares Byzantium and Islamic Spain, al-Andalus. He discusses the problem of the compatibility of the commercial cycles of each of these political-economic systems. He shows that the period between 850 and 950 was weaker in both, but the second Mediterranean trade cycle is fully in operation by the end of the tenth century. The tenth century is perhaps the moment when Byzantium is most similar to al-Andalus.