Until the advent of materialism and 19th c. dogma, Western Civilisation was superior to anything Islam had developed. Islam has not aided in the development of the modern world; in fact civilisation has only been created in spite of Islam. Proof of this resides in the 'modern' world and the unending political-economic and spiritual poverty of Muslim states and regions. Squatting on richer civilisations is not 'progress'. Islam is pagan, totalitarian, and irrational.
Scott's book is sure to enrage the Marxist-Post Modern-Moslem axis of not-so-benign intolerance and historical revisionist bigotry and deceit. It is an work which should be read by anyone who is curious about these often-described 'Dark Ages' of 'barbaric and savage' Europe. Rome fell in a German inspired palace coup one day in 476 AD. Apparently and immediately, all became 'Dark', decayed, vicious and neolithic. Only with the arrival of wise Arabs and compassionate-caring Moslems from the 7th to 10th centuries, drenched in learning and achievement, did poor, decayed, stupid Europe 'emerge from the Dark Ages'. Ah those wonderful, happy Moslems. Saving civilization! What a trip. It is all bunk of course, but so too is a lot of what is accepted as 'wisdom'.
Building on Pirenne's seminal work in the early 20th century Scott destroys the post-modern myth of 'civilized' Islam furthering the great onward march of man, juxtaposed against the savagery of a naked and toothless Europe. Scott further elucidates, proves and satisfies the common sense fact that the Moslem invasion of the Mediterranean basin must have, as a matter of logic and inevitability, neutered the Romano-Byzantine civilisation; destroyed and distorted millennial-old trade and cultural patterns and effaced European contact with the 'East' forcing Europe inwards in a defensive war with a fanatical, Jihadic, imperialist, vicious and quite bloody Islam. Ah, facts are such inconvenient truths for the post-moderns. To these large craniums Islam is love, happiness and endless rose petal throwing, with loving Moslems entranced in dances of blissful multi-cult orgiastic harmony.
Scott's historical narrative which is supported by archaeology and extant sources are sure to profoundly derange the pious cult of tolerance and diversity. But reality usually does. The Moslem narrative of a thriving 'golden age' is of course, unsupported by archaeology and extant sources. Cordoba pace the Great Man [or God?] Obama was the apex of multicultural development circa the 9th century. I have been to Cordoba. Not one single piece of archeological evidence exists to support this Moslem claim, nor is there any factual data or physical proof whatsoever that Cordoba possessed 3000 mosques and a plethora of magnificent buildings settled in a megapolis of 500.000 thousand earnest, Plato-quoting Moslems, busy with science, math and medicine. What you find in Cordoba is a miserable little mosque from the 9th century and a small wall. Maybe Moslems can explain this lack of evidence as they rant about golden ages.
In any event, Scott's narrative is premised on facts and evidence, not Academic balderdash and theorizing. In assessing Pirenne's theory Scott makes the follow key claims:
-Like modern day abortion fetishers, the Romans were great practitioners of killing babies. Due to infanticide the population was on a steep decline. This impacted everything from military might to economic development, tax levels and agricultural output. The exception to this forced population reduction were the Jewish and Christian populations. Viewed in this light Christianity would have saved, not hindered Roman culture.
-After Rome was taken over by the Ostrogoth's [clients of Byzantium] there was no 'Dark Age'. Instead there was an increase in economic and cultural activity, since the weight of the Roman state and the interminable civil wars were removed. The exception to this would be central Italy during the reconquest by Byzantium of much of the former Western Roman state.
-The great cities of the Roman world were in the East. There is no doubt that from about the mid 7th century onwards, this region did descend into a Dark Age with whole cities and economies disappearing. This was of course due to the invasions of the Moslems. Constantinople shrivelled from a city of 1 million in 600 AD to maybe 40.000 by 750 AD. How else to explain this except through the Arab invasions which denuded Byzantium of most of its empire and eradicated trade ? Co2 ? GlobaloneyWarming?
-The Arabs through ignorance of farming techniques, and the reliance on goats, devastated large parts of North Africa and the Levant, turning what was once the most important food producing areas of the Roman world into deserts.
-Islam is a political program not a faith in the Western sense of that word. It promulgates aggressive Jihad and violence. Academics have the immature idea that anything called a 'religion' must be such; and that all 'religions' are the same. There is not one single academic study or program, which portrays this ecological destruction or teaches it.
-Moslem raids, pirates and wars destroyed agricultural, irrigation systems, trade patterns and production of key products throughout the Mediterranean littoral. Papryus the mainstay of Roman literacy for centuries was cut off from its source in Egypt to Europe hastening the costly invention of parchment.
-Contrary to myth classical civilization was alive and well in Europe; hotly debated, open to criticism and change; and integrated with new systems of both secular and theological patterns of belief. The list of Christian and lay figures involved in classical education during the post Rome era is endless, as is the list of inventions throughout the width and breadth of society.
-Monks for instance not only fused rationality with Christianity they also built history's first public hospitals [5th century]; public school systems; and were deeply involved with advanced agricultural techniques, industry and water power development.
Before the Arabs invaded the Mare Nostrum and wiped out higher cultures, life was rather pleasant for most people – not all, but for many.
“It was a time of wealth; it was a time of opulence. Cities, or at least towns, flourished, as they had under the Caesars, and life continued remarkably unchanged from the latter epoch. It was money and not a barter economy; and the fundamental unit was the gold solidus. With this wealth luxury items were imported into the west in great quantities: fabrics, jewelry, spices, wines, and very many other of the things which made life pleasant for the urban elite.” [p 47]
With the arrival of Islam and the Moslem Jihad, so ardently defended by the multiculturalists, and bien-pensant elite; life descended into an Oriental hell of terror, slavery, subjugation, humiliation and not-so-benign Arab domination. Scott quotes an Arab geographer of the 9th century who catalogues the Arab destruction of Asia minor. The same would apply to Western cities and regions:
“In days of old cities were numerous in Rum [Anatolia] but now they have become few. Most of the districts are prosperous and pleasant and have each an extremely strong fortress, on account of the frequency of the raids which the fighters of the faith [Moslems] direct upon them. To each village appertains a castle where in timr of flight they may take shelter.” [p. 159]
How tolerant. The Arab chroniclers discuss in detail the slave trading of Christians, sacking of cities across the Mediterranean world; the reduction of forts and the 'effeminacy' of the advanced states of post Roman Europe. Being effeminate would indicate an urban literate culture not a nomadic, warring society. Slaves and women were highly sought out by Moslems.
“The impact of Islamic piracy on the Mediterranean is a question that has never been fully understood or appreciated, in the English-speaking world at least. For a thousand years the Middle Sea, previously one of the world's great economic highways, was reduced to a hunting-ground fro slavers, a devastating fact which, incredibly, is barely mentioned in multitudes of textbooks published annually.” [p. 168]
Some 10 million 'Whites' were enslaved by the Moslems from Russia, eastern, central and Western Europe from 630 AD to 1900 AD. I doubt there is one academic program anywhere in the Western world which even mentions this fact.
“Furthermore, we should note that the Viking raids, which devastated much of northern and western Europe for about two centuries, was intimately to the Muslim demand for European slaves, begging further the question of how this could be viewed as in any way beneficial to Europe and European civilization.” [p. 196]
In the post-modern view, slavery, war, Jihad, destruction and pagan savage violence is 'civilization'. Indeed without Islam 'Europe never would have escaped its Dark Age'. This is what passes for historical 'fact'. It is simply asinine.
Without any doubt this is a great book full of facts, sources, commentaries on various studies, arguments for and against themes and beliefs; and a lucid overview of the historical development of the 'real' Islam within the Mare Nostrum basin. It is a worthy addition to Henri Pirenne's iconoclastic work and a book which clearly lays out what caused the contraction of Europe between 720 and 920. It was of course the Moslem Jihad. A fact that escapes our over-trained and indoctrinated elite for whom lies are facts, and facts are myths.