Editorial comment:
Is Western "Civilization" facing another Dark Age ?
With the collapse of the Roman empire, the luxury and elegance of the world died also. Cities fell to ruin; aqueducts went dry, and unprotected fields returned to weeds and eventually to grass. For several hundred years Europe was a dangerous place in which to travel, infested by brigands or the ignorant, half-savage peasantry who slaughtered travelers and appropriated their belongings. Warlike monks raided caravans or demanded tribute from villages. Often they fought with the nobles who were no more than titled brigands such as Tournemine.
Few men in Christian Europe could read or write, fewer even appreciated the importance of knowledge. The Christian countries had become dark seas of ignorance and superstition with only here and there a light of learning to provide a fitful glow.
After the deluge of blood and victory that carried the Arabs across Asia and North Africa into Spain and Sicily, there came a flood of enlightenment. From Alexandria came translations of the Greek classics, followed by the music, art, and medical knowledge of the Greeks, the Persians, and the Arabs.
Persian and Indian scholars found a warm welcome at the courts of the caliphs, and when the Umayyads were succeeded by the Abbasids, Arab civilization entered its golden age.
In Europe books were few and priceless. Peter de Nemours, Bishop of Paris [who died in 1220 - CAulds], on his departure for the Crusades presented to the Abbey St. Victor his "great library," consisting of just eighteen volumes. At the same time the Caliph al-Hakam, in Cordoba, possessed a library of four hundred thousand volumes.
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excerpted from: The Walking Drum by Louis L'amour (1984)
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