On 2009-06-12 Dalton C. Rocha, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil. wrote: I read this good book, here in Brazil.This book is short, concise, mainly correct and has many photos and some maps.All the photos and maps are black & white.
The main problem of this book is its will to refute, the so called Pirenne´s thesis.Using archeological evidence, not available to Henri Pirenne(1862-1935), while he was alive.
This book is mainly good, but its peaks in on the pages 156 and 157, where we can read:
´Five conclusions
This chapter and the one before leads us to five conclusions:
1. Bagdad (founded in 762), thanks to its position and the presence of the abassid court, rapidly became the centre of a great commercial network, which at the end of the eighth century and in the early ninth century expanded to include the Arabian Sea and places as far removed as southern Chine.The reign of Harun al-Rachid(775-809) saw the wealth of Baghdad and the volume of trade reach unprecedented heights.
2.The abassid caliphs failed to create internal stability, and the ninth century was a period of frequent revolts and infighting between members of the ruling family, factions at the court and the army.The legitimate sucessor of al-Rashid climbed to the throne over the body of a usurper;of the eight succeeding caliphs, two were assassinated and two died in exile.
3.With few exceptions, the caliphs were reckless spenders.The foundation of a new capital, Samarra, in 836, demanded expenditure on a colossal scale.Al-Mutasim built a palacelarger than Versailles in 836-842;al-Mutawakkil replaced it with another, almost as large, in about 849-59;al-Mutamid build a third in 878-82.The city itself extended along the Tigris for 35 kilometers.
4.The product of intermittent warfare and gross extravagance was an economic disaster.At the death of Harun al-Rashid,the Abassid treasury was overflowing;on the accession of al-Mutadid(892) it was empty.
5.The high point in the exportation of silver to Scandinavia, therefore, coincided with an economic boom in western Asia in the reign of Harun.The drying-up of the supply coincided with the gradual exhaustion of the Abassid economy.´
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Even so,the Pirenne´s thesis remains up.
Decades, in fact some centuries, before the foundation of Islam, Asia and Europe were in terrible decadency.Islam doomed a corrupt,decadent and weak structure.Persian and Byzantium were both corrupt and weak totalitarian empires.Both exausted by warfare between them, they were easily defeated by Arabs.In fact, Islam grew by a chain reaction.Wars bought lands, money and persons to made new wars and, new wars bought even more lands, money and persons than before, again.A chain reaction.
The barbarians didn´t wanted to wipe out catholicism or any kind of a strong christian faith.Islam in other side, remains the strongest and oldest catholic church´s foe.Islam wiped out a weak, corrupt and divided christianism in Asia and North of Africa.Charlemagne had to melt islamic silver coins, because he had to have a stable coin, but also be pround of an economy with real money.
The international trade in long range, remained, as this book shows, but this book forgets the fact that it was, far below the levels of Roman Empire, to example.
This book also forgets to compare the differences of rule under islamic, bizantine and catholic rules.It describes the lifestyle in islamic palaces, but what kind of polices were used for things, such as agriculture, in islamic or Europeans lands?
For me, this book is good, but I must tell you that Pirenne´s main thesis remains up. . And summed up by saying Pirenne´s main thesis remains up. Currently Mohammed, Charlemagne and the Origins of Europe has an overall rating of 10 over 10.
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Cornell University Press claimed
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