Úpadek a vzestup Evropy po islámské invazi 1. – Pirenne Henri (2024)

The claim that Europe fell into a dark age, whether due to the invasion of Germanic barbarians or the spread of Christianity, as various thinkers have tried to assert since the Enlightenment and as it became dogma with the rise of communism in our country, is a historical lie. The very author of this book on the rise of medieval cities – historian Henri Pirenne – describes in his book what truly led to the decline of Western Europe: it was the expansion of Islam. As Pirenne writes: "Despite all the changes that occurred, the new world retained the Mediterranean character of the ancient world. The shores of the Mediterranean concentrated and nourished its best forces. No signs yet foretold that the end of the cultural community built by the Roman Empire was approaching. Anyone looking into the future at the beginning of the seventh century would not have discovered anything that would raise doubts about the permanence of this old tradition. However, what could naturally and reasonably be expected did not happen. The order of the world that survived the invasions of the Germans could not withstand the onslaught of Islam. The aggressiveness of Islam was thus exhausted, but the face of the land had already changed. The sudden impact of Islam destroyed the ancient world; it was the end of the Mediterranean community in which its forces were united. That well-known and almost friendly…