The ideological Arab contribution to the Dark Age

From about AD 600 to 800, the Late Antique world fell into darkness. The decline is documented in Decker for the Greeks, Pirenne (and "Scott") for Europe, and Zarinkoob for Iran. If you don't like these sources you're in luck: the Dark Age Hypothesis is easily refutable. Simply present to scholarship evidence that any of these peoples raised up a Procopius or a Ptolemy or even a Hypatia.

Europe had in places suffered earlier. Justinian can be blamed for Italy, and as Gregory of Tours noted it wasn't going great for Gaul/France either. The Visigoths held the line in Spain... until their outside trade dried up, Italy and France being weakened and then Africa being taken by hostiles. Then Spain fell too, not really sorting itself out until 'Abd al-Rahmân in the 130s / 750s.

If you want the history of this postapocalyptic world, you go to Hoyland who, over the 1990s, scrabbled together what little he could find. Why was this collection so difficult? Because so little literature was being produced in Greek, Latin, or Middle-Persian.

Tim O'Neill at History for Atheists would beg to differ: although Europe was unpleasant until Charlemagne (he's a little fuzzy on that, himself) everything was fiiine in Byzantium and Egypt. I tried pointing out that it wasn't fiiine in Byzantium or Egypt, nor in Iran (or Iraq) but: Pirenne’s thesis has been largely rejected, and the rest of your comment above is almost as simplistic as Hicks’ nonsense.

I confess, I was trolling. My main point stands though. And O'Neill, again, does himself no favours by his high-handedness. (Not to say Vridar's much better.) Allow me to explain why I say "a religion" did this disaster.

I start with the assumption of the Two Centuries' Silence. I nuance this with Christian Syria: even Ward-Perkins notes that Syria was an exception to the ruin all about her ears. JBV Tannous in 2010 produced a fine thesis, "Syria Between Byzantium and Islam", on just how hard the Christians in Syria worked to keep the lights on through this era. I understand Syriac-speaking Jews offered some help in Iraq, as well; at least in medicine.

I also do not believe, pace "Scott", that "ISLAM!!" as we know it did the worst of the damage. I do not see a united Qurân over the first of these Two Silent Centuries. If you press the Muslims, they'll agree for the first two decades: they hold that 'Uthmân canonised their text ~ 30 / 650. By that time Egypt, Syria, and almost all Iran was already either under Arab rule or in total upheaval.

But the Arabs required something to motivate them.

Here's an idea, from the heartland of the South Syrian Araby: God chose the Arabs to be the world's masters. Now, I stress that this goes against the Qurân as we have it today. If, however, we accept that most of the Qurân comes from para-prophetic qurrâ after 'Uthmân and, in large measure, in opposition to 'Uthmân's family... we can't bring those parts of the text into evidence.

What can come into evidence, for the 20s / 640s, are the Torah, sketching out a Chosen People; and then the Gospel, to dethrone Israel from that status. But the Gospel denies superiority to any race, Arabs included. Suppose, however, that the Christians have corrupted Jesus' message. Perhaps Jesus meant only to denounce the Jews. Who, then, is left to carry out God's intended promise - but Ishmael?

A religious theory, we might call it "deisprudence", supported the Syrian Arab Wille-zur-Macht. The Arabs, as supremacists, didn't want converts; they wanted only subjects. To the extent Syrian Christians stood aside, the Arabs protected them.

This deisprudence, which evolved into Islam, threw the world into darkness, except for its source, at and around Damascus.

UPDATE 7/26: Umayyad south Syria. Deborah Cvikel says: The size and richness of the cargo seem to contradict the notion, currently popular among scholars, that during the transition between Byzantine and Islamic rule between the seventh and eighth centuries, commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean was limited. It "seems" so only to idiots. From the 30s / 650s on the Umayyads were in full command over the eastern Med between Cyprus, Egypt, and Syria. The Zubayrid fitna delivered a minor hiccup in the mid 60s / 680s - but from the Med side this was almost immediately resolved. The Iraqi rebellions under 'Ali and 'Abd al-Rahman didn't touch the west at all. Please, Dr Cvikel; don't be an idiot.