Starting with Sumer, Akkad and Babylon, virtually all the cities along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers experienced a long, devastating cycle of lower and lower cultures. But the trend, compared to their own ancient ancestors, was the same: a very long period of decline. Many parts of the Islamic world (as well as China and India) did seem to fare better than Europe. An Age of High Culture? That Depends…īut was this a cultural high age? Compared to much of the West, yes. One of the more advanced Emirates, Al-Andalus in Spain, was an oasis of religious tolerance at this time, credited by some with keeping civilization alive during the later Dark Ages. Some of the ancient Greek and Roman knowledge that was lost to many after the burning of the Alexandria Library and subsequent Dark Ages, did survive under Arab protection, and when combined with their own knowledge, helped these people move ahead of Europe in the early phase of the recovery, or Renaissance, period. The Arab and Chinese civilizations, for example, are believed to have held up relatively well while many European cities succumbed to the worst of the Dark Ages. The idea of a worldwide Dark Age or universal decline in man’s knowledge may be difficult to accept because the broad deterioration of ancient civilizations didn’t happen at an even pace in all geographic regions and records are very sketchy.
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