Henri Pirenne's New Light On The Dark Ages

In the late fourth century the Western Roman Empire was collapsing, sending Europe into a ‘Dark Age’. Historians have blamed the collapse on many different factors. Henri Pirenne will argue in his book Mohammed and Charlemagne that this was due to a decline in trade and a decline in intellectual life due to the rising power in the Middle East. Michael McCormick will argue in his article, “New Light on the Dark Ages,” that the fall of the Roman Empire was not due to the decline of trade but that trade was vibrant and intellectual life did not decline. . Pirenne begins by disclaiming the theory that the fall of Rome was not due to the Germanic invasions. The Germanic invaders had no desire to destroy the empire. They wanted to share in its

The Muslims were nothing like the Germanic invaders. They did not adapt or assimilate into Roman culture and society, nor did they convert, they conquered and imposed their own systems of administration, justice and language. By 700 AD the entire western Mediterranean and Aegean Sea were in Islamic hands, closing it off to the Christian world and ceasing trade, “As Ibn-Khaldun says ‘The Christian could no longer float a plank upon the sea.” Pirenne goes on to state that the decrease in trade was the beginning point to the shift into the middle ages. This loss of trade would turn life in the empire into a more local community that was centered on land. Gold minting would cease; oriental goods would no longer be imported, the professional merchant class would disappear, laymen would no longer be able to read and write turning Europe into a “Dark

However McCormick goes on to show that may not be the case. Oriental goods were still seen in Europe, such as drugs, spices and silks. His first example is cooking. The recipes that called for certain spices were still being made, which meant that they were imported. Also, these recipes would need to be written down to survive so many generations, meaning there would need to be literate people who could read and write. When it came to questions of life and death, one could reference medical handbooks, which contained various different Indian and Asia spices. These reference books survive today in their written state, providing more proof that intellectual life did not decline. With the introduction of new medicines instruction on administration of doses and mixtures would be necessary, otherwise the results would be fatal, the proof of the written reference books suggests physicians would need to experiment with the medicines and its doses, also developing a system of units. But silk was probably McCormick’s driving point. He argues that silk did not disappear as Pirenne states. There are records of silk consumption in papal courts that show that they were imported and were quite expensive. But how did the Europeans pay for such luxury goods? McCormick’s answer is slaves, his driving factor to why the economy grew with the help of the Muslim