Islamic piracy, especially in the Mediterranean waters and European coastal areas and terrotories, had an impact that went far beyond the economic impoverishment of Europe...
In my recently-published book, "Holy Warriors: Islam and the Demise of Classical Civilization", I have argued that it was the coming of Islam, in the mid-seventh century, which effectively brought the Classical Civilization of Greece and Rome to an end and initiated the Middle Ages. There I showed that the Muslim conquest of the Middle East and North Africa, from the 630s onwards, closed those areas to trade from Europe; and the consequent impoverishment of the latter led to the decline of the urban centers, which had been the powerhouses of Classical culture.
But it was not war alone that brought this about. After all, from the beginning of history, empires had come and gone around the shores of the Middle Sea, yet trade and economic life had continued. With the rise of Islam, it is clear, this did not happen. All trade between the Christian West (and Christian East) and the newly-Islamic East was terminated, definitively. We know this for certain by the data brought forth by Henri Pirenne and others. Why did it happen? Did the Caliphs forbid merchants to trade with infidels?
The truth is far worse.
One of the fundamentals of the Islamic faith was the acceptability, even the duty, of Muslims to wage war against the infidel. Islam divided the world into two starkly opposing camps: that of Islam, the Dar al-Islam, and that of the unbelievers, which was known as the Dar al-Harb. But Dar al-Harb literally means 'House of War'.
Jihad or Holy War, as we have seen, was a fundamental duty of all Muslim rulers. Truces were allowed, but never a lasting peace. (See e.g. Koran 8:40 and 9:124). In the words of medieval historian Robert Irwin, “Since the jihad [was] …a state of permanent war, it excluded] …the possibility of true peace, but it [did] …allow for provisional truces in accordance with the requirements of the political situation” [Robert Irwin, “Islam and the Crusades: 1096-1699,” Jonathan Riley-Smith ed., The Oxford History of the Crusades, Oxford, 1995, pp. 237]. Also, “Muslim religious law could not countenance the formal conclusion of any sort of permanent peace with the infidel” (Ibid). In such circumstances, it is evident that, when the Islamic forces were in a position of strength, almost all contact between them and the outside world was warlike. And this was not war as is waged between two kingdoms, empires, or dynasties: This was total war, war that did not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, and war that did not end. In this spirit, Islamic generals launched attack after attack against the southern shores of Europe during the seventh and eighth centuries; and these “official” actions were supplemented by hundreds, even thousands, of lesser raids, carried out by minor Muslim commanders and even by private individuals: For it was considered legitimate that the Muslim faithful should live off the infidel world. Whatever spoils could be taken, were divinely sanctioned.
Thus the coming of Islam signaled a wave of banditry and piracy in the Mediterranean such as had not been seen since before the second century BC, when such activities were severely curtailed by Roman naval power. Indeed, it seems that this new Islamic piracy surpassed in scope and destructiveness anything that had come before. We could mention here, from the seventh and eighth centuries and later, quite literally hundreds of accounts of attacks in Greece, Italy, southern France, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, carried out by Muslim freebooters and slave-traders. Neither Eastern nor Western Christendom was safe, and Crete, for a long time, was the centre of the Mediterranean slave-trade; a dubious honor she retained till the island was retaken by the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas around 956 (See John Julius Norwich, 'The Middle Sea', p. 94). These cut-throats, it seems, did not confine themselves to capturing towns and their inhabitants, but plundered churches and monasteries too, putting their occupants to the sword or selling them into slavery. The entire Mediterranean, east and west, was now off-limits for trade and, “In the Occident …the coast of the Gulf of Lyons and the Riviera to the mouth of the Tiber, ravaged by war and the [Muslim] pirates, whom the Christians, having no fleet, were powerless to resist, was now merely a solitude and a prey to piracy. The ports and the cities were deserted. The link with the Orient was severed, and there was no communication with the Saracen coasts. There was nothing but death” [Henri Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne, p. 184]
The history of Muslim freebooting in the Mediterranean has never, I feel, been properly written. This is a great omission, as its effect upon history and the development of western civilization was profound, even decisive: For it was Muslim piracy, much more than regular warlike activity, that brought classical civilization in the west to an end. This was the force which terminated, once and for all, the cultural and economic contacts between east and west, and which gave birth, as Pirenne rightly saw, to what we now call the Middle Ages. Of the situation at the time, we might agree with the judgment of a Dutch economic historian who wrote: “One could say, in modern parlance, that an iron curtain now divided the Mediterranean, whose littoral had once formed an economic whole.” (B. H. Slicher Van Bath)
The pillaging and slave-raiding which began in the seventh century never really came to an end. It continued incessantly, with varying degrees of intensity, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, and was to have a devastating effect not only on trade, but on the culture of every society bordering the Mediterranean, and eventually on the whole of European civilization. Both East and West were devastated. Nor was the pillaging confined to the sea and coastal regions. From the mid-seventh century onwards Arab forces struck at Constantinople both by sea and by land, through the Middle of Asia Minor. In the latter case “not once or twice,” as Cyril Mango noted, “but practically every year …for nearly two centuries.” [Cyril Mango, “Byzantium, The Empire of New Rome”, p. 25]. The consequences of this prolonged process, he notes, “are easy to imagine: much of Asia Minor was devastated and depopulated almost beyond repair.” And we should not imagine, as some authors do, that the revival of Europe during the eleventh century and the advance through the Mediterranean of fleets of Crusaders brought Muslim piracy – at least temporarily – to an end. This was emphatically not the case. Large, heavily armed fleets might move safely through the Mediterranean, but it was very different for merchant vessels. These, travelling alone, or in small and lightly-defended groups, were never safe. The Mediterranean remained a very dangerous place for all merchant shipping until the early nineteenth century!
The effects of this incessant pillaging upon the societies of Southern Europe, those on the front line of this unofficial and interminable war, are not too difficult to imagine. Large areas of the coastlands of Mediterranean Europe became uninhabited and uninhabitable. The only analogy that springs to mind is to imagine the impact upon Northern Europe if the Viking raids had lasted a thousand years! Those communities which did survive, especially in the most vulnerable regions such as southern Italy, Southern Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, etc, were changed forever. The constant threat was to produce an almost paranoid suspicion of the outside world, plus a culture in which violence and vendetta were endemic.
Whilst the impact of Muslim piracy was thus decisive in the seventh century in terminating Classical Civilization, it was equally decisive in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in forcing Europeans out into the Atlantic in search of safer ways to travel to the Far East. With the blockade of the Mediterranean, Europeans were debarred from the rich spice trade with the Indies. For a brief period in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Mongols had opened trade to the Orient, at least by overland routes, and Europeans dreamed of a sea-route that would bypass the Muslim territories and the Muslim pirates in the Mediterranean. First, under Henry the Navigator, they sought a way round the southern tip of Africa, and later, under Columbus, they sought a quick route by sailing directly westwards. Columbus believed the earth to be much smaller than Eratosthenes had calculated, and imagined that China and the Indies lay roughly where we now know North America lies.
The Age of Discovery was therefore launched to find a way around the threat of Islamic piracy. Yet these journeys had another, more military, purpose in mind. In his representations to the Spanish King and Queen, Columbus made it clear that the discovery of a “short” route to China might open the possibility of an alliance against Islam. The main purpose of the projected expedition was, in the words of Louis Bertrand, “to take Islam in the rear, and to effect an alliance with the Great Khan – a mythical personage who was believed to be the sovereign of all that region, and favourable to the Christian religion …” [Louis Bertrand, ‘The History of Spain’, p. 163]. Bertrand was very insistent on this point, which he emphasized in half a dozen pages. The voyage of discovery was to begin a new phase, he says, in “the Crusade against the Moors which was to be continued by a new and surer route. It was by way of the Indies that Islam was to be dealt a mortal blow” (Ibid).
So certain was Bertrand of the connection between the exploits of the
Conquistadores in the Americas and the war against Islam that he actually describes the conquest of America as the “last Crusade.”
The record of the Conquistadores in the New World needs no repetition here: It is one of cruelty and greed on a truly monumental scale. Yet the habits of the Spaniards here, habits which gave rise to the “Black Legend,” were learned at the school of the Caliphs. In Bertrand’s words: “Lust for gold, bloodthirsty rapacity, the feverish pursuit of hidden treasure, application of torture to the vanquished to wrest the secret of their hiding-places from them – all these barbarous proceedings and all these vices, which the conquistadores were to take to America, they learnt at the school of the caliphs, the emirs, and the Moorish kings” (Ibid, p. 159).
Indeed all of the traits associated with the Spaniards, for which they have been roundly criticized by Anglo-Saxon historians, can be traced to the contact with Islam.
“The worst characteristic which the Spaniards acquired was the parasitism of the Arabs and the nomad Africans: the custom of living off one’s neighbour’s territory, the raid raised to the level of an institution, marauding and brigandage recognized as the sole means of existence for the man-at-arms. In the same way they went to win their bread in Moorish territory, so the Spaniards later went to win gold and territory in Mexico and Peru.
“They were to introduce there, too, the barbarous, summary practices of the Arabs: putting everything to fire and sword, cutting down fruit-trees, razing crops, devastating whole districts to starve out the enemy and bring them to terms; making slaves everywhere, condemning the population of the conquered countries to forced labour. All these detestable ways the conquistadores learnt from the Arabs.
“For several centuries slavery maintained itself in Christian Spain, as in the Islamic lands. Very certainly, also, it was to the Arabs that the Spaniards owed the intransigence of their fanaticism, the pretension to be, if not the chosen of God, at least the most Catholic nation of Christendom. Philip II, like Abd er Rahman or El Mansour, was Defender of the Faith.
“Finally, it was not without contagion that the Spaniards lived for centuries in contact with a race of men who crucified their enemies and gloried in piling up thousands of severed heads by way of trophies. The cruelty of the Arabs and the Berbers also founded a school in the Peninsula. The ferocity of the emirs and the caliphs who killed their brothers or their sons with their own hands was to be handed on to Pedro the Cruel and Henry of Trastamare, those stranglers under canvas, no better than common assassins.” (Ibid. p. 160)
John J. O'Neill is the author of recent book, Holy Warriors: Islam and the Demise of Classical Civilization.
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written by madmullah , November 13, 2009
written by vbv , November 13, 2009
written by Machmoed , November 13, 2009
The Amazigh which means "free humans" or "free men" are known to the world as Berbers. In fact, the word Berbers is offensive to these ancient inhabitants of north Africa and the Sahara desert. The name "Berber" is another one of many peccadilloes of the Romans who threw names at people left and right. They, along with the Greeks referred to every people they could not understand with the same unintelligible Berber language whether they were in the East or the West.
The arabs still consider the amazigh people as inferior. They destroyed a lot scriptures and monuments of the amazigh people and in schools the amazigh people forced to learn arabic and french but they were not allowed to practice their culture etc. exept in anonimity.
Today they are a little bit free but within the borders of arab morals and standards. The arabs are a virus indeed.
written by duh_swami , November 13, 2009
written by duh_swami , November 13, 2009
1Conquer many nations and convert people by force Daniel 7:8,23,24,Moh pretended to preach peace in Mecca for 13 years without success but when he took up sward in Medina he conquer nations and his religion became a political religion up to this day no separation of religion and polities in all nations he conquered. No message other than believe in Allah (Islamic God) and Mohammed or loose your head. No missionary spirit of persuasion and love and no regards for the souls of men.
2Hate, fight and will overcome the Jews Rev 12:13-17,Dan 7;21. Mohammed overcame the Jews of his time and instituted an everlasting enmity between his followers and Jews up to present days. The Jews must not be allowed to live or have a sense of nationhood for they a cursed nation. He even cursed them and the Christians on his dying bed.
3Regard not the desire of women Dan 11:37 Mohammed has no regards for women as he was to the Jews. He hate the woman that gave birth to the man child (Christ) symbolised as Israel. For salvation is of the Jews John 4:22 Christ the seed of the woman was prophesied as the one that will destroy Satan. Gen 3:15 In the Book of Revelation the woman who gave birth to the man child whom the Antichrist pursued to the wilderness is the nation of Israel.
He said women are like domestics animals without intelligence, their witness is half that of a man. The desire of a women is to have one man for her selves alone but he said Man can have up to 4 as wives if he can and can have as many concubines and slave women as he can but in heaven he will have up to 72 of them. He can beat them if they misbehave in addition to denying them their conjugal rights. They must cover themselves completely leaving only their eyes in the public because they are a source of temptation to men. There are more women in hell than men for disobeying their men.
4Change times and Laws of God Dan 7:25. Mohammed change the ten commandment of God to five pillars. He changed Saturday the Sabbath of rest to Friday but not for rest but just for the afternoon ritual prayers. He change the Calendar which began with the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross of Calvary for the atonement of the sins and salvation of men( AD)with his migration to Medina when he took the sward for the conquest and destruction of men.(AH)
5Do as he will for a period Dan 11:36 Mohammed dished out quranic verses to meet his alter ago and desires. Especially when he wanted more women, commit incest, paedophilia, steals and rubs the merchants caravans, kill or murder for booty not to win souls of men for you cannot destroy the souls you want to win to God. He also claim that those killings are ordered by Allah whom he said had predestined everyone already whether to be in heaven or hell. Man has no control of where he wants to be. What a religion?
6Control Money and Commerce and Government Rev 13:17 Mohammed coveted the family business of his Curaish bribe in which they are the sole custodian and controllers of the Kaaba, the shirine of polytheist that have developed in to commercial centre of trade. They control the feeding and watering of the pilgrims, the Idolaters . when he conquered Mecca he made sure nothing temper with the business up to this day except that he destroy all other idols worshipped in Kaaba except the black stone which he wrapped in the garment of monotheism akin to that of the Jews and Christian but the economy and commerce generated by the pilgrimage remain untouched. Also left untouched are the pagan rituals that goes with the pilgrimages, like the salah the prostration prayers, the running between two hills, the going round of the shrine, the animal sacrifice, the kissing of the black stone, the devil stoning rituals.
7Control the kings of the earth and make all nations fear him Rev 13:4,7 Mohammed terrorised the world of his time and made people and nation to fear him by using the force of arms. The same even to day is said of his followers. The nations of Islam bread more than 95% of the world terrorism even today. The most dreaded polio-religious system of the world today is Islam. Imaging how the world today will be like if the world military power is in the hands of Islamic nations.
8Kill the witnesses of the true God Rev 11:7-12 Mohammed killed those who Criticised him and those who witness for the True God of the Jews and Christ. Today no witnessing is allowed in Islamic environment where Mohammed is taught as the last prophet. Even though he never claims to have ability to prophesy and where he attempted to predict the future he failed woefully yet is being worshipped as a prophet.
9He will claim to be the God of the Jews and sit in the Temple as God Mat 24:15 Mohammed was literary worship as God , his word are words of God . You can not separate his word and that of God and live and even today you can not reject Mohammed and still live you must die.Q 4:89 You cannot call or believe in Allah without his name, only his sunnah are Allah’s orders.
As Mohammed claimed to be the long awaited Messiah of the Jews when his Mentor the antichrist comes he will also claim to be the Messiah and God of the Jews.
10He will not accept Christ as the Messiah and the saviour of the world 1John 4:3-5,15-16 Mohammed deny that Jesus die and resurrected, the main proof of his messiah ship and that the Messiah is not the Son of God even though Christ is the word of God and Spirit of God. Mohammed later claim that he was the expected messiah of the Jews himself which the real Antichrist will claim during the great tribulation.
http://indiansawaal.blogspot.c...-life.html
written by tanstaafl jw , November 13, 2009
written by Rajput , November 13, 2009
http://hindurajput.blogspot.com/#Rajputs_and_Invasions_of_India
The author can barly contain his Islamophobic zeal,with such memorable lines as,
"The record of the Conquistadores in the New World needs no repetition here: It is one of cruelty and greed on a truly monumental scale. Yet the habits of the Spaniards here, habits which gave rise to the “Black Legend,” were learned at the school of the Caliphs."
This simpleton seems to be pleading mitigating circumstances,for the genocide of over 50 million native Americans,all killed under the European christian crucifix.
With such sloppy authors,these desperate Islamophobes will never penertrate the citidels of academia.
PS we gave you those too!
written by madmullah , November 13, 2009
(1) A muslim terrorist fighting in afghanistan openly.
(2) A muslim terrorist sneaking and doing suicide bombing to army in afghanistan.
(3) A muslim man behaves normally, clean shaven enter army of infidels, get there trust and when the infidel soldiers were relaxing in there own country, the muslim soldier who took oath to defend country starts killing infidel soldiers without any provocation using 'allahu akbar'.
(4) A PC politician, media person etc comes says Islam is peace and is nothing to do with islam and infact says may be the gunner was a victim of 'mental harassment'.
These 4 categories of people are dangerous , but the worst is the (4) as they whom you trust.
A billion muslims outside in africa, asia is no threat to even 1 million muslims who have taken citizenship in west. These politicians , media , leftists should be send to somalia, afghanistan, pakistan, bangladesh etc filthy muslim countries.
written by Kohi , November 14, 2009
written by Matthew , November 14, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm_LbJTvTWA
written by dont blind urself , November 14, 2009
Read Qur'an and its translation atleast once before making such logic less........nonsense comments...............plz.......... Is this site intending to give a very fake picture of islam in name of providing a real picture of islam.........
written by DONT BLIND URSELF , November 14, 2009
written by NSC London , November 14, 2009
written by tanstaafl jw , November 16, 2009
written by qazi , November 16, 2009
Individuals, not religions, carry out inhuman acts!
Islam is a religion of peace, accepted and practiced by more than 1.25 billion people worldwide. It is the fastest-growing religion in the world, and if it was what some critics claim, why should the people from all walks of life from around the world keep embracing Islam? Where is the sword now?
In Islam, a person has the right to defend himself, his family, his country or his neighbor(s), which justifies the resistance being offered by the people of Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Iraq, Kashmir and Palestine, to attacks on their soils by the so-called liberators, who are actually the occupiers.
The Holy Qur’an clearly states that if a person saves one life, it’s as if he saved humanity, and if a person kills one human being, it’s as if he killed humanity.
What is happening in the enslaved Muslim countries is a natural reaction to occupation, bombings, killing and terrorizing of innocent civilians (children, old men and women), rapes, in addition to looting of resources, national antiques and artifacts, above all the destruction of their property by the occupiers.
Terror breeds terror.
We assure those who bash Islam that if there was no occupation in this world by foreign invaders, there would be no resistance – the so-called terror.
We would like those who criticize Islam to explain the following acts committed by the Christians on Jews, other Christians and Muslims alike, throughout history:
- Hundreds of thousands of Muslim men, women and children killed by the crusaders, who were Christians.
- Inquisition of Jews and Muslims from Spain by Queen Isabella, a Christian.
- Millions of people killed by the European and American Christians during the two world wars and the civil wars.
- Atrocities committed on millions of Jews and Christians by Adolph Hitler, a professed Christian.
- Hundreds of thousands of Christians killed every year by the Irish Christians, including the British and the IRA, both Catholics and Protestants, during the past few centuries. Why they are not blamed to be “Christian Terrorists, or Catholic Terrorists, or Protestant Terrorists?”
Both of them believe in Jesus Christ, who told them to turn the other cheek, and both of them believe in the same Lord, Who commanded that “Thou shall not kill.” Period.
- Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK, in the United States of America, was a Catholic. Are all Catholics terrorists?
For more than sixty (60) years, the Zionists are actively involved in the genocide of a whole nation, killing a number of Muslims in the occupied territories of Palestine on a daily basis with machine guns, missiles from helicopters, tanks, and bombs from F16s, under the watch of the western countries, the so-called champions of the human rights. How do you explain that?
Just by labeling the freedom fighters as terrorists and launching another holocaust on the poor Palestinians as revenge will not wipe out the crimes or the guilt of Hitler! Where are the justice, equality, freedom, and above all the human tights of Palestinians, dead or alive, propagated by these champions of human rights?
Last but not least, the bombings, killings, lynching, murders and raping of innocent Native American Indians and black slaves (Afro-Americans) committed by the so-called Christians in the United States during the past 200 years of history. What about them?
Will those filled with hate for Islam blame Christianity for the above inhuman acts by Christians in various parts of the world since its inception?
If not, then why are they blaming the religion of Islam for what is a natural reaction to occupation of Muslim countries by foreign invaders?
Most importantly, these folks should know that the three (3) great Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – have one common basis, and that is one God Almighty.
“All men (and women) are created equal, and we all are one nation under Almighty God,” is a clear cut statement according to the Holy Qur’an and is very well elucidated in the Constitution of these United States, one of the champions of the human rights.
Lastly, yet importantly, as brothers in humanity, we recommend those Islamophobists filled with prejudice to get life and an education in the history of Islam and Muslims, before they dare to write nasty letters, articles, and news releases, using out of context verses from the Holy Qur’an and distorted statements from the true traditions of our Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him), full of personal, ingrain hate and vendetta against Islam and Muslims.
We would be pleased to provide anyone with free copies of the Holy Qur’an and Islamic literature in English or any other language, which would help them to understand the truth about Islam and Muslims and get rid of all hate from their systems, God willing.
May God Almighty show the light to all those, who believe in one mankind, as children of Adam and Eve, hence brothers and sisters, no matter what they believe in, Amen.
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.”
- Samuel P. Huntington (Author The Clash Of Civilisations).
written by The Grand Kaffir of Infidelistan , November 17, 2009
Got it on a roll in two ply?
written by joe , November 18, 2009
ISLAMIC LIES.
written by NSC London , November 19, 2009
This passage (sura 5 aya32) pertains to the humane Jews, the enemies of Muhammad and his band of cut-throats.
005.032
YUSUFALI: On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our messengers with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.
PICKTHAL: For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind. Our messengers came unto them of old with clear proofs (of Allah's Sovereignty), but afterwards lo! many of them became prodigals in the earth.
SHAKIR: For this reason did We prescribe to the children of Israel that whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is as though he kept alive all men; and certainly Our messengers came to them with clear arguments, but even after that many of them certainly act extravagantly in the land.
You muslims on the other hand must adhere to aya 33 in imitation of your al insan al kamil Mo, the mass murderer, thief and slaver.
005.033
YUSUFALI: The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;
PICKTHAL: The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom;
SHAKIR: The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement,
