[Cronos]

The Arabs in Arabia recovered first. They became the great engine of the economic transformation that lifted the Middle East out of the Dark Ages.

Well, No. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, but the Eastern still survived and was the economic engine for the Mediterranean while the Persians did the same in Persia and North-Western India. The Muslims didn't come on the scene until the 7th century and they merely took over the workings of these two empires

[muawiyah]

OK, you can believe that the City of Byzantium managed to do it all by itself ~ after all, they usually kept a 7 year supply of food on hand. They even kept records.

Unfortunately for the theory that the Eastern Mediterranean was untouched by the Dark Ages, Byzantium and Persia were both substantially overrun and conquered by the previously penniless Arabs from Mecca in a couple of decades! Byzantine legions joined the Arabs ~ probably because they got paid, and the Persian conquest followed the same pattern.

In the 7th and 8th Centuries the smart guys gravitated to the Arabs. This wasn't because the Arabs were the most cultured of folks either, but in terms of value added economics, they were putting it together and the other lingering civilizations were burning up stored capital .

[muawiyah]

BTW, the actual date of economic collapse of the entire world was about 538 AD. The event occurred in the Spring. All hell broke loose after that.

This is 6th Century stuff. The Western Roman Empire had a political collapse in the 5th Century, but the economic collapse happened later!

China was also removed as a working entity for the next 300 years as well!