[PapaBear3625]

Thank also the Byzantines and the Irish

People tend to forget that after the Western Roman Empire started coming apart, the Eastern Roman Empire (the Byzantine empire centered in Constantinople) was still going strong, until it fell to Muslim invasion

It was Muslim raiders, pirates and bandits who helped KEEP Europe in the Middle Ages. Muslim pirates stopped trade in the Mediterranean, cut off contact to India and China, and generally made a feudal existence necessary to survival.

And, no, the Arabs did not invent "Arabic numerals" or algebra. That was stolen from Indian mathematicians by Arab conquerers

[yuleeyahoo]

People tend to forget that after the Western Roman Empire started coming apart, the Eastern Roman Empire (the Byzantine empire centered in Constantinople) was still going strong, until it fell to Muslim invasion

The fall of Byzantium followed by the Muslim strangulation of trade on the Silk Road led directly to the age of Discovery by the Europeans in order to find a cheaper and more reliable East-West trade route.

[Raymann]

To be completely honest it was the 4th Crusade with crippled the Byzantine Empire and left it ripe for the taking.