Remarkable classic that developed the revolutionary theory of how the advance and influence of Islam caused the Europe of the Roman Empire to evolve into the Europe of the Middle Ages. A masterly study that is essential reading for history students and medievalists. ..." an important ... seminal boo[...]
Henri Pirenne is best known for his provocative argument - known as the "Pirenne thesis" and familiar to all students of medieval Europe - that it was not the invasion of the Germanic tribes that destroyed the civilization of antiquity, but rather the closing of Mediterranean trade by Arab conquest [...]
Nearly a century after it was first published in 1925, Medieval Cities remains one of the most provocative works of medieval history ever written. Here, Henri Pirenne argues that it was not the invasion of the Germanic tribes that destroyed the civilization of antiquity, but rather the closing of Me[...]