How did islamic civilization link together the mam civilized centers of the classical era?

Question

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Answer 1

Islamic civilization arose in the Middle East after 700 C.E. and expanded in at least three waves, and maybe more, depending on how you look at it.

Beginning in what is now Saudi Arabia, it rapidly spread into Mesopotamia (Baghdad), and continued on into Anatolia (Turkey), culminating with the Fall of Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453.

Early in the eighth century, it spread across North Africa, into Spain, and across the Pyrenees until stopped by Charles Martel (Charlemagne's grandfather) at Tours in 732. Nearly simultaneolusly, it advanced into northwest India (Sind province in modern Pakistan), and into central Asia where it was stopped by the Han Chinese.

Hundreds of years later, Islam spread into sub-Saharan Africa and into Southeast Asia.

In the period 750-1500, generally covering Europe's "Dark Ages" and "Middle (or Medieval) Ages", Islam controlled Alexandria, Egypt, home of the greatest of the ancient libraries. It interacted with the Chinese, home of a great and ancient civilization; and, during the Crusades, interacted with western Europe.

Much of the ancient Greek manuscripts, saved from destruction at Alexandria, found safekeeping at Constantinople. Mathematics from India worked its way west, reaching Europe by way of Spain. Some Chinese technology was diffused throughout the Islamic world. And, later, Muslim traders linked the spices of the Orient with the merchants of Venice and Genoa. Some say the Italian Renaissance was spurred by Greek classicism imported from the Islamic world.

After about 1450, the Chinese were isolationist; the Europeans were launching the Age of Discovery; and Islam entered a state of relative quiescence. But for about three-quarters of a millennium, Islam was positioned to link the classical Greek, Chinese, and Indian civilizations with western Europe.