Mohammed and Charlemagne

by Henri Pirenne

Book Overview

The final work of the great Belgian historian Henri Pirenne, this remarkable classic -- published after his death -- offers a revolutionary perspective on how Europe under the influence of a Roman Empire centered in Constantinople evolved into the Europe of Charlemagne and the Middle Ages.
Departing from the standard view that Germanic invasions obliterated the Roman Empire, Pirenne advances the radical new thesis that "the cause of the break...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486420116
• ISBN13: 9780486420110
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Old edition of classic

This magnificent 284 page piece of scholarship was first published in English in 1939 by W.W. Norton, and reprinted more than a dozen times afterwards. My copy, published by Meridian and Barnes and Noble in October 1961, is the sixth Meridian printed after its first 1957 issue of the book. But the book had more than a dozen publications in French as well. The Meridian edition was translated "by Bernard Miall from the French of the 10th edition published by Librarie Felix Alcan in Paris and Nouvelle Societe d'Editions Brussels. The author concluded that the Germanic invasions did not destroy the unity of the ancient world or the Mediterranean. By the 5th Century, there was still a Roman culture, even without an Emperor in the West. The regions by the sea had preserved that culture, and spawned the innovations that followed--monasticism, Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons and so on. Moreover, much of this culture emanated from Constantinople, which remained, in the year 600, the center of the world. But "the break with the tradition of antiquity" was caused by "the rapid and unexpected advance of Islam." The result was "the final separation of East from West, and the end of the Mediterranean unity." Whereas before, Africa and Spain had been part of the Western community, Islam attracted them to "the orbit of Baghdad." The root of the change was "another religion, and an entirely different culture. The Western Mediterranean, having become a Musulman lake, was no longer [the] thoroughfare of commerce and of thought" it had always been before. The Catholic church, interestingly, gained power in Europe, precisely because the Emperor was completely distracted by the advancing "Musulmans," which meant the church no longer had a political counterweight or rival. During the protracted anarchical transitional phase, from 650 to 750, "the tradition of antiquity disappeared...." The most important section of the book, in my view, is the first chapter in Part II, "The Expansion of Islam in the Mediterranean Basin." Here Pirenne compares the effects of the Germanic invasions to the Islamic conquests. The invading Germanic tribes had "promptly allowed themselves to become absorbed" by European civilization. But Mohammed's "propaganda" gave "his people a religion which it would presently cast upon the world, while imposing its own dominion." The early interpretation of John of Damascus, of Islam as a sort of schism, like all previous heresies, had already put the western empire "in deadly danger." The Arab conquest also "brought confusion and chaos upon both Europe and Asia" thanks largely to its unprecedented swiftness and brutality. Pirenne compares it only to the victories of "the Mongol Empires of Atilla, Jenghiz Khan and Tamerlane." But of course, Tamerlane was also Muslim. Unlike the German tribes, moreover, the Musulmans "were exalted by a new faith." With this, the Arabs required the subjection of conquered populations. "And this subjection

A great classic

This magnificent 284 page piece of scholarship was first published in English in 1939 by W.W. Norton, and reprinted more than a dozen times afterwards. My copy, published by Meridian and Barnes and Noble in October 1961, is the sixth Meridian printed after its first 1957 issue of the book. But the book had more than a dozen publications in French as well. The 1961 Meridian edition was translated "by Bernard Miall from the French of the 10th edition published by Librarie Felix Alcan in Paris and Nouvelle Societe d'Editions Brussels. The author concluded that the Germanic invasions did not destroy the unity of the ancient world or the Mediterranean. By the 5th Century, there was still a Roman culture, even without an Emperor in the West. The regions by the sea had preserved that culture, and spawned the innovations that followed--monasticism, Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons and so on. Moreover, much of this culture emanated from Constantinople, which remained, in the year 600, the center of the world. But "the break with the tradition of antiquity" was caused by "the rapid and unexpected advance of Islam." The result was "the final separation of East from West, and the end of the Mediterranean unity." Whereas before, Africa and Spain had been part of the Western community, Islam attracted them to "the orbit of Baghdad." The root of the change was "another religion, and an entirely different culture. The Western Mediterranean, having become a Musulman lake, was no longer [the] thoroughfare of commerce and of thought" it had always been before. The Catholic church, interestingly, gained power in Europe, precisely because the Emperor was completely distracted by the advancing "Musulmans," which meant the church no longer had a political counterweight or rival. During the protracted anarchical transitional phase, from 650 to 750, "the tradition of antiquity disappeared...." The most important section of the book, in my view, is the first chapter in Part II, "The Expansion of Islam in the Mediterranean Basin." Here Pierenne compares the effects of the Germanic invasions to the Islamic conquests. The invading Germanic tribes had "promptly allowed themselves to become absorbed" by European civilization. But Mohammed's "propaganda" gave "his people a religion which it would presently cast upon the world, while imposing its own dominion." The early interpretation of John of Damascus, of Islam as a sort of schism, like all previous heresies, had already put the western empire "in deadly danger." The Arab conquest also "brought confusion and chaos upon both Europe and Asia" thanks largely to its unprecedented swiftness and brutality. Pierenne compares it only to the victories of "the Mongol Empires of Atilla, Jenghiz Khan and Tamerlane." But of course, Tamerlane was also Muslim. Unlike the German tribes, moreover, the Musulmans "were exalted by a new faith." With this, the Arabs required the subjection of conquered populations. "And this subj

Groundbreaking classic

This magnificent 284 page piece of scholarship was first published in English in 1939 by W.W. Norton, and reprinted more than a dozen times afterwards. My copy, published by Meridian and Barnes and Noble in October 1961, is the sixth Meridian printed after its first 1957 issue of the book. But the book had more than a dozen publications in French as well. The Meridian edition was translated "by Bernard Miall from the French of the 10th edition published by Librarie Felix Alcan in Paris and Nouvelle Societe d'Editions Brussels. The author concluded that the Germanic invasions did not destroy the unity of the ancient world or the Mediterranean. By the 5th Century, there was still a Roman culture, even without an Emperor in the West. The regions by the sea had preserved that culture, and spawned the innovations that followed--monasticism, Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons and so on. Moreover, much of this culture emanated from Constantinople, which remained, in the year 600, the center of the world. But "the break with the tradition of antiquity" was caused by "the rapid and unexpected advance of Islam." The result was "the final separation of East from West, and the end of the Mediterranean unity." Whereas before, Africa and Spain had been part of the Western community, Islam attracted them to "the orbit of Baghdad." The root of the change was "another religion, and an entirely different culture. The Western Mediterranean, having become a Musulman lake, was no longer [the] thoroughfare of commerce and of thought" it had always been before. The Catholic church, interestingly, gained power in Europe, precisely because the Emperor was completely distracted by the advancing "Musulmans," which meant the church no longer had a political counterweight or rival. During the protracted anarchical transitional phase, from 650 to 750, "the tradition of antiquity disappeared...." The most important section of the book, in my view, is the first chapter in Part II, "The Expansion of Islam in the Mediterranean Basin." Here Pierenne compares the effects of the Germanic invasions to the Islamic conquests. The invading Germanic tribes had "promptly allowed themselves to become absorbed" by European civilization. But Mohammed's "propaganda" gave "his people a religion which it would presently cast upon the world, while imposing its own dominion." The early interpretation of John of Damascus, of Islam as a sort of schism, like all previous heresies, had already put the western empire "in deadly danger." The Arab conquest also "brought confusion and chaos upon both Europe and Asia" thanks largely to its unprecedented swiftness and brutality. Pierenne compares it only to the victories of "the Mongol Empires of Atilla, Jenghiz Khan and Tamerlane." But of course, Tamerlane was also Muslim. Unlike the German tribes, moreover, the Musulmans "were exalted by a new faith." With this, the Arabs required the subjection of conquered populations. "And this subjectio

Charlemagne AND Mohammed

Henri Pirenne's legacy lies in his famous thesis, publishedposthumously in 1937 as "Mohammed and Charlemagne" (and statedearlier in numerous articles): namely, that whereas theGermanic invasions of the IV and V century broke the politicalunity of the Mediterranean world, they did not break itscultural and economic unity. The ancient world kept huggingthe coastline 'like frogs around a pond' and the East reassertedits supremacy over the West. All this changed when the Islamicinvasions conquered Northern Africa and the EasternMediterranean, closing the commercial and cultural exchangesbetween the two halves of the Roman empire and capturing thetwo most vibrant centres of commerce and culture (especially,theological culture) of the Byzantine empire: Syria and Egypt,whose religious separatism had been a constant worry for theEastern Roman emperors.As a consequence, the center of gravity of the European economyshifted to the more agrarian and less romanized regions aroundthe Rhine (Charlemagne's capital is in Aix-La-Chapelle, nowadaysAachen) while the cities of Italy and Southern France decayed.It is this which eventually led to the emergence of a diversifiedWestern European culture as opposed to the Middle East and,eventually, Eastern (Orthodox) Europe. And therefore Charlemagnecould never have existed without Mohammed.However, this is not the whole story. As Dennett and Lopez noted,lack of Oriental merchandise in Merovingian lists may not necessarily be due to a dearth of imports but to events onthe supply side and most importantly to the opening of theRussian route to Baghdad, as Scandinavian coin hoards show(e.g., Bohlin and Riising). Hence the rise of Quentovic andDorestad as important ports and the Frisian trade until theirdestruction by Northman raiders.Although commerce was now closed to Frankish shipping, trade in the Mediterranean had long been the prerogative of Syrians, who had extensive colonies in Marseilles.Meroviangian cities in the region had already been declining for some time and ideas of a renaissance of a Romano-Germanculture in the VI and VII centuries are overrated by itslack of originality; the foremost product of VI centuryerudition is the largely fallacious encyclopedia of Isidore.Despite its flaws, this work is fundamental for its boldness inpresenting a continental and often world view of history andof great transformations. Required reading.

The Crescent versus The Cross

Belgian historian Henri Pirenne's thesis, that the Mediterranean World of Antiquity was broken by the rise of Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries and not by the Germanic invaders of the fifth and sixth centuries has been subject to endless criticism, debate and revision since Mohammed and Charlemage was first published in Europe in 1937.In Pirenne's view, the conquest of the eastern and southern coasts of the Mediterranean, of Spain, and of the important islands had shut off the movement of world trade which had flourished during the late Roman times. The result of this closure returned western Europe to an earlier "natural" and rural economic system, which set in motion a shifting of the balance of power in Europe from the Mediterranean region to the north.Although by the time Mohammed and Charlemagne was published the theory that Rome had collapsed suddenly under the impact of the immense German invasions during the fifth century was being qualified, it was Pirenne's theory on the end of the Ancient World and the beginning of the Middle Ages that upset traditional historical conceptions. He advanced the thesis that the Ancient World ended only after the Arab invasions of the seventh and eighth centuries had swept around the coasts of Mediterranean and had converted it into a Moslem lake on which, as one Arab writer said, the Christians could no longer "float a plank." This, Pirenne argued, had been accomplished by the last quarter of the eighth century and had destroyed the essential unity of the Roman Empire. For centuries the Mediterranean had been a "Roman lake" the Mare Nostrum of the Romans which held the great imperial structure together: Rome's trade and commerce, its military and naval might, the important exchange of ideas. The Mediterranean unity of the Roman Empire had not, according to Pirenne, been destroyed by the German tribes that had occupied the western Empire. The Germans admired the superior Roman civilization and diligently set about to continue it, copying everything from the Roman emperors' dress and ceremonies to the government structures and gold coinage. They did whatever they could to preserve Roman culture.This book is a classic which is as timely today as it was when it was first published on the eve of WWII. Read it for Pirenne's immaculate scholarship and his then provocative theory that the Teutonic "barbarians" were the upholders and awestruck heirs of Rome and not its destroyers--that distinction belongs to rise Islam.