Mohammed and Charlemagne

By Henri Pirenne

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 with the tradition of antiquity was the rapid and unexpected advance of Islam," and event of historical proportions that prevented the western Mediterranean from being what it had always been: a thoroughfare of commerce and thought. It became instead what Pirenne refers to as "a Musulman lake," thereby causing "the axis of life [to shift] northwards from the Mediterranean" for the first time in history.
Brilliant and controversial, this volume garnered these words of praise from the critics: "It is a dull reader indeed who does not recognize the light of genius in the pages of this book, without doubt a landmark in contemporary historiography." — G. C. Boyce, Annals of the American Academy. "… Pirenne's crowning triumph. The fire of his genius, the boldness of his mind, his profound learning and vivid pen make this volume pleasant reading." — Commonweal. "… an important, seminal book, worthy to close one of the most distinguished careers in European scholarship." — Saturday Review of Literature.
Pirenne's masterly study is essential reading for history students, medievalists, and general readers with an interest in the decline of the Roman Empire and the beginnings of the Middle Ages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Apr 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9780486122250

Reviews for Mohammed and Charlemagne

[Ronnie Rife · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Challenges most of the conventional wisdom about the "Dark Ages".

[steve.bivans · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Scholars are still trying to punch holes in Henri's classic thesis. Some have been successful, some not so much, but what we must agree on, is that in order to develop a more accurate picture of the economies of the early middle ages, we must first deal with the persuasive arguments put forward by Mr. Pirenne. If you are interested in the Middle Ages at all, you HAVE to read this book, and all of his works.

[jonfaith · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This jewel was found at Ohio Books and read while a contractor lowered our bathroom ceiling and installed an exhaust fan. I feel enriched by the opportunity.

His thesis elicited an outcry at the time of its publication: the Middle Ages did not begin with collapse of Rome in the 5th Century but rather in the 8th after Arab control of the Mediterranean threw the West into stasis and decline. Pirenne argues that the barbarian invasions did not disrupt Roman institutions but were simply co-opted by the needy n'er-do-wells.

[a_musing · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Now and again we have to fill in the holes in our education. This is a book I've talked about for a couple decades without actually having read it. The Pirenne thesis, that the true break between the ancient and medieval worlds and the true genesis of the West as we know it occurred with the Arab conquests in the Levant and North Africa and not with the Germanic conquests in Europe, has long been one of the core historical debates of the period, and a debate of particular interest for those of us with an interest in Islamic history and the history of the places caught between the Islamic and Christian worlds. While Pirenne is often on the losing end of the debate, and the specific arguments made by him are considered simply off base by most historians, the debate persists because Pirenne points out some fundamental dynamics of the age missing from Gibbon and his heirs and from other major historians of the period. The book shows its age. A number of Pirenne's points are rather poorly argued, and the arguement throughout is plagued by insufficient support. It was a posthumous work, not finished and barely annotated at Pirenne's death, and in many ways is more of an outline for further work than a finished book. Indeed, the lack of detailed support makes Pirenne an easy target for more thorough though less brilliant scholarly opponents. All too often Pirenne gives us conclusions and tells us they're obvious, despite being highly controversial and difficult to support. In As one example, as he talks about the role of the Jews in the late ancient world, his conclusions seem to belie his prejudices rather than his studies. He describes Jews as 'mostly' or 'substantially' engaged in banking and money lending, even while noting the significant size of the communities. The idea that the Jewish population was so thoroughly wealthy and so limited and ghettoized in its occupation seems unsustainable; given the size of the community, there would simply be too many bankers! What were his Syrians to do? Nonetheless, shining through what is at the core of a rather poorly argued work is a little bit of absolute genius, a twist of profound historical insight.Oddly, having been exposed to the genius of the thesis for a long time, I almost find the flaws in the work more interesting than his presentation of the thesis itself. If it is the debate you are interested in, you can probably dispense with the original work laying out the theory; the kernel is here, but the analysis has long since left this book behind. But for pure historiographical interest, this one is a fascinating and fairly quick read.