Since Islam came into being, it has clashed numerously with the already

established Christianity. Their rivalry has never ceased until today. Modern

Examples would be Bosnia and Lebanon. There were not only military clashes

but political as well as economical. Although, the rivalry was incredibly intense,

ironically, Arabic or Islamic culture managed to severely influence the Christian

kingdoms. However, Christianity used all the advantages provided by Islam to

their advantage and through that they managed to keep the Arabs at bay.

Islamic civilization and its rise were thanks to one man and that is the last

prophet, Prophet Muhammad. Islam came into being in 622AD and it was the last

of the great civilizations. Islam managed to push the Arabs into a new kind of

Unity , which at the same time spread far beyond Arabia, Persians, Indians,

North African countries and parts of Europe came under its domination.

The Arabs managed to capture most of the most powerful economic

areas. In the Mediterranean their navy conquered Cyprus and crippled Byzantine

sea power. They first clashed with the Christians when they tried to besiege

Constantinople. In 711 they started their raids into Spain and in 716 they

conquered it. They tried to conquer France but the Franks under the leader

Charles Martel handed the Arabs their first defeat. From the end of the 7th

century till the middle of the 11th, the Mediterranean remained something of a

Muslim lake and western trade with East Asia wasn't cut off during these

centuries, it was significantly diminished and carried on in awareness of Muslim

dominance. ( Craig, Graham, Kagan, Turner, The heritage of western civ.

In the early Middle Ages the main power in Europe was always the Pope

and later in the 700's it was shared with Charlemagne. The combination of these

two managed to keep the Arab invasions at bay. But the Christians did benefit

with their contact with Islamic culture. The aggressiveness of the Arabs forced

western Europeans to rely on their own resources and to develop their own

By diverting the focus and energy's of