How did Arabic/Islamic civilizations impact the development of Europe during the middle ages ?
It would be difficult to see how development in Western wouldn’t have been thrown into total chaos with their invasion of Spain, continuing their murderous campaign, pushing right up into Central France where they finally met their match, Charles Martel, also called Charles the Hammer. He defeated them in the year 732 AD. They were destroyed but it took a further 800 years to push them back into Africa. In 1479, they came again, attacked the Island of Rhodes off Greece, only being repulsed by a White invasion under the Knights of St. John in 1480. Then they invaded Italy itself, seizing the city of Otranto in the Kingdom of Naples. Of the 22,000 inhabitants the Muslims captured, 12,000 were bound with ropes and tortured to death outside the city walls. The Muslims also killed all the Christian priests they could find. On a hill outside the city, known to this day as Martyr’s Hill, they killed many captives who refused to convert to Islam. Yet again they attacked Spain but supported by
