Why there was no Islamic Middle Age

For centuries, the ancient cities of the Middle East were alive with baths, mosques and other large stone buildings, while similar structures fell into ruins in Europe. Everyday life was filled with ancient achievements—such as copper coins, glass, tiles, and paper—which the Central Europeans would only later (re) discover as new at the beginning of modern times. In addition, doctors continued medical research in the tradition of the Greeks, and science and love poetry flourished. Thomas Bauer vividly describes how the ancient culture from Al-Andalus through North Africa and Syria to Persia persevered until the arrival of the modern era in the Islamic world.