The complex relationship between Muslims and Christians during the Middle-Ages

Résumé du document

Christians and Muslims have always kept an ambiguous relationship going. Thanks to the Mediterranean, there have always been lots of contacts between the Christians and the Muslims. However, these contacts were strengthened with the Crusades during the Middle Ages. After the Crusades were over, various trade routes opened up between the Eastern and the Western cities. In this essay, I will show to what extent the West benefited from the contacts with the Islamic world, and how these contacts helped the Christians to outdo the Muslims, economically speaking. I will first emphasize the two-fold relationship between the Muslims and the Christians, that is to say both fascination and rejection. Then, I will show the supremacy of the Muslims over the Christians for the most part of the Middle-Ages. Finally, I will analyse the shift in power to the West, toward the end of the Middle-Ages.

Extraits

[...] Paris: Editions Jacques Marseille, 2000). David Abulafia , Role of Trade in Muslim-Christian Contact during the Middle- Les relations des pays d'Islam avec le monde latin. (Ed. F. Micheau. Paris: Editions Jacques Marseille, 2000). David Abulafia , Role of Trade in Muslim-Christian Contact during the Middle- Les relations des pays d'Islam avec le monde latin. (Ed. F. Micheau. Paris: Editions Jacques Marseille, 2000). [...]

[...] F. Micheau. Paris: Editions Jacques Marseille, 2000). David Abulafia , Role of Trade in Muslim-Christian Contact during the Middle- Les relations des pays d'Islam avec le monde latin. (Ed. F. Micheau. Paris: Editions Jacques Marseille, 2000). David Abulafia , Role of Trade in Muslim-Christian Contact during the Middle- Les relations des pays d'Islam avec le monde latin. (Ed. F. [...]

[...] But this domination of the Muslims was soon challenged by merchants from the Christian world, mainly from Venice, Italy. Moreover, the West, looking for profits benefited from the economic influence of the Islamic world and thus imposed a European mercantile hegemony. The first reason that contributed to the shift in power to the West was the desire from the Christians to make profits: “They travelled to the Muslim lands in search of the products of the east, in search of markets for their own goods and above all in search of profits.”[16] The Christians really wanted to surpass the Muslims in trade and in economy, and this desire helped them to improve themselves. [...]

[...] Together, the Muslims and Christians helped each other and benefited from the contact that occurred during the Crusades. But, on the other hand, Christians and Muslims kept on entertaining ambiguous relations, trade notwithstanding. We can not deny that they were above all rivals. These ambiguous relations were mainly the consequences of a desire for expansion from both cultures: “While it would be wrong to deny the intrinsic attractions to western buyers of many items produced within the lands of Islam, it is important to remember too that Islam presented a frustratingly large block of lands impeding free access to supplies of non- Muslim regions far to south and east.”[6] From the early Middle-Ages, the West had been faced with the fact of Arab expansion and domination, after the death of the prophet Mohammed in the seventh century. [...]

[...] David Abulafia , Role of Trade in Muslim-Christian Contact during the Middle- Les relations des pays d'Islam avec le monde latin. (Ed. F. Micheau. Paris: Editions Jacques Marseille, 2000). David Abulafia , Role of Trade in Muslim-Christian Contact during the Middle- Les relations des pays d'Islam avec le monde latin. (Ed. F. Micheau. Paris: Editions Jacques Marseille, 2000). David Abulafia , Role of Trade in Muslim-Christian Contact during the Middle- Les relations des pays d'Islam avec le monde latin. [...]