Will Durant's "The Story of Civilization" tells how during Europe's Dark Ages, the Arabs "led the world in power, order and extent of government, in refinement of manners, in standards of living, in humane legislation and religious toleration, in literature, scholarship, science, medicine and philosophy."

By the tenth century and the heroic battlefield achievement of Charles Martel, the Christian Warrior, Arabs had begun on the Iberian Penninsula a civilization of unprecedented superiority there. Cordoba alone had seven hundred mosques, sixty thousand palaces and seventy libraries, including one with half a million manuscripts and a staff of researchers and bookbinders. With a population of five hundred thousand, more than ten times that of the rude Franks of Paris, it was the most sophisticated city in Europe and the largest city in the world at that time. It had an advanced sewage system and the first streetlights on the entire Continent. Later Arab kingdoms flourished in the mountains of Andalusia, and the Alhambra citadel of Granada, begun in 1238, was one of the wonders of the civilized world.

In modern times, observers as diverse as the American Washington Irving, and the composers of several operas, have availed themselves of the glories of this Andalucian past for inspiration and the creative Muse.   More on Islam's Golden Age. (article by Dr. Zachariah Matthews)

[Also Recommended: Maria Rosa Menocal. The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain]