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"Let us examine the two civilizations" wrote Seignobos in his 'Histoire de la Civilisation au Moyen Age,'.. In the west-- miserable little cities, peasants' huts and great fortresses-- a country always troubled by a war, where one could not travel ten leagues without running the risk of being robbed; and in the Orient-- Constantinople, Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad-- with their marble palaces, their workshops, their schools, their bazaars, their villages, and the incessant movement of merchants who travelled in peace from Spain to Persia.. In the eleventh century these two worlds began to become acquainted; the barbarous Christians came into contact with the civilized Musselmans in two ways-- by war and by commerce. And by contact with the orientals, the occidentals became civilized."
(49:1)
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