Re: Evidence.
"As far as Western Europe is concerned the Germanic expansion was more important which was well before the 600s."
I have read arguments that the Teutonic expansion didn't cause the Dark Ages. The Teutons invaded the Empire but they also settled down in it - they accepted Imperial titles and wanted to be part of Roman civilisation, which is why we got the Holy Roman Empire which, as Gibbon remarked, was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire but was a collection of German States. The Teutons caused a hiccup.
But the Arabs removed access of Western Europe to the Mediterranean and the trade routes, resulting in isolation by mountain ranges and distance. They also controlled access to almost all the gold, thus causing Western Europe to run out of negotiable currency so they couldn't buy abroad. This also led to feudalism when land became the primary asset.
It was the 1100s before Western civilisation really started to recover, nearly 500 years of backwardness.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
