As the eleventh century drew to a close, the Islamic and Byzantine civilizations flourished in the East, while the Christian West floundered in economic decline and struggled to recover from a series of barbarian invasions. Observed the late Will Durant:

For five centuries, from 700 to 1200, Islam 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. In Islam art and culture were more widely shared than in medieval Christendom....

The Moslems [Muslims] seem to have been better gentlemen than their Christian peers; they kept their word more frequently, showed more mercy to the defeated, and were seldom guilty of brutality.... Christian law continued to use ordeal by battle, water, or fire while Moslem law was developing an advanced jurisprudence...