A Concise History of the Middle East

Conclusion • 127

mosques and the design of refreshing gardens, and the formulation of lofty
theological and philosophical ideas. Even the destruction of Baghdad dur¬
ing the Mongol invasions did not stop these processes. Nor did centuries of
Muslim-Christian warfare prevent Europeans from learning the arts and
sciences of Islam at the dawn of the Renaissance. In fact, the apogee of
Muslim power and artistic expression was not reached until the sixteenth
century, the gunpowder era that is the subject of Chapter 9.