only positive benefit that seems to have emerged from this fragmentation of power was the increased opportunities it provided for Muslim administrators and scholars to find both posts and patronage at the courts of those who had set themselves up as regional rulers. The tenth century has been described as the 'Islamic Renaissance', during which the literary treasures of the past were preserved and in which arts and sciences flourished.

The reunification of Islam in the twelfth century can be seen as a direct consequence of Christian involvement in the Near East. Those who were able to lead successful campaigns against the Latin Kingdom and to rally troops from the entire Islamic world to the cause of jihad, seized the political initiative. Whilst the great Emir Saladin is most famous for his exploits against the crusaders in the late twelfth century, he and his family were also chiefly responsible for the downfall of the Fatimid caliphate in Egypt. After his defeat of the Sudanese troops who provided the caliph's main support, Saladin was able, on his death in 1171, to have the Abbasid caliph publicly recognized in the mosques of Cairo as the one leader of Islam.

In the west, Charlemagne's ideal of a single empire, coterminous with the Christian world but independent of the empire centred on Constantinople, was revived in a potent form after 900. Since the city of Rome itself had a major part to play in this scheme, it was inevitable that much of the political activity associated with the imperial ambitions of the German emperors should be played out in Italy. The extensive German conquests of the Ottonian emperors encouraged them to consider themselves as more than mere kings and to plan to reassert control over the lands of the old Middle Kingdom inherited from the Carolingians. The pretext for Otto I's interference in Lombardy in 951 was an appeal from Adelaide, the widow of Lothar II, king of Italy, for help against her rival, Berengar, count of Ivrea who had had himself proclaimed king. Many of the ruling houses to the south of the Alps were involved in complex political manœuvres in northern Italy at this time and Otto was particularly concerned to maintain control over the routes and passes to the south of his realm.

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