Encyclopedia of Philosophy: John the Scot

For two centuries after the death of Philoponus there is nothing for the historian of philosophy to record. During that period, however, two events altered beyond recognition the world which had fostered classical and patristic philosophy. The first was the spread of Islam; the second was the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire.  Within ten years of the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 633 the religion of Islam had spread by conquest from its native Arabia throughout the neighbouring Persian Empire and the Roman provinces of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. In 698 the Muslims captured Carthage, and ten years later they were masters of all North Africa. In 711 they crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, easily defeated the Gothic Christians, and flooded through Spain. By 717 their empire stretched from the Atlantic to the Great Wall of China. Their advance into Northern Europe was halted only in 732, when they were defeated at Poitiers by the Frankish leader Charles Martel.