So, in a period of time that was, historically speaking, both remarkably recent and remarkably short, a small group of people from an area of the world with no natural resources managed to create one of the great empires of the world, and also one of its great religions; and that very fact may be why people of Western European decent remain largely ignorant about this period, not only with the Muslims great conquers, they spawned an explosion of trade and learning that lasted hundreds of years. 