Introduction In 1921, the Belgian historian Henri Pirenne postulated a theory concerning the emergence of towns and trade during the medieval period. Known as Pirenne's Thesis, it challenged the prevailing notion of previous historians such as Petrarch, Niccolo Machiavelli, Edward Gibbon, and others who believed that Germanic influences ended medieval urbanization and subsequently terminated any significant trade between areas of development circa 476 A.D. Instead, Pirenne argued that Muslim forces precipitated the decline of the medieval …
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…glow for an instant and then make way for a new and always more dazzling brightness".78 Pirenne knew that subsequent analysis would reveal the imperfections in his statements. He possessed "no illusion or infallibility for his theory" and realized that "he, at best, only had a partial grasp of the topic himself".79 Despite its shortcomings though, Pirenne's Thesis is still the benchmark for medieval European trade and every historian thereafter shall follow in his footsteps.