One could make an argument that the middle ages were a golden age…if we're talking about the Islamic world. After all, that's where we get hospitals, and advances in mathematics such as algebra and concepts such as Zero (among many other advances in science). But when I think of the middle ages, I think of the Crusades and the anti-Semitism it brought, and that doesn't sit well with me as a Jew. I realize the European middle ages were more complicated than that, but it's just those that sit with me.
One could make an argument that the middle ages were a golden age…if we're talking about the Islamic world. After all, that's where we get hospitals, and advances in mathematics such as algebra and concepts such as Zero (among many other advances in science). But when I think of the middle ages, I think of the Crusades and the anti-Semitism it brought, and that doesn't sit well with me as a Jew. I realize the European middle ages were more complicated than that, but it's just those that sit with me.