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Roughly in order of appearance, with my personal commentary. Only listing reputable companies that still exist. There has been many a fly-by-night "competitor" over the years.Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) companies offering genome-wide assays and interpretationdeCODEme (http://www.decodeme.com)An offshoot of now-bankrupt deCODE genetics. They wanted to say that they launched before 23andMe (company) so badly that they rushed to create a skeleton website and "launched" it a day before 23andMe launched publicly. We knew what they were doing and watched in amusement as the "lorem ipsum" text on decodeme.com was gradually replaced by hastily written copy literally in the hours before their announcement. At that point 23andMe had been in beta testing with friends and family and customers from Illumina for several months, so we let them have their "launch".Navigenics (http://www.navigenics.com)One of the first competitors, backed by heavyweight Silicon Valley VC firms. Always more medically oriented and without an ancestry offering, they positioned themselves as a serious alternative to 23andMe's "frivolous" ways. Navigenics went through a large number of direction and personnel changes over the years, and has been gradually fading out of existence for some time now.Update, October 2012: Navigenics has been acquired by Life Technologies. My understanding is that the main asset acquired was their CLIA lab. I'd be shocked if the consumer product came back in any form.Pathway Genomics (http://www.pathway.com)Originally a DTC company with a similar offering. Pivoted to sell through doctors in the wake of their failed partnership with Walgreens and the resulting FDA and Congress scrutiny in May-June 2010. Not in the news much since then.Lumigenix (https://www.lumigenix.com/)A fairly recent competitor based in Australia. Don't know much about them, but they are quite expensive compared to the most recent 23andMe (company) pricing.Update, October 2012: They they appear to have more or less shut down - the website and the blog have not been updated for a while.i-gene (Мой Ген) (http://www.i-gene.ru/)A competitor based in Russia. A very well-made site with good content and features that largely parallel 23andMe (company). Very pricey in comparison at more than $1,500 (45,000 RUB) for their combined health and ancestry offering. The saliva collection kit, however, is delivered by a dedicated courier, which is a nice touch.Since 23andMe doesn't offer their service in Russia (there are issues with getting biological samples out of the country) and doesn't translate its content, it's possible i-gene has managed to corner a chunk of the Russian market, but I can find no information of how many customers they have.It's worth noting that based on what I'm seeing in my twitter feed, many Russian customers still manage to order the 23andMe service. There are detailed instructions online for how to order it via a US-based drop shipper and for how to get the saliva sample back to the US.Genotek (http://genotek.ru/)Another Russian service. Offers full sequencing for slightly under $10,000; several genomewide scans (Illumina chips, around $800 USD) that cover 120 diseases and drug reactions + 14 traits; and a large number of specific PCR-based analyses covering everything from several auto-immune diseases (~$320) to such dubious traits as "sporting achievements in European soccer" for around $32. Your mileage will definitely vary.MyGene23 (http://mygene23.com/)Although most likely not a reputable company, I could not forego including this enterprising Chinese knock-off. Their original website mimicked the 23andMe (company) site very closely, including a lot of the artwork that was copied directly. They even took the Genetics 101 videos and voiced them over in Chinese![1] https://www.23andme.com/gen101/[2] http://mygene23.com/health/help/bio-logis (https://www.bio.logis.de/pgs)A German clone. Offers a "PGS.box bestellen" for a cool € 464.10. The PGS test appears to cover pharmacogenomics, carrier status, and risk variants. I don't currently see any mention of ancestry analysis. I should note that PGS is a 23andMe trademark.The kit ships with a USB key that's required to access the results securely.AncestryDNA™ (http://dna.ancestry.com)Launched in May 2012, so I don't know much about them yet, other that their "sponsored results" on Twitter are annoying as hell. Will update the review as more information becomes available.MapMyGenome (http://mapmygenome.in)An India-based competitor that offers health coverage for 20 diseases, 5 traits, and 3 drug responses. The offering seems close to where 23andMe was in 2007 and pricey (~$500 by some reports, price not listed on the website). No ancestry information.Xcode Life Sciences (http://xcode.in)Per Prakash Raju's answer, Xcode Life Sciences offers genotyping for 4 lifestyle diseases bundled with a nutrition plan, fitness plan, "body metabolism analysis", daily tips and reminders, and other such fluff. From their "order" page (cost is Rs 9,999 or ~$185):Genetic Risk Assessment for Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Disorders and StrokeCovers 384 Genetic Markers (SNPs)Not direct competitors, but similar enough to be often mentioned alongsideKnome (http://www.knome.com/)Pioneered DTC full genome sequencing. I don't think they ever managed to get significant traction at their price-point, but they are sticking around.Update, October 2012: Knome Introduces the knoSYS™100 - First Plug-and-Play Human Genome Interpretation System (they also call it a genome interpretation supercomputer).Counsyl (https://www.counsyl.com/)Carrier screening for 100+ genetic disorders, marketed to couples, sold through doctors. Used to test a lot of markers that 23andMe (company) didn't have, but I believe the latest chip has caught up significantly.Family Tree DNA (http://www.familytreedna.com/)One of the most visible ancestry testing companies (there are quite a few, of varying degree of reputability). Tried to compete with 23andMe by creating a clone of Relative Finder called Family Finder, but as far as I can tell the uptake for that feature has been limited since it has a smaller database and is more expensive ($289) than 23andMe ($99 + $9 / 12 months). On the other hand, their Y and Mito testing services are very popular and their pure ancestry focus appeals to some people.Personalis (http://personalis.com/)A recent entrant, "founded by global leaders in human genome interpretation". CEO John West, formerly the CEO of Solexa, is joined on the team page by 4 heavyweight PhDs from Stanford. Sue Siegel from MDV, a director at Navigenics, is listed as an investor.Since the service hasn't launched yet, I'm reproducing the content from their homepage for now, and will update the answer as more info becomes available:Personalis combines world class expertise in the technology of genome sequencing and interpretation with an extensive track record of peer-reviewed publications and commercial success. The much anticipated application of genome interpretation to clinical medicine will require accuracy in variant detection and consistency in variant interpretation befitting regulatory approval.Update, October 2012: they are still in stealth mode, but the team picture shows a couple of dozen people.If you can think of any significant companies that I missed, please leave a comment and I will update my answer.

Personaly speaking, the most overpowered one is the All For One:The villain with this quirk is able to steal the quirks of other people, combine them and even create quirks and give quirks to people.In fact he is the original creator of another powerful quirk, which is the One For All.He can pretty much steal all the other quirks in this list with the exception of the One For All which can’t be stolen.Since he can steal almost any quirk, and he can even create new quirks, One For All has theoretically, limitless potential, that is essentialy godly. If All For One pretended to be god, many would think of him as one.-Overhaul quirk is also a very powerful one, he can rearrange matter and molecular bonds in whatever way he wishes to.Overhaul can instantly kill anyone with the litest touch of his finger by destroying the molecular bonds of flesh and bones of the body of a person and turn it into a pool of blood and fluids:Not only overhaul is able to instantly kill a person, but he can most likely rebuild a person’s body to where he or she was aliveOverhaul killed and revived Rappa multiple times before Rappa finally decided to follow Overhaul’s orders. Which means that Overhaul in certain ways, have a limited control over life and death, thus we can qualify his habilities as kinda godlike. (Now I don’t remember them mentioning how was Rappa revived, is it possible that it was Eri who revived Rappa, I don’t remember that it was ever explained, although in the flashbacks of Rappa, Eri wasn’t shown, and considering that Overhaul can rearrange matter, even organic matter and even merge organic matter of multiple bodies into one, it should be feasible for overhaul to heal wounds and even revive people by recombining their bodies matter into a state before they died)Overhaul can as well rearrange the terrain and walls to attackOverhaul was also able to take pieces of the body of Eri and rearrange them into a drug bullet capable of erasing quirks and was about to create one as antidote for giving them back:Overhaul can also rearrange the matter of his own body and combine it with the body of another person and gain the quirk of that other person.Overhaul can also rearrange the matter of his own body to heal his woundsHis capacity of recombining his body with another person’s body means he can get the quirks of all other people although in a different way to One For All. It is possible that he might actually be able to get the One For All if he recombined his body with Deku’s or with All Might.Overhaul was by far one of the characters with most potential, although he did good, if we take a look at what he was able to do, then his matter manipulalation should have allowed for much more, granted he learned more creative ways of using his powers.In fact, with the way in which Overhaul can’t just manipulate terrain, but he can kill people and bring them back to live, like he did with Rappa, and in which he can even recombine organic matter, pretty much almost every character from Full Metal Alchemist would be envious of Overhaul powers, furthermore, Overhaul should be able to learn many of the techniques of powerful alchemists.Overhaul’s quirk has almost limitless potential and uses, and can be considered kinda godly.Also, Overhaul’s plan of selling drugs that can erase a quirk or give it back or boost quirks was not necessary, if Overhaul wanted money for himself and the yakuza organization. He could have bought a lot of coal and turn them into dimonds.Furthermore, by mixing the coal with the right elements, he could have made near invaluable colored diamonds which would be indistinguishable from natural colored diamonds and sell them for dozens or hundreds of millions of dolars each.Furthermore, by taking raw elements he might be able to create near invaluable objects, like Farberge eggsOr he can create chimerasOr his maybe even his own life forms from raw elements by bonding them into organic molecules, cells, tissues and finally, living beings? Having the possibility of creating your own live forms, well isn’t that godly? Overhauls quirk should have allowed him to do that, as well as manipulate DNA, and other stuff. If Overhaul wanted to pretend to be a god, many would believe him.—RewindEri is another character with a godly quirk, her power is to rewind people into a previous state. Although she currently doesn’t have full control of her powers, her power can be described as godly.She can very least heal wounds, like it happened, in which Deku used 100% of One For All and was constantly damaging his body, and Eri was constantly healing him.The potential for her quirk is unknown, but it kinda makes her into a potential godess, it was explained by Overhaul that if Eri learned to use her quirk, she would be able to “rewind” people into a state before awaking their quirks or devolve them into not having one, and then “rewind” them again into before they were “rewind” thus giving them their quirks back, and depending on how she used that quirk, she might as well be able to turn a human and devolve him into a monkey like creature.I might as well add that maybe she might even be able to “rewind the brain” before learning something so her quirks might even have the potential to erase memories.I consider that it might even be possible that Eri might be able to rewind a person’s corpse into after it died perhaps with a certain time limit based on certain factors, thus giving Eri a potentially unknown limited power power over life and death indirectly via rewind.Since Eri rewinds the body to a previous state, she might be able to rewind a persons biological age, turning old men into young vigorous men or even into a baby or a fetus or zygot, or maybe even a sperm cell and an ovum?If Eri were to use rewind on herself, assuming it is possible she would be able to heal her wounds and even get eternal youth as she can always rewind her age and live for ever.The limits of her quirks haven’t been explained, but since Overhaul said she might even be able to turn a person into a monkey, she has masive potential.Heck, Eri might be able to heal All Might, and return him to his youth with her “rewind” powers.And if Eri knew how to use her quirk, she might have been able to save Night Eye by rewinding his body into a state before he was fatally wounded.With her capacity to rewind the body of a person, to turn old people into young, to devolve a man into a monkey like being, to heal almost absolutely any wound any desease by rewinding the body before acquiring it, to stay herself forever young, Eri could pretty much start her own cult, and talk about how she has divine powers, and many would actually be willing to follow her as if she was a goddess or divine in nature.All hail the divine goddess Eri, she is forever young and she will cure you from diabetes, aids, cancer, maybe even losing your hand in that accident by rewinding your body into a state before it happened.—Foresight.Although Night Eye’s quirk had certain limits, I consider that it had a lot of potential uses, also outside of battle.He could have won the lottery.He could have gone to a casino and get out richMake the best investment possible in stock market and commodities market.And like using his clairvoyance could have allowed him into becoming one of the, if not the person with the most money, influence and political power in the world.If anyone could create a map of future possibilities and how his actions affect the outcomes, that’s Night EyeThen, he could perhaps use the money and his clairvoyance to indirectly affect the world around him and shape the results of current event to lead into more desirable future and shape and guide the world in whichever way he likes while staying in the shadows without anybody knowing that he has become a force behind the scenes enforcing a result here and there with certain adjustments related to his clairvoyance.And I consider that depending on how he used it, he might have been able to avoid his own death. Night Eye’s quirk might not seen powerful in battle in the same way as All Might and Endevor’s quirks, however, depending on how it is used Night Eye could have used his quirk and knowlede about the future to maybe even control the whole world without having to fight a single time.—BrainwashingThis guy can actually Brainwash almost anybody, if he talks at you and you answer back, he can automatically make you do anything he wants you to do, and then the other people won’t remember anything about it.This power is better for becomming a villain than a hero, though.This is perhaps a perfect quirk for controlling the world from behind the scenes.Imagine this guy talking at One For All or at Overhaul, if any of them unknowingly speak a single word back at him, he can brainwash them into doing anything he wants.Talking to him back is like an automatic defeat. If he wanted, he could use this to get anything, money, cars, political influence, etc… Become the puppet master of society while remaining in the back unnoticed. Again, another quirk with the potential to control the whole world depending on how it is used without having to fight a single fight.(Heck, if this guy and Night Eyed teamed up, they would by sure be able to control the whole world without rivals, one sees the future and decides the best pathway, the other manipulates the right people (political leaders, military generals, funcionaries, billionaires, heroes and villains) to do a certain action that leads to an specific future outcome, they might not be the strongest people physically like All Might, but in certain way, they would be like gods controlling the fate of humanity at will unnoticed from behind the scenes)Add Nesu with his High Spec quirk and Saiko Intelli with her IQ quirk drinking tea for decision making along with Night Eye’s future vision’s information and knowledge + Shinso’s Brainwash to make certain people do certain actions, and now nobody will have the intellect enough to stop or even know about the existence of this secret club of 4 people controlling the entire world from behind the scenes. They wouldn’t be fighters, but with their intelligence, their knowledge about the future, their near perfect planification and their capacity to brainwash anybody into doing whatever they want, they would control the whole world from behind the scenes without physically fighting anybody themselves directly at any time, without anybody else knowing it, without anybody oppossing them or resisting them, they would be the kings of this world, governing even if the people of the world doesn’t really know who are governing them. This 4 people working together could have the world in their hands.—CreationAnother quirk with a lot of potential.So far, she has been able to create canons, shields and other stuff.Imagine if Momo decided to create gold bars everyday, she might even be able to crash the market.Or what about creating a bunch of emeralds, rubies, zafires, taffeite and red, pink and blue diamonds in her handsOr near exact replicas of valuable objects like jewelry, paintings and other stuff.Yeah, she is already rich, but she can become much more so.Also, what if she learned how to create complex tecnology like the ones created by Mei:Mei pretty much make Lida look like a fool due to what she can do with all those gadgets, and in theory, Momo should be able to create them.Furthermore, what if Momo wanted to copy Bakugo’s power:Bakugo’s power work by sweating nitroglycerin.Momo’s quirk can create almost anything from her skin, and creates objects far more complex than nitroglycerinHeck, she should be able to create a full armor round her body. or even robots, drones, machine guns, landmines, medicine, etc…The more powerful technologycal gadgets or the more expensive the things she can create, and the more she knows about how to create them, the more powerful she can become. One thing that is unknown is if she might be able to create living beings with her quirk.—Zero GravityNow, you are probably thinking “how is this quirk powerful?”, since Ochako haven’t done anything big with it and she was easily defeated in a fight against Bakugo after all. Right? However, Uravity has a lot of potential, give her a jet pack and she might get into outer space with little fuel.Well, you see, outside of battle, she was thinking that by becoming a hero she could get money. Ochako said “So I’m gonna be a hero. I’ll make that money… so that my mom and dad can have easier lives.”If I remember well, she also though about using her quirk in a construction company.However, I think I know better use for her quirk, which could turn her into a multimillionaire, perhaps even billionaire or maybe even trillionaire in the long term.And that is working in Space Industry.Launching a single Satelite into Space cost between 10 million to 400 million dolarsOchaco might have certain limitsBut I guess that if she trains hard enough she might even become key to space exploration and space colonization. One of the reasons it is so hard to get into space is because of the high expense and technologycal challenge of overcomming Earth gravity in an uphill battle, Uravity can easily eliminate the most difficult part of that and greatly diminish fuel cost of getting space ships into outer space, and if they needed to get something larger into space that Ochaco can’t handle, they could always send it in manageable pieces, like modules, and assemble it in space.So, even if it takes time, even several decades, first trainning for some years and then working, there you get it, Ochaco is powerful, Ochaco can potentially become a billionaire or maybe even a trillionaire, she become the key to space exploration and colonization, she can turn humanity from an Earth based civilization into a space farring civilization, she can help colonize the Moon, Mars and the rest of the Solar System, and help put space fleets into outer space and kickstart asteroids space minning industry which could latter help humanity build a dyson sphere and go from a type 0 kardashev scale civilization into a type I and path the way into becomming a type II in kardashev scale. And she can become the hero that kickstarts all of these, the hero that frees humanity to the limited resources and the existential threat of living in a single planet which could potentialy undergo a massive extinction somewhere in an unknown future.—CompressCompress can be used on people and objects too and even selective parts of a person’s body or selective part of an object. Compress can be a one hit kill in battle, because by touching a person’s body, Mr compress guy can compress your head or well rest of your body while leaving your head normal, essentially snatching and decapitating you in an instant.Compress can allow to instantly defeat an oponent with a touch without causing harm by putting shrinking his entire body at the size and weight into a small marble.He can also use his quirk to compress other items and objects, which is similar to Dragon Ball’s Capsule Corp capsules.This is the perfect partnert for Ochaco’s space agency. He can use compress to shrink the size and weight of satelites into a small sized marble, then ochaco can throw those marbles into outerspace like she did with the baseball ball, thus no fuel or massive expensive rockets would be needed. Remember it costs 10 to 400 million dollars to launch satelites into space, but Ochaco with Atsushiro would be able to launch things into outerspace at 0 cost. So here you got another potential trillionaire.Once the satelites and space equipments gets to outer space, all Atsushiro needs to do is snap his fingers.—Warp Gate.Kurogiri’s quirk is rare type of quirk and a very useful one.Although he usually uses them over short distances, and to be accurate he need cordinates, that makes him extremely usefulWith enough trainning about using coordinates it is hard to know over hos much distances his quirk can be used.It could probably be used to transport things from the safe of a bank to another without any danger, or to steal them if that is what he prefers.He could most likely use his quirks for any emergency.His quirk can be used for almost anything, tourism, medical emergencies, intelligence agencies, military forces, banks safety, intercontinental travel? space travel?And maybe his quirk could be used for space travel as well. By creating a warp gate a different heights kilometers away, putting one warp gate on Earth and another in space, making space exploration and travel even easier than Ochaco. If he has a limited distance, then Ochaco and Kiriguiri could work together to open multiple gates at different heighs and get the payload into space with the help of zero gravity to float themselves and the payloads, while Kiriguiri’s warp gates allow to create multiple gates to skip kilometers of effort for Ochaco. Maybe if humanity manages to create an addecuate system of coordinates, Kiriguiri might be able to create wap gates between planets? What about been able to walk from planet Earth to planet Mars in one step?Again, here another potential billionaire or even trillionaire depending on how he uses his power.As it comes to fighting. what if Kiriguiri warped a gate to make fall meteors on Earth, a 50 meters radious meteor can create a 1 mile wide sized crater, but let’s say it is too far and difficult to tag a meteor. What if he warped a gate in Mariana’s trench or somewhere kilometers under the ocean, suddenly tons of water get out of the other side of the gate a huge pressureImagine Kuroguiri creating a gate 5000 meters below the ocean, if 10 meters add 1 atmosphere of presure, then that gives 500 times the atmospheric pressure.You wouldn’t want to be near a gate were huges amounts of water get shot everywhere at 500 times the pressure of our atmosphere.Also, he would end up flooding entire cities depending how much time he uses it:Or what if Kiriguiri created a portal under a Volcano, now you would have a sea of red hot lava comming your way, not only that, with the pressure accumulated inside a volcano, it would be like creating a volcanic explosion as soon as he creates the portal:Also, he might as well be able to cut anything by warping something and closing the gate with the thing halfway.Imagine you are half way and Kiriguiri closes the portal, since the portal goes through space, it is closing the space way, you will get cut in half.See how fast Kiriguiri avoided 3 people from attacking each otherIf he wanted to, he could have cutted the arms of all of them at the same time by closing all the portals. So yeah, Kiriguiri is powerful, he can not only potentially become billionaire or trillionaire, he could cause disaster level destructuion if he wanted to weaponize the waters of the depth of the ocean or the lava under the volcanos with his warp gates, and he would be able to cut people into pieces by closing portals when people are going half way through them.If he were to work with Ochaco and mr. compress dude, the three of them would create the most succesful space agency that could possibly exist and get a monopoly on all space industries.—Some other quirks which can be considered overpowered are:Quirks capable of creating destruction similar to natural disasters:Half Hot Half Cold (one of the most powerful combat quirks)WhirlwindVibrateCremation (Dabi)Other powerful combat quirks:Explosion (Bakugo)Dark Shadow (Tokoyami)Moonfish teeth quirkOne hit win quirks (besides Overhaul or Compress):MeatballDurability boosters:Hardening (equal or better than steel)Steel (survived a multiton huge sized robot without problems)Potentially overpowered for limited time:Manifest (Sun Eater)Copy (imagine this guy copying Overhaul’s powers)Just destructive quirks:Decay (Shigaraki)Black Hole (can destroy almost anything)Strenght/durability/speed body enhancement quirks:Muscular augmentation (Midoriya had to go beyond 100% to beat him)Stress (Re-destro)One For All (Most powerful straight combat quirk, also gets quirks of previous user)—Note that even though quirks like Muscular Augmentation and One For All are overpowered when it comes to battle, I decided to amply more the possibilities on other quirks due to their rareness and other potential possible uses and implications which are potentially bigger for the entire world, like Overhaul having control over life and death and arrange matter however he likes, Eri been potentially live for ever and heal any desease or ilness or people into monkeys, or Nigh Eye been able to watch the future, Shinso been able to brainwash anybody, Ochaco been able to turn off the effects of gravity for an object and Atsushiro been able to compress things into the size and weight of a marble ball.

BEFORE CRUSADESEuropean Dark Ages truly started with Justinian Restoration. It was series of very bloody wars that brought nothing except misery across Italy and nearly depopulated and ruined Rome. On the other hand, Eastern Roman Empire was in the period known as Byzantine Dark Ages. With the loss of Egypt, economic and political instability and social unrest in form of iconoclasm, Byzantines were fighting for their survival. As for the rest of Europe, they were under constant migrations and wars with Slavs, Magyars, Avars, Normans, Berbers and Arabs. Carolenian Rennesaince was in a way light in a dark, but just with our knowledge from buildings, art, political situation of that period and literature, we can see that Europe wasn’t good place to be.Middle East, Hispania and North Africa had none of this. There were two powers in the Middle East: Eastern Roman Empire and Persian Empire. Once they were defeated, Muslims had no real opposition. Visigoths never ordered their lineage despite having advanced legal system known as Visigothic Law, so Arabs simply walked in and conquered them with little effort. That means Muslims had pleanty of time studying and developing. Caliphate was just another Middle Eastern Empire like Persian, Assyrian, Seleucid Empire before them. Because of all this, Muslims never lost connection with the rest of the world like Western and Central Europe. However, everything changed in 10th and 11th century when Abbasid Caliphate started to fracture and Turks migrated.TRADE CONNECTIONAltough Byzantine Empire never lost connection with the East, most of the Europe was somewhat isolated. Aside from Vikings who traded slaves and loot with Berbers, trade in Europe was localized. When Crusaders arrived and took Levand, Western and Central Europe returned to the global trade. This lead to the rise of great Empires in Italy, most importantly Venice and Genoa. They weren’t “Empires” as you would imagine that they had mighty army and ruled multiple nations (altough their army and fleet were forces to be reconed with), but they had many trading posts around Medditerain and their merchants were the wealtiest people in Europe.This also influenced people to explore, hence why we have the likes of Nicollo, Maffeo and Marco Polo as well as António da Madelena.The only problem was Eastern Roman Empire or how jealous Latins loved to call them “Empire of Greeks”, since Byzantines were as much if not richer than Italians. Byzantines had their own silk and most importantly, they had their capital in the most stratigic place in the world. They were eventualy “dealt with” during Fourth Crusade. When Ottomans conquered Constantinopolis, they held the trade road to Europe which influenced Europeans to look for alternative root trough the sea, since by that time Crusader Kingdoms were things of the past and Portugal had nowhere else to expand. It is also important to mention Black Death traveled trough trade roots. Entire Medditerain was infected (Persia was already under epidemic) and soon North Africa and North Europe. As for Muslims, nothing segnificent has changed for them. If anything, they were more than happy to trade and be middle-man, as Persians before them. You can say Muslims gained more costumers. This is why Muslims were never fully united against Latins: it wasn’t profitable and they weren’t united into single force.It is worth mentioning that this economic reconnection was one of the factors for the emergance of European Guilds. Those were organizations of certain work (smithing for example) which had the role to connect people and organize themselves for more efficiant manufactore and ultimatly more profit. This is the early form of capitalism. Just look at Hanseatic League and see how they made Baltic Seas into urban trade centre as Medditerain.RELIGION (Christian perspective)In order to understand certain period, one must know key factors that defined that time. High Medieval Age is characterized by religion dominance. Afterall, Crusades had religious bases. However, if we were to look at Crusades aimed at Levand and Iberia as pure “Christiandom vs Islam” we would miss the entire point and the very essence of that period. Unfortunatly, this desortion of history that “noble Crusaders came together to liberate Holy Land from barbaric Muslim occupation” is outright false and always covered in not-so-subtle political agenda which if it continues this way will have serious consequences. The real reason why Crusades even started was thanks to Turks who weakened Arabs and Byzantines alot. After disaster at Manzikert, Byzantines went to the Western kingdoms looking for merceneries.Alexos Komnenos also wanted to improve his relations with the Pope and restore unity in Christiandom after the Great Schism. Little did he know Pope Innocence II would use it as a message for Holy War. It turned out Call for the Crusade was very effective tool, not only as a means for conquest, but also expansion and presenting Pope as “supreme leader”. Needless to say, Papacy was at its peak.That said, there were problems. Relationship with Orthodox Christians was always cotious at best and hostile at worst. Christians of Levand were usually hostile to Latins and often sided with Muslims. On the other hand, Byzantine and Latin relationship were in a state of cold war which would culminate in Fourth Crusade. As for Serbia and Bulgeria, they saw it oportunisticly but during Ottoman conquest, Muslims were seen as lesser evil to Catholicism. Even during that time, Pope had problem with “reformers”. I am talking about Bogumils. Altough they existed before Crusades, Papal riches and general abuse of power from clerics helped Bogumils spread from Balkan all the way to France. Pope could not tolerate this heresy so he called apon Albegesian Crusade, infamous for indiscriminative slaughter. However he couldn’t prevent creation of actual Bogumil Kingdom in Bosnia. Ban Kulin converted to Catolicism and all Bosnians Bans and Kings were officialy Catolics, however it was obvious to everyone that it was Bogumil Kingdom, especially to Hungerians who were more than happy to eliminate heretics by calling the Crusades.RELIGION (Muslim perspective)If there is one common characteristic for Muslims during the times of the Crusades, it was general lack of understanding who were the Crusaders, why they were here and what did they want. Latins were simply just invaders from the sea who wanted some minior teritories brought by the scheaming Byzantines. Compare to the other problems of the Caliphate, Crusades were minior problem that could wait. That said, they did influence Islam since they came at the troubled times. Abbasid Caliphate was falling apart. Caliphs of Baghdad became puppets of the Seldiuk Warlords and Shia Fatimid Caliphate was on the rise. Before this troubled times for Muslims, Christians and Jews were seen as “People of the Book”.They belived in Jehowah, followed same prophets and teachings and Mohammed belived they have their own place in the world, altough they had to pay Jidzia. With the arrival of Crusades, Ahl al-Hadith (upherents of faith) gained the upper hand over Ahl ar-ra'y (upherents of reason). That ment that status of Jews and Christians in Middle East worsened. Still it was much better to be Christian in Cairo than Muslim (or Jew) in Venice. Overall, Islam started to fracture. It wasn’t as united as it used to. While Crusades were lucky to find disunited Middle East, in a way they helped Islam to develop its more conservative nature that was already present and will come to haunt them during Ottoman times. Caliphate of Cordoba was speard of religious problems, but not political one.POLITICS (Europe)Crusades were popular because they were profitable. For nobility, it was an opportunity for gaining new land. For the peasents, it was oppourtnity to start their life over and become rich. Crusades weren’t profitable only to the Kings, but also to the Pope. Infact, this is how Catholic Church got incredibly rich. If King wanted to go on Crusade he would need approval and finances of Pope and give portion of loot and land to the Church (this is how Crusaders at Constantinopolis got pardoned).However, just as Pope wealth increased, so did the Kings get richer. Overtime, Kings could finance their own armies and expeditions. At the Crysis of Medieval Age, it became clear that Kings power increased as Pope could no longer stop wars for Crusades like he did for Third Crusade as Hundred Years War was raging and his authority was greatly challenged as Western Schism and Husseite Wars has demonstrated.POLITICS (Middle East and Iberia)Muslims in Levand could wipe out Crusades whenever they wanted, if we would mesure them trough raw power. However, this was not the case, because there was no longer single Muslim force. This was not the great expansionist Umayyad Caliphate and Abbasid Caliphate was shadow of it’s former self. Infact, there was no single Caliphate. Muslims were fighting Muslims. Crusader Kingdoms were counting on Muslim disunity, because as it was demonstarted in Second Crusade, when Muslims are united they can destroy Crusaders. However, not only there was no big initiative to counter Crusaders, but there was no benifit to it. As previously said, Muslim merchants enjoyed trading and eliminating Crusaders would be seen as self-sabotage. Eventualy, Muslim power from Egypt, known as Ayubbid Sultanate conquered Levand and established itself as great trading power in Medditerain and Indian Ocean.When Mongols entered Middle East, both Muslims and Christians nearly stood together against godless barbarians, however Mongol terror persuaded Turks and Latins to ally with the invader against Mamluks. This just shows that politics and commerce was more important than religion.Simular situation was in Iberia. Caliphate of Cordoba due to ethnic tensions, corruption and political instability was very varnuble. On the other hand, Christian Kingdoms became stable and more organized. United Castile, Leon, Portugal and Aragon launched all out Crusade against Muslims. By the time of Late Medieval Period, Muslims were reduced to Emirate of Granada which would continue to exist for next 200 years. Again, trade was the reason why Reconquista was never finished. It was much better to trade and take tribute from Granada. Once Muslims couldn’t pay their tribute, they attacked Castile. That was more an act of desperation than real invasion. King Fernando and Queen Isabella, Catholic monarchs that created Spain, conquered Granada and ended Reconquista onca and for all.WARFARECrusades were typical “Medieval Warfare”. Infact, most of our pictures of Knights charging heroicly in wedge formation with their code of Chivalry, tabards, banners, can be found here. Crusades was the place where Knightly Orders and Chivalry Code was formed. Templars, Hospitalers, Teutons and Santiago trace their origin from here.However, it is rarly mentioned that Knights were direct inspiration from Muslims. Chivalry is nothing, but adaptation of Futuwwa (loyalty, courage, honour). Infact, Chivalry appeared first in Iberia where Castilian Knights were inspired by Muslim heroic stories. Altough Heavy Cavalry was nothing new in Europe, since Celts used it, Knights were direct evolution of Persian Cataprachts. Afterall, Byzantines Heavy Cavalry were still called Cataprachts. There was also new trend in warfare that Knights would rather be captured instead of killed. While this was linked to Code of Chivalry as noble Knight who showed courage and valor on the battlefield should live, there was again economic benifit that it is better to ransom someone for money, rather than outright kill him, especially if captured Knight comes from wealthy family. Peasents and merceneries usually weren’t that lucky.At first, Muslims had the upper hand with heavily armed, yet swift cavalry. Crusader’s answer for this was crossbow which is simular to bow, but much easier to use and more effective. Muslims never fully adopted crossbow, prefering short bow that could be used on horseback as well. That said, Muslims were first to use very early firearms, which was utilised against Mongols and probably saved North Africa and most of the Middle East in the process. Wierdly enough, Mamluks discarded firearm somewhere in the Late Medieval Period as dishonorble wepeon. Later, that firearm will find its root in France during Hundred Years War. Latins will adopt Kettle helmet from Byzantines and Turks. Advantage of this helmet were many. For example it was lighter, it offered better vision then Great Helm and it was better suited for both hot and cold climate. Somewhere around that time, trebuchets appered both as siege and counter-siege wepeon and it was used by both Christians and Muslims.As for Muslims, their answer for Knights were the Mamluks. They were the one who stoped Mongols and they were overall the finest cavalry of their time. Mamluk actualy means “property” in Arabic. They were recruited from Christian children, given best education and turned into killing machine. They were even king makers and Ayubbid Sultanate is often called Mamluk Sultante since Mamluks controled the Kingdom. Mamluk were so effective, Ottoman Jenniseries (New Soldier in old Turkish) were modeled after them, except they were infantry armed with firearm and not cavalry. Napoleon used Mamluks to great effect and made sure personaly their relatives lived in France and that they were financialy secured.Another Muslim unit were Hasshasin or in Arabic “Assassins”. This were semi-religious sect who assassinated high members of certain faction in public to send clear message to everyone. They were the real terror and had great mysticism around them. The leader was known only as “the old man from the mountain”. Their stronghold was destroyed during Mongol invasion altough some vestages remained until Ottoman conquest. They are the inspiration of the Assassin’s Creed.In the Iberia, Moors and Hispanians had nearly mirrrored army. Unique unit in Iberia were Jinietes, which were cavalry armed with jevelins. They probably originate from North Africa since their tactics look incredebly simular to Numidians (Berbers). Spain would used them and adopt them in Tercio.ARTS AND ARCHITECTUREIn order to see how two cultures or civilizations influenced each other, one does only need to look at the art. Gothic art and architecture is direct conesquence from contact with Muslims. Romanesque was “pan-european” art. Most Romanesque Churches still had Byzantine and Early Christian influence, hence the name. It was build from three parts, resembeling more or less like ship which was intentional, altough it wasn’t the norm.Their interiors were colourful with windows made out of glass and generaly made to feel comftrible and cozy. You are in the House of God, afterall. However, there was always a problem of light or to be specific, lack of it. The problem with Romanesque art were windows as they were never big enough to support enough light leaving Church darker then it should. This was great shame since paintngs were overshadowed and light in Christianity had religious symbolism representing Divine presence.Meanwhile, Islamic art trived. Since Islam doesn’t look to idols with kindness, they focused on geometric art and miniatures. Like Europe, they too had glass and did wonders with it. Instead of making smaller Mosques, they were making bigger windows with glasses drawn like miniature painting. Arches were key to success. They had two common types of arches and those were Horseshoe Arch and Parabolic Arch. Their art with pillars was like nothing else. When you go to Mosque of Cordoba, you will find repeated pattern of pillars and at a same time no two pillars are same.When European artists saw these tehniques, they immidiatly got the idea how to solve their problems. The key solution were the archs. By making pointy archs instead of round archs, they solved the problem of light. To make it even better, they could finaly build bigger Cathedrals. Infact, it became friendly competition between cities who will build bigger and more complex Cathedral. Incidently, sculpting nearly replaced painting.However, there is something lost with Gothic art. It is true Churches had more light, but they were no longer as welcoming as they used to. Before Crusades, life of Jesus Christ was far more important than his death. Ostrigoths, Visigoths and Byzantines usually showed baptization of Jesus or Jesus in Heaven watching over us. Crusades changed focus to Jesus’s crusifictioin and death. There was even emphasizes on Judgemant Day. Reason was to send message to good Christians to “avange” the Christ. Incidently, this made Cross come as a main symbol of Christianity, replacing Cho-Rho. Combining this with grand scale made more feeling of judgement, than home. Fortunatly, we can still find some optimism in Serbo-Byzantine and Rus style.As for Muslims, their art at first degraded only to rise to new highets. Mamluk art was dominant. Since Mamluks were warrior class, they had rather simplistic and militaristic style. It feels like comparing Ioninan style with Dorian style. Comparing Mamluk Mosques to Abbasid or Moorish ones, makes Mamluks seem rather cheap and dull. Look at Golden Dome and Quani-Bey Mosuqe and you will see difference.Funny trend with Muslim is they got freed from Iconoclasam. Reason why Umayyads fought Byzantines (aside from loot) was Christian idoltery. During Crusades, depicition of humans and even prophets became more common. Infact, some images even depicit Mohammed himself, altough his face is never quiet clear. While we lack portrait of Arabian Caliphs, we have portrait of almost every Turkish Sultan.However, Islamic architecture will rise again with Timurids when they cought up with Europeans with grand, yet magnificent style. Blue Palace is an exelent example.Intersting to note is that carpets became part of the Christian decour. Tough not exclusivly Muslim, the best carpets were found in Muslim dominant places. You can even notice, that there is tradition of carpets and carpet making where Muslims ruled in Europe (Balkan, Iberia and Eastern Europe). Not only were carpets practical during winter, but were actually luxurious peace of art and decour. Price of carpet was simple, you just need to count the edges of tracks and pay that amount of gold. It is one of many things Latins brought back home. The most valuble carpets were Afgan carpets, easily destinguished with heavy material and red-black colours (last picture).SCIENCE AND EDUCATIONOne of defining feature of High Medieval Europe was what we call “Medieval Rennesaince”. Italian and later Northern Rennesaince were in a way continuitation and improvment over Medieval one. Key diferences between Medieval and Italian Rennesaince was focus, namly Italian one focused on Man, while Medieval one focused on God. This difference is fundamental as great European minds of Medieval Rennesaince rarly signed thinking God will know their deeds, hence why we can’t name many artists of that time. The best example is Mirsolav’s Gospel where we know by tinny fussnote that certain Gligorije decorated pages of the book in honor of Prince Miroslav and begs for forgivens for his sin which is asking for earthly glory. You won’t see any pictures of paganism like Birth of Venus, altough you will see artists mocking everyday life absurdity where rabbits hunt humans.This Medieval Rennesaince was possible because of Muslims. Early and High Medieval Period were known as Golden Age of Islam. As it was previously said, Muslims after coquering Persians and driving out Eastern Romans, continued work of previous two Empires. There was no one to stop them, unlike Europeans who were drowning in migrations and raids (Arabs were one of the raiders). Taking knowledge from what is left of Alexandria and Gundesphur, they created the new centre of learning in the new capital city called Baghdad. That centre of study was called House of Wisdom. Their role was to translate all ancient texts into Arabic and study it. Not only that, but Abbasids and Byzantines despite contrary belief, had great mutal respect and traded many things including knowledge. Constantinopolis had Muslim part of the city with Mosque and Orthodox Christians lived in peace in Middle East. Infact, House of Wisdom was open to anyone who was willing to study, regardless of faith. House of Wisdom made segnificent study in the works of Aristotel, medicine, mathematics and study of Egyptian Pyramids making them first Archeologists.In the west, Cordoba was great rival of Baghdad. Infact, Mali had frequent contact with Cordoba and was great empire because of it. Cordoba is home to one of the most important inventions in history, namly compass and telescope. Originaly it was made so that Moors would know where is Mecca for prayer, but soon astronomy developed into organized science and compass into indespensible tool for navigation. They even went as far as trying to fly. Abbas ibn Firnas is the first man in history to attempt flying.Christians in Hispania weren’t suprised with Muslim discoveries due to frequent contacts, while Latins who came to Levand got entire new perspective. Crusaders did have some form of Carolenian Rennesaince, but it was connected to one man and the elite of one Kingdom and it was interupted with Viking and Magyar Raids. Realizing Muslims and Byzantines are ahead of them, they took all the knowledge they could find and studied it. Universities were opened around Europe, primarly in Italy. Most important ones are in Bologne, Oxford, Prague, Paris and Genoa. They studied everything they could find. However, Muslims never studied Law, giving Christians total advantage in one field of science. Infact, Bologne University began by studing Corpus Iuris Civilis and with overall knowledge from the East, studing of Law only increased. Muslim lack of Law studies would be burden during Ottoman times. This influx inspired explorations too as it was talked earlier. Christians started to catch up with Muslims and by 13th century, they were relativly on an equal footing.Two Knightly Orders took specific interest in science. First group took interest in architecture and banking. We know them as Templars. Tough they no longer exist as they were destroyed when French King couldn’t pay his enormeous debt, their spirit still lives on in form of Freemasons.On the other hand, another Knightly Order took interest in medicine. Infact, they opened so many hospitals in Europe modeled after Arabs, they got their name after their field of study. They were called Knight Hospitaler. Unlike Templars, they actualy survived Middle Ages, fought in Rhodos which they lost, but won the Epic Siege of Malta. Today, they have perminant seat as observer in the United Nations and they are behind many humanitarian organizations like UNICEF.Unfortunatly for Muslims, Mongols destroyed Baghdad. Destruction was total that even today ruins of old Baghdad are hard to find. It is said Tiger run black with ink comming from House of Wisdom and red with scholars and citizans. This single handly marked the end of Golden Age of Islam. This is even worse than three burnings of Alexandria. As disastorious as it was, not all was lost. Mongols were slaughtered trying to invade Egypt. Soon after, Mamluk Sultanate became the strongest Muslim Kingdom of Middle East until Ottoman arrival. Mamluks opened new centre of learning in Cairo. To this day, University of Cairo is one of the best Universities in a world and the best one in Arab world. All Ottoman Sultans had teachers from Cairo as they were considered the best of the best. Unfortunatly, Sheih-Ul-Islam gained too much power in Ottoman Empire and was one of the responsible for stagnation and eventual downfall of the Empire. If he didn’t interfeare, Ottomans would have great achivments not only in law and architecture, but also in astronomy and medicine.