Let's say around the years 800-1500 CE. What did they think of the fallen city of Rome, and the collapse of the Roman empire?

Essentially, was the Reconquista about having the Muslims convert to Christianity or else? Why did the Spanish kingdoms want to conquer the rest of Spain?

(I apologize if this was asked. I searched this sub and read a few wiki articles on the subject before submitting.)

In the modern day we see drug addicts ruined by their diseases, utterly unable to carry on day to day life. Often, whole communities are torn apart by such drugs and the organizations that traffic, produce, and sell them. Is this purely a modern phenomenon, related to the availability and low price of things like heroin, cocaine, and mass produced liquor, or have societies historically had similar problems?

It seems that since the large influx of new users last December, I had saw quite a frequent conflicts between some segments of the users regarding the quality of top-level answers in this subreddit, and the removal of such posts. So here's a topic, I think, to encourages discussion regarding the answer etiquette. Should an answer with good sources but without in-depth analysis be removed? How in-depth should the analysis be, anyway? Are this subreddit's too strict in moderating top level posts? Are the mods only 6% literally Hitler, or are they more than 6% literally Hitler?

I've been watching a lot of Band of Brothers and something I realized is that a lot of the soldiers have fabulous hair styles. Were haircuts mandatory back then or were soldiers deployed so long that their hair grew back?

Specifically early examples of art, poetry, music, etc that references its other contemporaries. Could be satire or otherwise.

There's literally hundreds of books, I'd like to focus in just a bit - more like 2-5 books that would give me a good base of information on Genghis Khan and his reign.

Were people who followed minority beliefs actively persecuted, tolerated but with lesser legal rights, or completely accepted, i.e. today's standards of religious acceptance. How did this change throughout the centuries, and why? Were any beliefs persecuted because of a single specific event, or was a standard of hatred maintained simply because 'We don't like those people'?

I apologize in advance for the excessively broad question.

Just finished watching the show and was wondering about this specifically.

What are the significant cultural differences between all the germanic peoples, specifically during the dark ages. The only big difference that I know of is that the Norse people stayed mostly pagan throughout the Viking age while the Anglo-Saxons had converted to Christianity.

We are hearing so much about radical Islam lately. What exactly does this refer to? Was this not always a thing - where did this all stem from?

In as serious and respectful a manner as possible, I'm asking what the difference in beliefs is between the people who are blowing things up and those who are just everyday Muslims.

Do the beliefs state that jihads should occur, and that people should be killed under certain circumstances? Are the extremists actually following the Quran (or teachings) word-for-word and peaceful Muslims are ignoring parts of the religion? Is Islam peaceful, but some crazy people just spun it off into violent sects, and if so, do we know why?

Thanks for any insight. I honestly haven't researched the matter very thoroughly - my guess is that Islam is a peaceful religion but, like many others, there are crazies who decide they're to become the wrathful fist of their god.

I think some education on this topic could really help folks, myself included.

I am not sure if this is an appropriate topic for AskHistorians but I want accessible books on the region (if no accessible books are available I will settle for more professional level books).

I am from that region and I would like to know as much as possible about our history.

Thanks.

Also less specifically, are there other notable examples of societies being more advanced than societies in the future, after a significant period of time?