Popular history attributes the fall of classical greek and roman civilization to the barbarians, such as the Visigoths. However, some have claimed that the core of that civilization was still functional when Islam rose out of the Arabian peninsula. Islamic rule took over trade routes, and dominated the Mediterranean for centuries. This virtually shut down shipping and trade routes in and out of Europe from 700 to 1400, including the Silk trade route to china. To what extent is this view of history factual ? I realize that the "Dark ages" themselves are a misnomer, as many trades and skills flourished. However, the pace of thought and innovation seemed to suffer a 700 set back during the dominance of Islam. I would like to know how much of this is coincidence or causal.
Oh, I figure I'll give this favorite question of AH a new go around. It helps keep us sharp to try to explain concepts in new way.
So, presuming Dark Ages = Medieval Era, you got two arguments here for the effect of Islam, one is economic, the second is cultural. Depending upon which one you choose as more important, dictates whether or not the transition from ancient to medieval was traumatic or not, i.e. dark.
Right off the bat, I just want to say that there is no "true" answer, nor is there a "permanent consensus." There are only arguments and politics, which of course actually brings us to larger questions of historiography in general.
If you value complex supraregional economies and complex state infrastructure as the most important thing in the world, then sure, Islam broke the back of a hegemonic political and economic structure based around the city of Rome. But if you value ideological and cultural continuation, then no, Islam does not represent a massive force of change. The changes in western religion and social structure were well on their way before the arabs arrived. Also even if you want to consider change on economic grounds, it is technically under Arab Egypt, that roman structural and governmental continuation was the greatest, compared to Byzantine Anatolia, where political continuation existed, but infrastructurally the entire state changed in less than 100 years.
tl;dr - the dark ages are as dark as you want to make them out to be. everybody has a different opinion on what constitutes dark.