I had a professor that argued there never was a dark age in Europe because there was always some sort of cultural spark somewhere in Europe. Myself, I don't really like the term simply because it implies that nothing good at all happened anywhere in Europe. The Moors were either writing or perpetuating the use of medical dictionaries at the time though. That's not dark or bad. The events in politics and in war that were setting in motion the arrival at nations that still exist were unfolding too, not necessarily dark or bad... So why the term dark ages? What makes it so dark an age?