中世纪早期跨度大约为从公元500年至1000年的五百年之间。在此期间，欧洲的大多数地区基督教化，紧随罗马沦陷和9世纪法兰克帝国建立后的欧洲大陆卡洛林文艺复兴其后的就是“黑暗时代”。与崛起的穆斯林世界发达的贸易车队，或者当时世界上人口最多的中国宋朝相比，欧洲仍然蛮荒落后。公元1000年君士坦丁堡已有30万人口，而罗马当时仅剩3 5000人口，巴黎仅有2万人口。伊斯兰世界却拥有一打从西班牙科尔多瓦到中亚的大型城市，前者是当时世界最大城市，拥有45万人口。
The Early Middle Ages span roughly five centuries from 500 to 1000. During this period, most of Europe was Christianized, and the "Dark Ages" following the fall of Rome took place. The establishment of the Frankish Empire by the 9th century gave rise to the Carolingian Renaissance on the continent. Europe still remained a backwater compared to the rising Muslim world, with its vast network of caravan trade, or India with its Golden Period under the Gupta Empire and the Pratiharas or China, at this time the world's most populous empire under the Song Dynasty. By AD 1000, Constantinople had a population of about 300,000, but Rome had a mere 35,000 and Paris 20,000. Islam had over a dozen major cities stretching from Córdoba, Spain, at this time the world's largest city with 450,000 inhabitants, to central Asia.