Britt does not mention that the 600s were the era in which the Orthodox Caliphs of Islam took greater
Since the Arab Muslims were from desiccated
….Institutions and social arrangements--how people deal with climate change-- are more important than the change itself. Note that pastoral nomads, who take their herds to pasturage wherever it pops up, have advantages over farming peasants in dry eras. Peasants and urban people defect to tribes, or engage in migrations to regain access to water. Since the Bedouin were such an important social element in early Islam, a shift in social and economic power toward pastoralists would have benefited the new religion.
…Climate history enjoyed a vogue a hundred years ago in areas like Roman history, but became discredited because its practitioners tried to explain too much by it and discounted other important explanations. We should avoid these temptations as new climate information allows another run at weather explanations in history.Manuscript of the collected Theological Works of John VI Kantakouzenos (Constantinople 1370s), today at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris (Ms. grec 1242)