Links forged through conquest, diplomacy, pilgrimage and trade brought peoples of both faiths into frequent contact – sharing inventions such as paper and the abacus, while merchants travelled throughout the Mediterranean trading textiles, furs, spices, incense, ivory and even slaves. Yet despite these fruitful interactions, Christians viewed Muslims as bloodthirsty pagans, and Islam looked on Christendom with scorn as a jumble of confused sects. As Richard Fletcher argues, it was this failure to understand each other that spurred them into frequent and bloody conflicts.