40 SCIENCE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. PT. II. 



were going to destroy the last remnant of the science of the 

 Greeks. But it proved otherwise : they went on conquering 

 and destroying till they had overrun all the north of Africa 

 up to the Straits of Gibraltar, had taken a great part of Spain 

 and even of the south of France as far as the river Aude, in 

 Languedoc, and then when Charles Martel, mayor of the 

 Franks, conquered them at Tours in 732, and stopped them 

 from going any farther, they settled down and began to give 

 their attention to science and learning. 



They found in Arabia and in Egypt two classes of people 

 who were able to teach them the science of the Greeks. 

 These were the Nestorians and the Jews. The Nestorians, 

 or followers of Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, were a 

 peculiar sect of Christians, who had fled into Arabia about 

 the year 450, that they might found a Church of their own. 

 They became very powerful and learned, and translated 

 many of the Greek works of science into the Arabian 

 language. The Jews, after the fall of Jerusalem, had also 

 taken refuge in Syria and Mesopotamia, and they were very 

 skilful in medicine, and founded many medical colleges. 

 The Arabian schools of Bagdad, Cairo, Salerno in the south 

 of Italy, and Cordova in Spain, soon became famous all 

 over the world. The Arabs were not able to practise 

 anatomy in their medical schools, because the Koran, that 

 is the Mahommedan Bible, taught that it was not right to 

 dissect the human body, so they turned their attention 

 chiefly to medicine, trying to discover what substances they 

 could extract from plants and minerals, at first to serve as 

 medicines but soon for very different uses. 



Arabian Alchemists. They found something in the old 

 Greek writings about the way to melt stones or minerals, so 

 as to get out of them iron, mercury, and other metals ; and 



