CHAPTER VIII 

 HINDU AND 'ARABIAN SCIENCE. THE MOORS IN SPAIN 



The grandest achievement of the Hindus and the one which, 

 of all mathematical investigations, has contributed most to the 

 general progress of intelligence, is the invention of the principle of 

 position in writing numbers. Cajori. 



Indeed, if one understands by algebra the application of arith- 

 metical operations to composite magnitudes of all kinds, whether they 

 be rational or irrational number or space magnitudes, then the learned 

 Brahmins of Hindustan are the true inventors of algebra. Hankel. 



In the ninth century the School of Bagdad began to flourish, just 

 when the Schools of Christendom were falling into decay in the West 

 and into decrepitude in the East. The newly-awakened Moslem in- 

 tellect busied itself at first chiefly with Mathematics and Medical 

 Science ; afterwards Aristotle threw his spell upon it, and an immense 

 system of orientalized Aristotelianism was the result. From the 

 East, Moslem learning was carried to Spain ; and from Spain Aristotle 

 reentered Northern Europe once more, and revolutionized the intel- 

 lectual life of Christendom far more completely than he had revolu- 

 tionized the intellectual life of Islam. Rashdall. 



ALEXANDRIA fell to the Arabs in 641 A.D. As a matter of his- 

 torical perspective it is noteworthy that the interval between its 

 foundation by Alexander the Great and its capture by the 

 Mohammedans, during most of which period it was the in- 

 tellectual centre of the world, is almost equal to that between 

 Charlemagne's time and our own. 



The preservation and transmission of portions of Greek science 

 through the Dark Ages to the dawn of science in western Europe 

 about 1200 A.D. was mainly effected through three distinct, though 

 not quite independent, channels. First, there was to a limited 

 extent a direct inheritance of ancient learning within the Italian 

 peninsula, through all its political and military turmoil. Second, 

 a substantial legacy was received indirectly through the Moors 

 in Spain ; while, third, additions of great importance came later 



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