SCIENCE IN THE DARK AGE 



in the twelfth century, did not know a word of Greek 

 and was obliged to gain his knowledge of the master 

 through a Syriac translation; or, as others alleged 

 (denying that he knew even Syriac), through an 

 Arabic version translated from the Syriac. We know, 

 too, that the famous chronology of Eusebius was 

 preserved through an Armenian translation; and ref- 

 erence has more than once been made to the Arabic 

 translation of Ptolemy's great work, to which we still 

 apply its Arabic title of Almagest. 



The familiar story that when the Arabs invaded. 

 Egypt they burned the Alexandrian library is now 

 regarded as an invention of later times. It seems 

 much more probable that the library had been largely 

 scattered before the coming of the Moslems. Indeed, 

 it has even been suggested that the Christians of an 

 earlier day removed the records of pagan thought. 

 Be that as it may, the famous Alexandrian library 

 had disappeared long before the revival of interest in 

 classical learning. Meanwhile, as we have said, the 

 Arabs, far from destroying the western literature, were 

 its chief preservers. Partly at least because of their 

 regard for the records of the creative work of earlier 

 generations of alien peoples, the Arabs were enabled 

 to outstrip their contemporaries. For it cannot be 

 in doubt that, during that long stretch of time when 

 the western world was ignoring science altogether 

 or at most contenting itself with the casual reading 

 of Aristotle and Pliny, the Arabs had the unique 

 distinction of attempting original investigations in 

 science. To them were due all important progres- 

 sive steps which were made in any scientific field 



ii 



