The Greek language became the tongue of all government and literature
throughout many countries where the people were not Greek by birth.
Throughout Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt the Hellenic character that was
thus imparted remained in full vigor down to the time of the Mohammedan
conquests; and the early growth and progress of Christianity were aided
by that diffusion of the Greek language and civilization.
Beyond the Euphrates, Grecian influences largely modified Hindu science
and philosophy and the later Persian literature. The intellectual
influence of ancient Greece, poured on the Eastern world by Alexander’s
victories, was brought back to bear on Mediæval Europe through the
Saracenic conquests. The learning and science of the Arabians,
communicated at that epoch to the western parts of Europe, were merely
the reproduction, in an altered form, of the Greek philosophy and the
Greek learning acquired by the Saracenic conquerors along with the
territory of the provinces which Alexander had subjugated, nearly a
thousand years before the armed disciples of Mohammed began their career
in the East.