In the intellectual history of the Middle Ages the Saracens played a
remarkable part. When Europe was sunk in the grossest ignorance, this
clever people were actively engaged in the cultivation of science,
learning, and the arts. The schools of Cordova vied with those of Bagdad
in the collection of books and the encouragement of science, and from
them proceeded nearly all that was original in the medicine, physics,
and metaphysics of Europe during the Middle Ages.