Bingo! As I understand it, the Greek and Latin classics were actually translated into those languages from Arabic.
Bingo! As I understand it, the Greek and Latin classics were actually translated into those languages from Arabic.
That is true in Moorish Spain. However, to credit the Arabs with saving the Greek and Latin texts of Classical times completely ignores the existence of the Byzantine Empire during the West's Dark Ages.
The Byzantine Empire was the direct continuation of the Roman Empire in the East and survived until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.
IN 1439, the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Byzantine Emperor, John VIII Paleologus, were guests of Florence and of Cosimo de Medici at the Echuminical Coucil of Florence. There was a great cultural exchange between Byzantine and Italian Renaissance scholars during this period that did more to diffuse Classical learning in the West than Arabs ever did.