=The First Contact of the Two Civilizations.= From the beginning of the Middle Ages the point of contact between the two civilizations was either war or commerce. The Jew was the globe-trotter of that day, and was constantly bringing into Europe reports of Arabian civilization. He was a philosopher, a monotheist, a Semite, like the Arab, and he had an interest in more than commercial matters. About the end of the Early Period of the Middle Ages he found it profitable to make first Hebrew and then Latin translations of Arabian learning, and to sell them in Europe. In this form, between 1000 and 1100, medical and astronomical knowledge entered Europe. Greek philosophical writings came next in translations from the Arabic, which had previously been translated from the Syriac. Thus for the two hundred years, between 1000 and 1200, the Christian schools were beginning to read portions of Greek philosophy in Latin, which had previously passed through Syriac and Arabian (and sometimes Hebrew) translations. Before 1200, there were none but these Arabic versions. A pertinent example of these was the works of Aristotle. Before 1200 all of Aristotle’s writings, except the _Organon_, appeared in Europe in this form, and the _Organon_ as a whole was not known until 1150. In 1125 some of Aristotle’s physics was known by the school of Chartres; in 1200 all the physics, metaphysics, and ethics were known in translations from the Latin and Hebrew. These were accompanied by Arabian commentaries, which interpreted Aristotle as if he were a neo-Platonic pantheist. There were many churchmen interested in the work of translation, as, for example, Gerbert, and Raymond of Toledo. Roger II of Sicily (d. 1154) and Frederick II (d. 1250) had their courts filled with Arabian philosophers. Frederick had many translations made and presented to the Universities of Oxford, Paris, and Bologna. Thus the influence of the Arabian upon the Christian culture before the Classic Period of the Middle Ages was not inconsiderable. But this must be said of Arabian culture――it was mainly borrowed. Arabia[59] acted merely as a transmitter of the materials of knowledge from the Greeks and Hindoos; and so far as philosophy was concerned, the Arab was returning to Europe, in a perverted form, the Aristotle which had been deposited with him centuries before. The Mohammedans were the world’s carriers of a considerable body of science and of many new agricultural products; and of the amount which they introduced into Europe only a small portion was their own. At the end of the twelfth century the Christian at Rome and York was richer in the principles of discovery, but poorer in the amount of traditional learning and of scientific wealth, than the Mohammedan at Bagdad and Cordova.