As to Michael Scot we may feel sure that he was every whit as eager as his master could be to honour the philosopher’s memory and to gain a nearer acquaintance with his writings. The manuscript in the Laurentian library to which we have already referred[159] speaks, it will be remembered, of a visit paid by Scot to the city of Cordova. It is not difficult to determine with a high degree of probability the reason that may have led him thither. Had he lived three hundred years earlier indeed, the fame of Cordova as a centre of learning might well have proved a sufficient attraction to account for this journey. In the tenth century that city shone as the seat of a great Jewish school: one of those lately transferred to Spain from the eastern cities of Pombeditha and Sura. The Caliph Hakim, under whose protection this change took place, gave royal encouragement to the learned men who came to Cordova. Thousands of students assembled in the great Mosque, and Hakim collected for their use a magnificent library which was said to contain four hundred thousand volumes. Al Mansour, however, who succeeded to Hakim’s throne, fell under the influence of orthodox scruples. He burnt much of the great library, and the rest perished at the disastrous sack of Cordova in the following century. The ruin of the Rabbinical academies was completed a little later by the cruel edict of Abd-el-Mumen, who expelled the Jews from his realm. The most famous teachers of Cordova and Lucena then betook themselves to Castile. Alphonso VII. received them kindly and gave them liberty to settle in his capital. These events took place before 1150, and from that date the ancient schools which had given such fame to Cordova and Lucena became one of the chief attractions of Toledo.