Euclid probably studied at Athens, for until he himself assisted in transferring the center of mathematical culture to Alexandria, it had long been in the Grecian capital, indeed since the time of Pythagoras. Moreover, numerous attempts had been made at Athens to do exactly what Euclid succeeded in doing,--to construct a logical sequence of propositions; in other words, to write a textbook on plane geometry. It was at Athens, therefore, that he could best have received the inspiration to compose his "Elements."[28] After finishing his education at Athens it is quite probable that he, like other savants of the period, was called to Alexandria by Ptolemy Soter, the king, to assist in establishing the great school which made that city the center of the world's learning for several centuries. In this school he taught, and here he wrote the "Elements" and numerous other works, perhaps ten in all. Although the Greek writers who may have known something of the life of Euclid have little to say of him, the Arab writers, who could have known nothing save from Greek sources, have allowed their imaginations the usual latitude in speaking of him and of his labors. Thus Al-Qif[t.][=i], who wrote in the thirteenth century, has this to say in his biographical treatise "Ta'r[=i]kh al-[H.]ukam[=a]": Euclid, son of Naucrates, grandson of Zenarchus, called the author of geometry, a Greek by nationality, domiciled at Damascus, born at Tyre, most learned in the science of geometry, published a most excellent and most useful work entitled "The Foundation or Elements of Geometry," a subject in which no more general treatise existed before among the Greeks; nay, there was no one even of later date who did not walk in his footsteps and frankly profess his doctrine. This is rather a specimen of the Arab tendency to manufacture history than a serious contribution to the biography of Euclid, of whose personal history we have only the information given by Proclus. [Illustration: EUCLID From an old print]