_Nestorian Christians_, from the city. These Nestorians now fled to the
old Syrian cities, which early had been so hospitable to Greek learning
and thinking. [2] Being now beyond the reach of Christian intolerance and
in a friendly atmosphere, they remained there, developing excellent higher
schools of the old Greek type, and there the Mohammedans found them when
they overran Syria, in 635 A.D.

Mohammedanism now came in contact with an educated people, as it did also
in Babylonia (637), in Assyria (640), and in Egypt (642), and the need of
a better statement of the somewhat crude faith now became evident. The
same process now took place as had occurred earlier with Christianity. The
Nestorian Christians and the Syrian monks became the scholars for the
Mohammedans, and the Mohammedan faith was clothed in Greek forms and
received a thorough tincturing of Greek philosophic thought. Within a
century they had translated from Syriac into Arabic, or from the original
Greek, much of the old Greek learning in philosophy, science, and
medicine, and the cities of Syria, and in particular their capital,
Damascus, became renowned for their learning. In 760 Bagdad, on the
Tigris, was founded, and superseded Damascus as the capital. Extending
eastward, these people were soon busy absorbing Hindu mathematical
knowledge, obtaining from them (c. 800) the so-called Arabic notation and
algebra.

THEY DEVELOP SCHOOLS AND ADVANCE LEARNING. In 786 Haroun-al-Raschid became
Caliph at Bagdad, and he and his son made it an intellectual center of
first importance. In all the known world probably no city, not even
Constantinople, during the latter part of the eighth century and most of
the ninth, could vie with Bagdad as a center of learning. Basra, Kufa, and
other eastern cities were also noted places. Schools were opened in
connection with the mosques (churches), a university after the old Greek