Moslem whose translated writings had great influence on Europe was
Averroes (1126-1198) who tried to unite the philosophy of Aristotle with
Mohammedanism (R. 88). His influence on the thinkers of the later Middle
Ages was large, he being regarded as the greatest commentator on Aristotle
from the days of Rome to the time of the Renaissance.

[Illustration: FIG. 52. ARISTOTLE]

What Europe obtained through Moslem sources which it prized most, though,
was the commentary on Aristotle by Averroes and the works of Aristotle (R.
88). The list of the books of Aristotle in use in the mediaeval
universities by 1300 (R. 87) reveals the great importance of the additions
made. By the middle of the twelfth century Aristotle's _Ethics_,
_Metaphysics_, _Physics_, and _Psychology_, as well as some of his minor
works, had been translated into Latin and were beginning to be made
available for study. The translation route through which these works had
been derived was a roundabout one--Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Castilian,
Latin--and hence the translations could not be very accurate, but they
sufficed for the needs of Europe until the original Greek versions were
recovered when the Venetians and Crusaders took and sacked Constantinople,
in 1204. These were then translated directly into the Latin. Western
Europe also was ready to use the Arabic (Hindu) system of notation, the
elements of algebra, Euclid's geometry, and Ptolemy's work on the motion
of the heavens. These contributions western Europe was ready for; the
larger scientific knowledge of the Saracens, their pharmacopoeias,
dictionaries, cyclopaedias, histories, and biographies, it was not yet
ready to receive.

One other influence crept in from these peoples which was of large future
importance--the music and light literature and love songs of Spain. There