Ways and Means of Science in Medieval Spain

Abstract

The concept of tolerance initially advanced by the Arabs in both the East and the Iberian peninsula, an ideal later continued at the time of the Reconquest by Spanish Christians, was the key to the transmission of Greek science to the West. This paper examines the far-reaching and peculiar ways in which both Christians and Muslims fostered on Spanish soil a thriving intellectual life in the low Middle Ages. Particular attention is given to the rich personality and precociously modern achievements of King Alfonso X, with his vast project of cultural empowerment on behalf of his subjects.