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244 A Short History of The World scientific Greek literature, preserved not only in Greek but in Syrian translations. It found Greek learning in Egypt also. Everywhere, and particularly in Spain, it discovered an active Jewish tradition of speculation and discussion. In Central Asia it met Buddhism and the material achievements of Chinese civilization. It learnt the manufacture of paper — which made printed books possible — ^from the Chinese. And finally it came into touch with Indian mathe- matics and philosophy. Very speedily the intolerant self-sufficiency of the early days of faith, which made the Koran seem the only possible book, was dropped. Learning sprang up everywhere in the footsteps of the Arab con- querors. By the eighth century there was an educational organiza- tion throughout the whole " Arabized " world. In the ninth learned men in the schools of Cordoba in Spain were corresponding with learned men in Cairo, Bagdad, Bokhara and Samarkand. The Jewish mind assimilated very readily with the Arab, and for a time ,^„ I'tiuto : Lchn,.r ib- La JERUSALEM, SHOWING THEilMOSQUE OF OMAR