The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c11.3

c11.3

There were many opportunities for such knowledge to reach Spain and Italy. In the first place the Moors went into Spain as helpers of a claimant of the throne, and remained as conquerors. The power of the Goths, who had held Spain for three centuries, was shattered at the battle of Jerez de la Frontera in 711, and almost immediately the Moors became masters of Spain and so remained for five hundred years, and masters of Granada for a much longer period. Until 850 the Christians were absolutely free as to religion and as to holding political office, so that priests and monks were not infrequently skilled both in Latin and Arabic, acting as official translators, and naturally reporting directly or indirectly to Rome. There was indeed at this time a complaint that Christian youths cultivated too assiduously a love for the literature of the Saracen, and married too frequently the daughters of the infidel.¹ It is true that this happy state of affairs was not permanent, but while it lasted the learning and the customs of the East must have become more or less the property of Christian Spain. At this time the ġobār numerals were probably in that country, and these may well have made their way into Europe from the schools of Cordova, Granada, and Toledo.