There is an Arab proverb, quoted by U. Rizzitano, which says that "science is a grain seed which sprouted in Medina, was winnowed in Baghdad, ground in Kairouan, sifted in Cordova and eaten in Fez." Although somee important steps in this imaginary journey of science are missing, it would be difficult to find another metaphor which evokes more succinctly the process of transmission of oriental culture to the Western world. It is our aim to observe the vicissitudes of this transfer of knowledge within the area of the western Mediterranean a little more closely, but not before providíng the background of polítical hisrory which is essential to an understanding of this momentous event. Wíth the occupation of Visigothic Híspania in 711, the Islamíc Empire reached the westernmost contlnes of the known world. The subsequent conquest of Sicily (827-878) converted the western Mediterranean into a true pot where oriental influences mingled with those from to produce a cultural amalgam of extraordinary vitality. Thanks to the profound impact of Islamic culture, the Iberian peninsula and Sicily, which belonged to Christendom, were effective channels tor the transmission to Western Europe of the cultural heritage of antiquity, as translated and commented upon by Muslims. In this sense, the 'seed' of science, to carry on the metaphor quoted aboye, was finally digested in the Western world, thereby making the intellectual life of the first European universities more fertile.

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