m entrenched itself
towards the end of the 12th century in the narrow orthodoxy of the
Asharites, and reduced the votaries of Greek philosophy to silence.

In Spain.

The same phenomena were repeated in Spain under the Mahommedan rulers of
Andalusia and Morocco, with this difference, that the time of
philosophical development was shorter, and the heights to which Spanish
thinkers soared were greater. The reign of al-Hakam the Second (961-976)
inaugurated in Andalusia those scientific and philosophical studies
which were simultaneously prosecuted by the Society of Basra. From
Cairo, Bagdad, Damascus and Alexandria, books both old and new were
procured at any price for the library of the prince; twenty-seven free
schools were opened in Cordova for the education of the poor; and
intelligent knowledge was perhaps more widely diffused in Mahommedan
Spain than in any other part of Europe at that day. The mosques of the
city were filled with crowds who listened to lectures on science and
literature, law and religion. But the future glory thus promised was
long postponed. The usurping successor of Hakam found it a politic step
to request the most notable doctors of the sacred law to examine the
royal library; and every book treating of philosophy, astronomy and
other forbidden topics was condemned to the flames. But the spirit of
research, fostered by the fusion of races and the social and
intellectual competition thus engendered, was not crushed by these
proceedings; and for the next century and more the higher minds of Spain
found in Damascus and Bagdad the intellectual aliment which they
desired. At last, towards the close of the 11th century, the long-pent
spiritual energies of Mahommedan Spain burst forth in a brief series of
illustrious men. Whilst the native Spaniards were narrowing the limits
of the Moorish kingdoms, and whilst the generally fanatical dynasty of
the Almohades might have been expected to repress speculation, the
century preceding the close of Mahommedan sway saw philosophy cultivated
by Avempace, Abubacer and Averroes. Even amongst the Almohades there
were princes, such as Yusuf (who began his reign in 1163) and Yaqub
Almansur (who succeeded in 1184), who welcomed the philosopher at their
courts and treated him as an intellectual compeer. But about 1195 the
old distrust of philosophy revived; the philosophers were banished in
disgrace; works on philosophical topics were ordered to be confiscated
an