summations of classical learning made it immensely popular throughout the Middle Ages. The work of Isidore and other scholars created a lively and distinctive intellectual tradition which was able to survive centuries of Arab domination and exert a considerable influence throughout Europe.
The most dynamic cultural life was to be found in the areas conquered by the Arabs in the Levant and Spain. The study of Greek science, philosophy, and medicine were maintained at a high level, particularly through the medium of Syriac. Islamic civilization owed its richness and cosmopolitanism to its take-over of Hellenistic and Persian traditions as well as the prosperity and order of Muslim society, and dazzling heights were attained in art and literature at the court of the Abbasids in Baghdad. Islamic culture was not solely derivative, as the period also produced extensive poetry in Arabic, which held a revered status as the language of the Koran.
The beleaguered empire of Byzantium had a much rougher ride. Even so secular education continued on a scale unknown in the west, since it remained the key to employment in the bureaucracy, and classical Greek texts continued to be studied and copied. On the other hand, there was a drastic decline in the literary public in the seventh and eighth centuries and also in literary production, particularly in many of the secular genres favoured in the ancient world. Despite the gradual introduction of a cheaper writing material (paper instead of parchment) and of a more compact 'miniscule' script, books remained scarce and beyond the reach of all but the richest readers; a manuscript of 400 leaves could cost half the annual salary of a high-ranking civil servant. Two developments in particular transformed the intellectual life of Byzantium. One was the collapse of cultural life in the provinces and its concentration on Constantinople which became a magnet for all aspiring intellectuals. The other development was the greater involvement of the Church in education, reflected for example in the role of the Studite monastery in Constantinople, although the hypothesis of a 'patriarchal academy' is now rejected. Representative of the new integration of secular and ecclesiastical' cultural concerns were the two most eminent
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