with the division of the roman empire the western roman empire lost contact with much of its past in the middle east greek philosophy was able to find some support under the newly created arab empire with the spread of lslam in the 7th and 8th centuries a period of muslim scholarship known as the lslamic golden age lasted until the 13th century this scholarship was aided by several factors the use of a single language arabic allowed communication without need of a translator access to greek texts from the byzantine empire along with indian sources of learning provided muslim scholars a knowledge base to build upon while the byzantine empire still held learning centers such as constantinople western europe knowledge was concentrated in monasteries until the development of medieval universities in the 12th and 13th centuries the curriculum of monastic schools included the study of the few
available ancient texts and of new works on practical subjects like medicine and timekeeping