ABSTRACT
Science is practiced across the globe, and communication between scientists in different countries is quick, particularly with the rise of the Internet. Out of the cultural matrix of the Mediterranean, however, modern science was formed in the contact between civilizations. From the eighth to the tenth centuries, the dominant military and economic power in the Mediterranean world was the Islamic Caliphate. The desire to explore and eventually expand the scientific tradition was driven in part by Islam itself, which endorsed the seeking of knowledge as a religious duty. Sciences drawn from the ancient Greek and other pre- and non Islamic traditions were known as "foreign sciences" or "ancient sciences." They were distinguished from "Islamic sciences," which included such studies as Sharia, Quranic interpretation, Arabic grammar, and similar disciplines. Both Arabs and Latins drew on the heritage of ancient Greek science. The irony was that both far excelled the Greeks of their own times scientifically.
