the geographical position of the Iberian peninsula helps to explain why the history of Spain and Portugal has in some respects been so different from the rest of Europe. Situated at the western periphery of Europe and much closer than any other part of the continent to Africa, these were the lands which were most affected by the onslaught of Islam. When in the early eighth century the armies of the Prophet crossed the Straits from north Africa they conquered almost the entire Iberian peninsula and they would remain for centuries, transmitting indelible Arabic cultural infuences, more pronounced than anywhere else in Europe. And that was still perceptible in peninsular science of the early modern period. Geography also partly explains why Portugal and Spain were the first European countries to undertake those voyages of discovery which led to the acquisition of world-wide empires. Proximity to Africa, Europe's westernmost Atlantic seaboard, and the prevalence of favourable winds which would propel Columbus from the southern tip of Spain south-west to the Canaries and Caribbean were geographical advantages which assisted the Iberian navigations. And those navigations as well as the empires which resulted from them provided the strongest stimuli for the development of science in Spain and Portugal.

THE ORIENTAL TRADITIONS

Spain was much more affected by Muslim rule than Portugal. The linguistic inheritance indicates that. The Portuguese language has incorporated some 500 Arabic words; Castilian contains around 4,000.