Interestingly, it was the Arabic conquest of the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa and subsequent control of the sea lanes that cut western Europe off from

Interestingly, it was the Arabic conquest of the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa and subsequent control of the sea lanes that cut western Europe off from the east. Intellectual commerce between east and west was greatly curtailed after the Byzantines started losing badly. It wasn't until the Battle of Lepanto that western Europeans started to have more or less free access to the east again. There is no denying that in western Eurasia the Mediterranean was the seat of high culture and learning until about the 17th century.