In Moorish Spain, there was room both for earnest piety and the sensuous delights of music and art; and the keen exercise of the intellect in science or philosophy did not debar the possession of practical statesmanship and skill in affairs.

In the service of the caliphs were politicians who were also doctors, poets, philosophers, men of science.

Possession of culture was, indeed, a sure credential for employment by the state.

It was to Moorish Spain that the centre of Judaism shifted after the death of Saadiah.

It was in Spain that the finest fruit of Jewish literature in the post-Biblical period grew.