This article is a general introduction to the concept of «science in Al-Andalus». In the first section, the author determines the periods in which science developed in Al-Andalus. He then describes a series of hypotheses involving the role which Al-Andalus played as a bridge throughout the process of transmitting Arab science to Latin Europe, though many works never became known in Europe, because the downfall of the Cordoba Caliphate led to an interruption in the arrival of Oriental scientific sources in Al-Andalus, with very few exceptions. He also highlights the role played by the library of King al-Mu’taman of Saragossa and the important bibliographic collections in Toledo. Last of all, he analyzes the patronage provided by the Church from the tenth to thirteenth centuries, a period when royal patronage arose for the first time, during the reign of Alfonso X.
Al-Andalus, Moorish science, Oriental science, Oriental scientific sources, Cordoba Caliphate, patronage.