Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"He is known both for his original works and for translating many important Arabic and Greek scientific works of astrology, astronomy, philosophy and mathematics into Latin from Arabic versions, which were then introduced to Western Europe. He is known as one of the first to introduce the Arabic numeral system to Europe. He stands at the convergence of three intellectual schools: the traditional learning of French schools, the Greek culture of Southern Italy, and the Arabic science of the East. . . . Adelard also travelled extensively throughout the "lands of the Crusades": Greece, West Asia, Sicily, Spain, Tarsus, Antioch and potentially Palestine. The time spent in these areas would help explain his fascination with mathematics and his access to Arabic scholars. By 1126, Adelard returned to the West with the intention of spreading the knowledge he had gained about Arab astronomy and geometry to the Latin world." [Wikipedia] "Adelard left his native England a young scholar thirsting for wisdom only the Arabs could supply. He would return as the first Western man of science and help change his world forever." [Lyons: House of Wisdom, p. 3]