"Muslim empires preserved Greek learning" is a half-truth, because the medieval Latins traded more with the Arabs than they did with Byzantium. Thus when they got Aristotle etc. it tended to be from Arab sources, even though Constantinople had much better copies.
ffgjgf1|1 year ago
That’s really not even remotely true. The Empire was the primary foreign market for all the Italian merchant republics.
They almost always had a significant presence in Constantinople and in later periods almost controlled internal trade in the empire.
The Venetians especially were highly reliant on their trade with Constantinople until quite late.