The Hellenistic period began in the 4th century BC with Alexander's conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean, including Egypt, as well as Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau. Greek became the language of scholarship throughout the Hellenistic world, and Greek mathematics merged with Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics to give rise to Hellenistic mathematics. In turn, Hellenistic mathematics had an influence on Islamic mathematics (which merged it with Indian mathematics). As such, Hellenistic mathematics played an important role in the history of mathematics.