Buddhist writings were not written down until centuries after Buddha's death. The Buddha's teachings were retained in the early Buddhist writings in a manner that reflected their oral transmission, with frequent repetitions, standardized phrases, and poetic rhythms. The first written evidence of the existence of such texts is contained in Chinese histories from about A.D. 150. After the fall of Rome, Europe entered a dark period known as the "Middle Ages". During this time, literacy was limited to an elite class of priests and monks who preserved important documents by hand. It was not until the 10th century that another writing system emerged to replace the ancient Roman alphabet: Arabic. In the late 11th century, a Persian-speaking Christian monk named Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jaraisa invented a new script called "Modern Hebrew" to record Jewish prayers. This began a period of creative activity among Jews and Christians that would lead to the development of many other languages including Italian, Spanish, French, German, and English. Buddha preached his message between 563 B.C. and 479 B.C., but did not write anything down during his lifetime. Only after his passing did followers start writing down his words. The first written account of Buddhism comes from India where it became one of the three major schools of Hinduism along with Jainism and Brahmanism.