The Mongol Empire
Slides:
Lecture:
- November 13th at 10:30 am
- Optional Reading: World History, Chapter 11
Vikings and Climate Change
Slides:
#20-Vikings and Climate Change
Lecture:
- November 15th at 10:30 am
- No reading.
Tutorials this week
Readings (all available in Worlds of History):
- Fulcher of Chartres, “The First Crusade: Pope Urban’s Speech at Clermont” (Chapter 10, Reading 3)
- Chronicle of Solomon bar Simson (Chapter 10, Reading4)
- Ibn al-Athir, “A Muslim History of the First Crusade” (Chapter 10, Reading 5)
- Ibn al-Athir, “The Conquest of Jerusalem” (Chapter 10, Reading 6)
Questions to think about:
- All of the above readings provide us with different perspectives on the back story to the First Crusade. Fulcher highlights the role of the pope in encouraging French warriors to go on crusade whereas Ibn al-Athir emphasizes territorial conflict and political intrigues. Solomon bar Simson describes Christian Crusaders attacking a Jewish community in Germany on their way to the Holy Land. Fulcher writes from the perspective of a French Christian present at the Council of Clermont, Ibn al-Athir from that of a Muslim historian, writing more than 100 years after these events took place. We know nothing about Solomon bar Simson other than he was connected to the Jewish community in Speyer who was attacked. Yet all of these documents are equally useful for our understanding of the First Crusade. Why and how? What can we learn from them?