The First Crusade: from Northern Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean

Slides: 

#16-from Northern Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean

Lecture:

  • November 4th at 10:30 am
  • Optional background reading for the lecture: World History, Chapter 8, pages 328-329; Chapter 12, pages 442-447.

FOCUS LECTURE: The Pax Mongolica and the Exchange of Knowledge

Slides:

#17-Pax Mongolica and Medicine

Lecture:

  • November 6th at 10:30 am
  • No reading.

Assignments

  • Research Assignment #4 is due November 6th. For more information, see: Step Four: Using Journal Articles
  • Don’t forget to post your response to our weekly discussion question on Moodle! You have until Sunday November 10th at midnight to get it done. 

Tutorials this week

Tutorials this week will focus on the topics Trade Routes and Mongols.

Readings (all available in Sources for the Frameworks of World History):

  • 8.4 “Worldly Travellers: from Travels by Ibn Battuta”
  • 10.2 The Book of Routes and Realms by al-Bakri
  • 13.1a The Secret History of the Mongols
  • 13.1b Ibn al-Athir, The Perfect History

Questions to think about:

  • What can we learn about Ibn Battuta from the story of his travels? Compare his discussion of East Africa to that of Al-Bakri for North Africa. Does it matter that Ibn Battuta went to East Africa and Al-Bakri did not go to North Africa? Why or why not?
  • “The Secret History of the Mongols” is an invaluable historical source as it provides us with one of the few written documents that relates to the early history of the Mongols from their perspective. How are the Mongols represented in this document? What values do they seem to hold important in their society? How are women represented?