His 122
Spring 2014
Dr. Hutton
NVC
Paper #2 Assignment
Due: Tuesday, May 20
Write an essay of 3 to 5 pages in length (double-spaced) addressing this question:
The period between 1000 and 1400 has often been interpreted as a time of great
religious conflict. Some historians have argued that the violence of the period was due
to a “clash of civilizations” between Europe and Islam. Other historians emphasize trade
contacts and coexistence in the “Mediterranean world.” To what extent did religious
differences divide people of Christendom and the Muslim world? Were there other
factors that led Latin Christian rulers to conquer Muslim kingdoms? Were the trade and
other contacts between Christians and Muslims in the Mediterranean world more or less
important than the Crusades and other conflicts between Christians and Muslims?
Sources:
Fulcher of Chartres, “Pope Urban Calls for a Crusade,” in Translations and Reprints from
the Original Sources of European History (Philadelphia: University of Pennslyvania
Press, 1897), vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 5-8 – In Crusades Perspectives on course website.
Usamah Ibn Munqidh, An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the
Crusades,
trans. Philip K. Hitti (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 160-70.
Ibn Jubayr, “Description of Sicily, 1184,” in Medieval Italy: Texts in Translation, eds.
Katherine L. Jansen, Joanna Drell, and Frances Andrews (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010), 234-5.
Geoffrey Malaterra, The Deeds of Count Roger of Calabria & Sicily & of Duke Robert
Guiscard his brother,” translated by Graham A. Loud,
http://www.medievalsicily.com/Docs/03_ Norman_Conquest/Malaterra - In Crusades
Perspectives on course website.
Emanuel Piloti, “Description of trade through Cairo,” in Cairo, City of Art and
Commerce, by Gaston Wiet (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964), 61.
Pope Innocent III, “License to Venice to Trade With The Saracens, 1198,” in A Source
Book for Medieval Economic History, ed. Roy C. Cave & Herbert H. Coulson
(Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936; reprint ed., New York: Biblo &
Tannen, 1965), pp. 104-105.
James, King of Aragon, The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon: A Translation of
the Medieval Catalan Llibre dels Fets, translated by Damian J. Smith and
Helena Buffery (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2003), 1-3 – on course
website.
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You should use at least one quotation (direct or indirect) from at least four (4) of
these sources.
This assignment was written with the intention that you would not have to do any
outside research to write the paper. If you do use outside sources, please include them
on your bibliography. You may not use any internet sources, unless they are primary
source documents.
Writing Guide for History Papers
The key elements of a history paper are the argumentative thesis, argument
development, evidence and historical context.
Argumentative Thesis
Your argumentative thesis must be analytical and interpretive. “Galileo’s ideas
challenged the Church’s worldview” is not a thesis. “Galileo’s ideas challenged the
Church’s worldview because they contradicted the basis of its authority” is a thesis. If
you have a simple idea, try adding “because” and a good reason after it. Another type of
argumentative thesis relates a theme in a primary source to a pattern or problem in the
wider society. For example, “Galileo’s writing widely publicized contradictions to the
Bible, church fathers, and Greek scientists, at a time when the Catholic Church was trying
to strengthen its authority after the shocks of the Reformation.”
Argument Development
There should be three or four major points which support your argument. Each point
should be the topic sentence of a body paragraph. Each body paragraph should begin
with a clear statement of the point. Then support that point with specific evidence and
analysis. At the end of the paragraph, you need a concluding sentence restating your
point and making a transition to your next sub-argument.
Historical Context
Identify each source by its author, title and date and explain the background of the
writer, his or her audience and the historical circumstances surrounding the document.
This does not have to be a long description. An example for Ibn Battuta would be: “Ibn
Battuta, the great fourteenth-century Muslim traveler, thought the people of Quanzhou,
the huge Chinese entrepôt, were ....”
Evidence
The major difference between a history paper and an English paper is that you are
expected to add much more specific evidence in a history paper. Try for four to six
sentences of specific evidence – names, dates, places, names of laws, institutions, battles,
etc. – in each paragraph. Use direct quotations from the primary sources, but keep
them short (three or four lines at most.) Use indirect quotations for evidence from
secondary sources, like the Tignor textbook or the introductions in the reader, but be
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careful to choose statements that are really evidence (i.e. specific) and not just
generalizations.
When you are quoting indirectly (rewriting the evidence in your own words), do not copy
more than two words in a row from the original source and change the entire structure
of the sentence.
For example, here is a direct quote from a primary source written by Benjamin Franklin:
Franklin observed, “Between one and two o’clock, all eyes were gratified with seeing
it [the balloon] rise majestically from among the trees, and ascend gradually above
the buildings, a most beautiful spectacle.”1
Here is the same evidence rewritten in my own words as an indirect quotation:
Benjamin Franklin, who was present at the launch, described the thrill he and the
other spectators felt as they watched the balloon rise up from the wooded park.2
Footnotes or endnotes are required for all quotations. Use the Chicago style;
parenthetical citations are not used in history. See the guide, “How to Do Footnotes,” for
complete instructions. If you use endnotes, make sure that the endnotes print out on a
separate page which is entitled “Endnotes.” You only need to cite my lectures when you
are repeating what I said word for word, or you are paraphrasing one of my arguments
(i.e. not just factual information.)
Your paper should also have a bibliography page.
All papers should be double-spaced in 10- or 12-point font, and printed on one side of
the paper only.
Papers should be handed in at the beginning of lecture on the day that it is due. Papers
turned in after the beginning of the lecture are late. For each day the paper is late, you
will receive a 1/3 letter grade deduction. This means that if the paper originally earned a
“B+” and was one day late, it will then receive a “B.” If the paper was two days late it will
then receive a “B-,” etc.
Benjamin Franklin, “To Sir Joseph Banks,” in Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader, Volume Two:
Since 1400, ed. Kevin Reilly, 3rd ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007), 188.
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Franklin, “To Sir Joseph Banks,” 188.
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