Empire
Islam: Empire of Faith: The Awakening
PROGRAMME LENGTH
1 hour
SCREENING DETAILS
Monday April 26th at 9.30am EST/ NZ
This series surveys the history of the Islamic Empire.
Part 2 deals with the growth of the Islamic Empire, the spread of Islamic culture and the
impact of the Islamic Empire on Europe.
This program will be of use and interest to all Religious Studies students. It will also be a good
introduction for students of the Middle Ages, Crusades and Islam.
Denis Mootz
STAYING FOCUSED.
This is the data collection stage of the activity.
The detailed questioning is designed to ensure that students decode the visual and aural materials
presented to them in the video.
The video programs can be stopped at the end of each section. This will allow students to share and
discuss answers.
Introduction.
Note the details of the Islamic Empire provided in the introduction.
In what ways was this empire different from its predecessors?
Note the meaning of the Arabic word Fatu.
Act 1.
Why do the faithful undertake the Haj?
What does the Haj represent?
What impact did the Haj have on the world?
Note the importance of trade in this empire.
Note the extent of the Islamic Empire.
Note details of the city of Baghdad.
Why was Baghdad the ‘jewel of the world’? Result?
What problems faced the rulers of the Islamic Empire? Result?
What was the “House of Wisdom”?
From where did the scholars come? Result?
What was the ‘challenge’ posed for these scholars? Result?
What advantage did the Muslim scholars have over Christians at this time? Result?
From where does our mathematics come?
What legacy was translated into Arabic? Result?
What was the most important contribution of these Muslim scholars? Result?
What was the ‘new’ Islamic ‘science’? Result?
Note the medical innovations of the Islamic scholars.
Note details of Muslim hospitals.
What particularly interested Muslim scholars about the human body? Result?
How was this vast knowledge shared? Result?
Act 2.
Note the impact of the use of paper.
Note details of the Islamic culture in southern Spain.
Note details of the city of Cordoba.
Why were European visitors impressed by Cordoba?
Note details of the Mezquita.
How is it claimed that this mosque influenced Christian Europe?
How else did Cordoba impress European Christians?
Note details of the Alhambra.
Why did the Alhambra impress European visitors?
Note the situation in Jerusalem in 1000CE.
Why did this change in 1009? Result?
How did the European Christian Church respond to this outrageous act? Result?
Why did Urban 11 call for a ‘crusade’ against Islam? Result?
Why was the Arab / Islamic Empire weak at this time?
Note details of the crusaders actions in the ‘Holy Land’.
How did the Muslims respond to the actions of the ‘Franks’?
Act 3.
Note how the crusaders ruled the ‘Holy Land’.
Note details of the crusaders’ castles.
How did the crusaders respond to the culture of Islam?
What impact did the crusaders have on the Islamic Empire?
Note the details of the spread of Islamic faith and culture.
What united the Islamic Empire?
How was business revolutionized? Implications? Result?
Note details of Islamic steel making.
Note details of Islamic textile craft and craftsmanship.
Why did Europeans covet Islamic cloth? Result?
Note details of Saladin.
Why was Saladin successful where others had failed?
Note details of the Battle of Hattin. Result?
How did Saladin act when in control of Jerusalem?
What impact did the returning crusaders have on Europe? Result?
How did the ideas from the Islamic Empire make their way into Europe?
Note details of the impact of Averroes.
Act 4.
Note the details of the Mongol invasion upon the Islamic Empire.
Note the impact of the Mongol invasion upon the Islamic Empire.
Note the Mongol use of ‘terror’. Result?
When did Baghdad fall to the Mongols? Result?
Why didn’t the Islamic civilisation disappear under the impact of the Mongols? Result?
How did the Mongol leaders transform Islam? Result?
EXTENSIONS.
Useful, interesting, challenging, books, sources and websites will provide materials to supplement and
complement the History presented in the video program.
The data collected here should be used in the notemaking below.
Some useful Internet sites:
Islamic Empire: http://people.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/I_Transp/IO6_Shia.html
http://www.princeton.edu/~humcomp/dimensions.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam
http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/timeline.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquests
http://ocw.nd.edu/arabic-and-middle-east-studies/islamic-societies-of-the-middle-east-andnorth/images/the-expansion-of-the-muslim-empire-under-muhammad/view
Baghdad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Baghdad
http://islam.about.com/cs/history/a/aa040703a.htm
Cordoba: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate_of_C%C3%B3rdoba
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/spain_1.shtml
Mezquita: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mosque_of_C%C3%B3rdoba
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/sacredplaces/cordoba.html
Alhambra: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra
http://www.alhambra-patronato.es/index.php/Brief-History/34+M5d637b1e38d/0/
Islamic Scholarship: http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/ihame/Sec7.htm
http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/ScienceMath/Science_and_Math.html
http://www.islamicmedicine.org/history.htm
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/science/medicine/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventions_in_medieval_Islam
http://muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=344
http://muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=625
Church of the Holy Sepulchre: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre
http://www.lifeintheholyland.com/holy_sepulcher_history.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Hakim_bi-Amr_Allah
Crusades: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Urban_II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Crusade
Crusader Kingdoms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusader_states
http://www.friesian.com/outremer.htm#jerusalem
Saladin: http://www.friesian.com/islam.htm#ayyub
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin
http://history-world.org/saladin.htm
Battle of Hattin: http://blog.templarhistory.com/?p=120
http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/sources/ctit2.htm
Averroes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averroes
http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ir/index.html
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02150c.htm
Mongol Empire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_Empire
http://franklaughter.tripod.com/cgi-bin/histprof/misc/mongol.html
http://www.paralumun.com/mongol.htm
NOTEMAKING.
This is the collation stage of the activity. Students need to organise the field of information and begin to
explore its context.
Directions and /or Inquiry questions are provided for notemaking / summary exercises that
will follow the viewing of the video.
The materials / data for the summaries have been collected above.
The activity could be done in teams, groups, or by individuals, or as a class with teacher direction.
1. Draw up a timeline / chronological chart of the events described and discussed in this
program.
2. Note details of the Islamic Empire.
3. Note details of Islamic Spain.
4. Note details of Islamic scholarship, science, technology and philosophy.
5. Note details of Islamic trade and economic practices.
6. Note details of the Islamic rule of the “Holy Land”.
7. Note details of the Crusades.
8. Note details of the Crusader Kingdoms.
9. Note details of the life and career of Saladin.
10. Note details of the impact of Islam in Europe.
11. Note details of the Mongol Empire.
ISSUES & INQUIRY.
Key issues and inquiry questions that have been raised by the video are addressed at this stage for
discussion and research.
1. What were the main contributions of Islamic scholars to the spread of knowledge to
Europe?
2. Why did Europeans believe that they had the right to capture and rule Jerusalem?
PROBLEMS of EVIDENCE.
Questions of reliability and validity of the perspectives, evidence and sources presented in the video
program need to be considered, tested and researched.
1. Why were Muslims scholars more able to access and analyse the thinking of Greek and
Roman writers?
2. What evidence suggests that the Crusades were not entirely ‘religious’ ventures?
COMMUNICATING.
The key issues and inquiry questions are potential topics for debate, essay writing, reports, historical
recount and explanation.
1. Write a REPORT on the Crusader Kingdoms.
2. DEBATE the proposition that
Europe learned to be civilised as a result of contact with Islam.
3. Explain the survival and transformation of the knowledge of the Greeks and Romans in
the Islamic Empire.