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Resources/supplemental reading for Middle Eastern history - Renaissance/Early Modern


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I've been working on our supplemental list for this coming school year, I'm listing it below in the hopes that a) it may be of benefit to someone and b ) someone may have suggestions for things to include. We have a few chapters to finish up from last year, so there are some repeats at the beginning of the list from last year. Looking back now that I've typed it all as a list (and not in the individual lessons), it looks like a lot. It is a lot. With the vast majority we read selections, and depending on how we get along I may set aside some. Last year I felt this course was one of our best, and part of that success was, imo, that I took a lower key attitude with some of the extra readings in an attempt to get ds to really "own" the sources, and not be over-focused with making it an "assignment", kwim?

 

I look forward to any comments/suggestions! :)

 

1. Safaranama, Nasir Khusraw (tr. Thackston)

2. The Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings, Ferdowsi, tr. Dick Davis

3. Orations of the Fatimid Caliphs (P. Walker)

4. Taghribat Bani Hilal

5. Anthology of Ismaili Literature

6. The Travels of ibn Jubayr, Broadhurst

7. The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades, Usamah ibn Munqidh (tr. Paul Cobb)

8. El Cid

9. Qissat Bayad wa Riyad

10. The Secret History of the Mongols, Paul Kahn

11. Omar Khayyam

12. lectures on al-Ghazali

13. Rumi

14. The Bezels of Wisdom, ibn al-Arabi

15. Hayy ibn Yaqzan, Philosophus Autodidactus (ibn Tufayl)

16. Al-Risalah al-Kamiliyyah, Theologus Autodidactus (ibn al-Nafis)

17. Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde, Deweese

18. "History's Hinge: Ain Jalut", Aramco World, vol 58 #4 Jul-Aug 2007

19. Sirat Baybars, The Romance of Baybars

20. The Travels of Marco Polo, ed. Peter Harris

21. The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, HM Elliot

22. Selected Poems, Amir Khusrau

23. Rihla, ibn Battuta

24. al-Muqaddimah, ibn Khaldun

25. Qasida al-Burda, al-Basiri

26. Ottoman Lyric Poetry, Kalpakli

27. An Ottoman Traveller: Selections from the Book of Travels of Evliya Celebi, Dankoff

28. Realm of Prester John, Silverberg

29. One Thousand Roads to Mecca, Wolfe

30. Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, Constable

31. Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean, Tinniswood

32. Azalai (movie)

33. The History of Timur-Bec, Sharaf al-Din

34. Persian Miniatures

35. Sultans of the South, Haidar

36. Mystical Dimensions of Islam, Schimmel

37. Baburnama (Thackston, tr.)

38. The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama, Correa

39. Pepper: A History of the World's Most Influential Spice, Shaffer

40. Ying-Yai Sheng-Lang: Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores (Ma Huan)

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Mashaallah, that looks great. How old is the child you are using this for? I will be saving this for the future, inshaallah. :)

 

Btw, wasn't there an IMAX movie (that is now available online) that might correspond with Ibn Battuta? Journey to Mecca or something? You may have already seen it though. I didn't watch it yet so I don't know whether it would work.

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Ds will be a sophomore this year, 15-16 (December birthday). Last year we had a similar list, and were able to get to a fair amount but not all. My intention is for him to have at least three years of Middle Eastern studies to parallel world history. So we have a spine we read and then these supplemental readings. We covered most of the Medieval period last year (just happened to be where we were on the cycle), this year Renaissance and Early Modern, and next year Modern. I'm not sure what we'll do senior year yet. History-wise he'll be needing to do a year of US history, so...

 

About the IMAX movie, it ran for while.. They had a special showing in Abu Dhabi I remember. There is the Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai which we've been to several times -- it has separate sections that are designed with motifs from the different countries/areas he visited, and there are cultural and scientific displays spread throughout (like a case with astrolabes and other navigating equipment, and a display about Cheng Ho).

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta_Mall

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Hi Kate,

 

Any chance you still have the list of resources you used for Medieval period?  I recenctly decided to switch my 8th grader to the same history cycle as my 4th grader, so now need to find all new literature resources for his level. ugh!  I really love to research and plan, but just do. not. have. the. time.  You've done such a great job, thought I might pick your brain a bit. :drool:

 

It seems like some of those listed above would be useable for the time period and easy enough for me to  find here, any other suggestions?  And thanks again for taking the t to pimeost so much of your hard work.

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