Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
This lesson asks you to name services in a community, such as water and care for the sick, and the people who work in them, to say how they meet needs, and to imagine what would happen without them. The museum offers one water fountain and one hospital from the past; your class brings the services of its own community. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- B1.1 describe some of the ways in which people interact with the natural environment and the built features of, and human services in, the local community to meet their needs, and what might happen if these features/services did not exist
- B1.2 identify some services and service-related occupations in their community […], and describe how they meet people’s needs, including their own needs
2 Before you start
A thought to carry into the lesson.
3 The lesson
What would happen without it?
Choose a service you use. Imagine a week without it and say who would be affected and how.
Who works there?
Services need people as well as buildings. List the workers and what each one does.
Go deeper
The record on the ‘Adudi Bimaristan follows a history book by Ibn al-Jawzi. It says Adud al-Dawla built a hospital in Baghdad 2. Physicians, medicines, stewards, servants, vessels and clothing, and all that the sick require, were gathered there. Endowments were set for those who stayed in it, and the poor were given the clothing and vessels that left it 3. The record on the sabil adds that sabils received great care and many endowments that kept them working 4.
Think about it
The records say sabils had many endowments that kept them working. Imagine a fountain or a hospital that nobody looked after and nobody paid for. What would happen to the people who depended on it, and why?
Into the museum
- The ‘Adudi Bimaristan: the hospital of Baghdad and what was gathered in it.
- The sabil: a water building among the charitable buildings, and where its water came from.
Try this
Read the card on the sabil and the card on the ‘Adudi Bimaristan. Choose one and draw the people and things it needed in order to work.
4 Carry it further
Where this lesson leads in the museum.
5 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Sabil (public water fountain) have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
The sabil, a water fountain for all. Al-Haddad describes a sabil as a charitable building endowed to give people fresh water every day all year round. Sabils drew water from wells, pools and springs, or from rain and floods through well-built channels or pipes hidden in walls. What would happen in a neighbourhood if its water stopped?
In your own words: what does The 'Adudi Bimaristan have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
A hospital in Baghdad. In Baghdad Adud al-Dawla built a hospital. The record, following Ibn al-Jawzi, says physicians, medicines, stewards, servants, vessels and clothing were gathered there, and the poor were given the clothing and vessels that left it. Who looks after the sick in your community?
I can now
Notes
- 1. The Ontario Curriculum: Social Studies, Grades 1 to 6; History and Geography, Grades 7 and 8 (2023)
- 2. al-Muntazam fi Tarikh al-Muluk wa'l-Umam — Ibn al-Jawzi, j.7 p.118-119
- 3. al-Muntazam fi Tarikh al-Muluk wa'l-Umam — Ibn al-Jawzi, j.7 p.119
- 4. Muhammad Hamza Isma'il al-Haddad, al-Asbila fi al-'imara al-islamiyya bi-Makka al-Mukarrama wa-l-Madina al-Munawwara (2004), p.9