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 describe ways in which Greek and Roman actions and institutions influenced other societies. The museum offers one case: the Byzantine empire, which al-Mubarakpuri's The Sealed Nectar calls the Romans, and what he says it did to the trade and the rulers of the Arab lands. The Greek side, the rest of the empire and the effects on later cultures are for your class to bring. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- C4.1 describe ways in which ancient Greek and Roman actions, events, institutions, and processes influenced other ancient societies and later cultures […]
2 The lesson
What did one power change for others?
List what al-Mubarakpuri says the Romans did, and what changed for the people they met: routes, rulers, alliances. Ask whose account you are reading, what it was written to explain, and what it leaves out.
Go deeper
Read what one author says Rome did in Arabia. In the record of the Byzantine Empire, the Romans in the introduction to The Sealed Nectar are the imperial power ruling Egypt, Syria and northern Hijaz; they controlled the sea trade routes, were the patrons of the Arab allies in Syria, and incited the Abyssinians against Yemen. 2 3 4 On Syria, the record gives the author's account of the reason: the Romans made the Dajaima and then the Ghassanids kings over the Arabs of Syria to restrain the desert Arabs and to serve as a force against the Persians. 4 On Yemen, its trade failed as the Romans prevailed over the sea trade routes after extending their power over Egypt, Syria and northern Hijaz, and this was among the causes of the migration of the Kahlan clans. 2 3 All of this is the author's account; the record gives no statement by the Romans themselves about their reasons.
How do we know?
This record stands on one book, The Sealed Nectar, and cites no other for these reports. The record of the Nabataean kingdom adds that, in the same book, the Nabataeans took Petra as their capital, and no one could oppose them until the Romans came and destroyed them. 5 The record of the Ghassanid kingdom says the period of the Dajaima is only roughly estimated, from the early second century CE to about its end. 4 6 7 So ask of each sentence: is it the author's alone, or do the records hold a second source for it?
Think about it
The author says the Romans made Arab kings in Syria to restrain the desert Arabs and to serve as a force against the Persians. What kind of evidence would you need before saying these were the Romans' own reasons, and why is one author's account not enough?
Into the museum
- The Byzantine Empire: what The Sealed Nectar says of the Romans in Yemen, Syria and Egypt.
- The Ghassanid kingdom: the Arab kings the Romans set up over the Arabs of Syria.
- The Dajaima: the Arab clans the Romans took into their service before the Ghassanids, in the author's account.
- The Nabataean kingdom: what the author says of their effect on Yemen's trade and of the Romans.
Try this
Read The Byzantine Empire and make two columns: what al-Mubarakpuri says Rome did, and what happened, in his account, to the societies it touched.
3 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does The Byzantine Empire have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Routes and client kings. In The Sealed Nectar, al-Mubarakpuri calls the Byzantine empire the Romans. He writes that Yemen's trade failed as the Romans prevailed over the sea trade routes after extending their power over Egypt, Syria and northern Hijaz, and that this was among the causes of the migration of the Kahlan clans. He also writes that the Romans made the Dajaima and then the Ghassanids kings over the Arabs of Syria, to restrain the desert Arabs and to serve against the Persians. Which actions that he ascribes to the Romans touched societies far from Rome?
I can now
Notes
- 1. Ontario Ministry of Education, The Ontario Curriculum: Social Sciences and Humanities
- 2. al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, p.16
- 3. al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, p.24
- 4. al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, p.27
- 5. al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, p.20
- 6. Muhadarat Tarikh al-Umam al-Islamiyya — Muhammad al-Khudari, 1/34
- 7. Tarikh Ard al-Quran — Sulayman al-Nadwi, 2/80-82