← Abbasid Baghdad and the Silk Roads ·
Abbasid Baghdad and the Silk Roads
Grade 11 · World History to the End of the Fifteenth Century, Grade 11, University/College Preparation (CHW3M) · Strand E · E1, E2 · 75 min
Mapped by the museum, not endorsed by the Ministry.
A CHW3M pathway on Baghdad in its golden century and the network of routes that linked it to Samarqand, Bukhara and China: the city, the House of Wisdom and the translation movement, al-Khwarizmi and Ibn Sina, and the trade that carried paper, learning and people.
Lesson goal
Students analyse how one city and one trade network contributed to a flourishing civilisation, and assess the legacy of interaction between societies along the Silk Roads before 1500.
What the lesson does, in the museum's words
The lesson treats the cultural and scientific legacy of the Abbasid civilisation (translation, algebra, medicine) and the kinds of interaction between societies along the Silk Roads: trade, the movement of paper and books, travel, and what each side gained and lost. The Ontario Grades 7 and 8 curriculum (2023) has no strand on medieval trade, so the museum places the Silk Roads here.
The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: Canadian and World Studies, 2015
Seventy-five minutes. The nine steps form three stations (the city, the learning, the road) that groups rotate through. The museum has no Silk Roads map yet; use the classroom map.
Lesson steps
- The Abbasid state — The caliphate passes from Damascus to Iraq in 750, and what changed with it. · Abbasid Caliphate
- The founding of Baghdad — A round city on the Tigris: who planned it and why here. · The Founding of Madinat al-Salam (Baghdad)
- Harun al-Rashid and al-Ma'mun — Two caliphs at the city's height: court, money, and learning as policy. · Harun al-Rashid · Abd Allah al-Ma'mun ibn Harun al-Rashid
- The House of Wisdom and the translation movement — From Greek, Persian and Syriac into Arabic: who translated, what, and for whom. · Bayt al-Hikma — the House of Wisdom · The Abbasid Translation Movement
- Al-Khwarizmi and algebra — A book on solving equations gave a science its name, and Indian numerals enter the Arabic world. · al-Khwarizmi
- Ibn Sina and medicine — A physician from Bukhara wrote a book taught in Europe for centuries. · Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
- Samarqand and Bukhara — The two cities of the road in Central Asia: paper, silk and schools. · Samarqand · Bukhara
- A traveller on the road — Ibn Battuta from Morocco to China: what he relates about cities and merchants. · Ibn Battuta, Muhammad ibn Abd Allah
- Trade as interaction — What the caravans carried besides goods: ideas, languages, diseases and religions. · Trade in Islam
Worksheet
Answer in your own words after each step; every question points back to a museum page.
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Why did al-Mansur choose the site of Baghdad? Give two geographical or economic reasons.
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From which languages was translation done at the House of Wisdom, and why did caliphs fund it?
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What links al-Khwarizmi's name to the word 'algorithm' today?
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Trace one sheet of paper from Samarqand to Baghdad: who made it, who carried it, who wrote on it.
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Name one benefit and one harm of Silk Road interaction for two different societies.
Answer key
Each worksheet question is answered by one step; the number points to the step.
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Why did al-Mansur choose the site of Baghdad? Give two geographical or economic reasons.
2 The founding of Baghdad — A round city on the Tigris: who planned it and why here. · The Founding of Madinat al-Salam (Baghdad)
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From which languages was translation done at the House of Wisdom, and why did caliphs fund it?
4 The House of Wisdom and the translation movement — From Greek, Persian and Syriac into Arabic: who translated, what, and for whom. · Bayt al-Hikma — the House of Wisdom · The Abbasid Translation Movement
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What links al-Khwarizmi's name to the word 'algorithm' today?
5 Al-Khwarizmi and algebra — A book on solving equations gave a science its name, and Indian numerals enter the Arabic world. · al-Khwarizmi
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Trace one sheet of paper from Samarqand to Baghdad: who made it, who carried it, who wrote on it.
7 Samarqand and Bukhara — The two cities of the road in Central Asia: paper, silk and schools. · Samarqand · Bukhara
9 Trade as interaction — What the caravans carried besides goods: ideas, languages, diseases and religions. · Trade in Islam
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Name one benefit and one harm of Silk Road interaction for two different societies.
9 Trade as interaction — What the caravans carried besides goods: ideas, languages, diseases and religions. · Trade in Islam
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