← The Mongols and after: the fall of Baghdad, Ayn Jalut and Timur ·
The Mongols and after: the fall of Baghdad, Ayn Jalut and Timur
Grade 11 · World History to the End of the Fifteenth Century, Grade 11, University/College Preparation (CHW3M) · Strand D · D1, D2 · 75 min
Mapped by the museum, not endorsed by the Ministry.
A CHW3M pathway on the century that changed the Muslim world: the Mongol invasions, the fall of Baghdad in 1258, the Mamluk stand at Ayn Jalut, the Ilkhans' conversion, Ibn Khaldun reading the collapse of states, and Timur's Samarqand.
Lesson goal
Students explain the part of internal and external factors in the decline of one state (the Abbasid caliphate) and in the rise of others out of the same shock (the Mamluks, the Timurids).
What the lesson does, in the museum's words
The lesson presents the Abbasid caliphate in the thirteenth century as one of the declining civilisations the strand requires: the internal social and political factors, the effect of relations with an outside society (the Mongols) on the decline, what happened to the people of Baghdad, then how other societies responded (the Mamluks, the Ilkhans after their conversion) and how Ibn Khaldun read the phenomenon.
The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: Canadian and World Studies, 2015
Seventy-five minutes for advanced classes; level 'deep'. The focus is evidence: conflicting numbers, sources in more than one language, and what a historian does with them.
Lesson steps
- The Mongol empire — From the steppe to the largest contiguous land empire: who the Mongols were and how they fought. · Mongol empire
- The invasions — Khwarazm and Khurasan first: what the Arabic and Persian sources describe. · Mongol invasions and conquests
- The fall of Baghdad, 1258 — Hulagu before the city and the end of the caliphate there: the event and its conflicting numbers. · The Tatar sack of Baghdad and the killing of al-Musta'sim
- Ayn Jalut, 1260 — The Mamluks halt the Mongol advance in Palestine: why they succeeded. · The battle of Ayn Jalut and the defeat of the Tatars
- The Ilkhanate — A Mongol state in Iran and Iraq that embraces Islam within two generations. · Ilkhanate
- The Mamluk state — Cairo as the capital of the Muslim world after Baghdad: soldiers, learning and architecture. · Mamluk Sultanate
- Ibn Khaldun and the Muqaddima — A fourteenth-century historian asks why states rise and fall. · Ibn Khaldun · The Muqaddima
- Timur and Samarqand — A new conqueror from Central Asia, and a capital built with architects brought from afar. · Timurid Empire · Samarqand
Worksheet
Answer in your own words after each step; every question points back to a museum page.
-
What factors had weakened the Abbasid caliphate before the Mongols arrived?
-
Why do the sources' death tolls for the fall of Baghdad conflict? What do we do with conflicting numbers?
-
Why could the Mamluks do at Ayn Jalut what others could not?
-
What does it mean that the conqueror (the Ilkhans) took the religion of the conquered?
-
Explain Ibn Khaldun's idea of 'asabiyya in your own words and apply it to one state in the pathway.
Answer key
Each worksheet question is answered by one step; the number points to the step.
-
What factors had weakened the Abbasid caliphate before the Mongols arrived?
2 The invasions — Khwarazm and Khurasan first: what the Arabic and Persian sources describe. · Mongol invasions and conquests
3 The fall of Baghdad, 1258 — Hulagu before the city and the end of the caliphate there: the event and its conflicting numbers. · The Tatar sack of Baghdad and the killing of al-Musta'sim
-
Why do the sources' death tolls for the fall of Baghdad conflict? What do we do with conflicting numbers?
3 The fall of Baghdad, 1258 — Hulagu before the city and the end of the caliphate there: the event and its conflicting numbers. · The Tatar sack of Baghdad and the killing of al-Musta'sim
-
Why could the Mamluks do at Ayn Jalut what others could not?
4 Ayn Jalut, 1260 — The Mamluks halt the Mongol advance in Palestine: why they succeeded. · The battle of Ayn Jalut and the defeat of the Tatars
-
What does it mean that the conqueror (the Ilkhans) took the religion of the conquered?
5 The Ilkhanate — A Mongol state in Iran and Iraq that embraces Islam within two generations. · Ilkhanate
-
Explain Ibn Khaldun's idea of 'asabiyya in your own words and apply it to one state in the pathway.
7 Ibn Khaldun and the Muqaddima — A fourteenth-century historian asks why states rise and fall. · Ibn Khaldun · The Muqaddima
Free and open: print, quote and adapt, with no account and no student data.