8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 2 of 13
The Islamic World
Scholars, cities and empires
What your child practices
The early Islamic world and its cities, scholars and discoveries (such as algebra and optics), the exchange of knowledge through trade and translation, and the Ottoman Empire.
Alabama Course of Study content standard: 8.3 · the rise and spread of Islam and the achievements of the caliphates
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- Islam began in the 600s CE on the Arabian Peninsula, where the Prophet Muhammad lived in Makkah and Madinah.
- Arabic became a shared language of learning, so scholars from many lands could read the same books.
- Cities such as Baghdad and Córdoba had libraries and scholars who made advances in mathematics, medicine and science.
Example: How did a shared language of learning help ideas spread across the early Islamic world? Scholars lived in many different regions. They could all read and write Arabic. So they could share and build on the same texts. Answer: Scholars from many regions could read and share the same books.
The Islamic World in Alabama
In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 2 of 13 in 8th grade Social Studies, after Rome's Fall & Byzantium and before Empires of Asia.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Fatima al-Fihri founded the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez in 859. Why is it notable?
- It taught only farming.
- It was built in Spain.
- It was a castle.
- It is often described as one of the oldest universities still operating.
It is often described as one of the oldest universities still operating.
Hint: Education in the Islamic world included women as founders, learners and teachers.
Question 2
What was a caliph?
- A merchant guild
- A kind of mosque
- A trade caravan
- A leader of the Muslim community and ruler of a caliphate
A leader of the Muslim community and ruler of a caliphate
Hint: The Abbasid caliphs ruled from Baghdad for centuries.
Question 3
Muslim scholars translated and preserved many writings from ancient Greece. Why did this matter later?
- Europeans later learned many of these ideas through Arabic translations.
- It destroyed the ideas.
- It banned science.
- It stopped scholars from learning.
Europeans later learned many of these ideas through Arabic translations.
Hint: Translation kept knowledge alive and passed it on.
Question 4
Why is a number system with zero and place value useful?
- It makes numbers bigger.
- It makes writing large numbers and calculating easier than Roman numerals.
- It only works for money.
- It removes the need to count.
It makes writing large numbers and calculating easier than Roman numerals.
Hint: Hindu-Arabic numerals reached Europe through Arabic-speaking scholars.
Question 5
Islam began in the 600s CE in which region?
- the Arabian Peninsula
- North America
- Northern Europe
- East Asia
the Arabian Peninsula
Hint: The Prophet Muhammad lived in Makkah (Mecca) and Madinah in Arabia.
Question 6
Who was Ibn Battuta?
- A Spanish king
- A scholar from Morocco who traveled across Africa and Asia in the 1300s
- An Ottoman sultan
- A Mongol general
A scholar from Morocco who traveled across Africa and Asia in the 1300s
Hint: He traveled for about thirty years and wrote an account of the places he visited.