Task: Analyzing secundary sources: How do Modern Historians Assess the significance of Muslim Spain?s
This is the assignment related to the four texts we have distributed in class . It is highly recommended to watch the video "Cities of Light" referenced below.
To complete the task you must follow the following steps:
In class (individually):
At home (individually):
In class (in groups):
To complete the task you must follow the following steps:
In class (individually):
- Understand the task and its objectives
- Paste the texts in your notebooks
At home (individually):
- Read carefully, look up the terms or expressions you couldn´t know,
- Underline the main ideas and once you have a full understanding of each text,
- Summarize them in a few lines (4-6 each) and hand in in a separated piece of paper.
In class (in groups):
- Discuss with your group the ideas you have taken from the text and the questions your teacher has asked about them
- Write your ideas about
- Expose them to the rest
- Open discussion in class about the Muslim Culture in the Iberian Peninsula
QUESTIONS TO DISCUSS IN GROUPS
TEXT 1: Francis and Joseph Gies in the book Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel (1994)
TEXT 2: Fletcher in the book Moorish Spain (1992)
TEXT 3: Norman Daniels in the book The Arabs and Medieval Europe (1979)
TEXT 4: Rosa María Menocal in the book Ornament of the World (2002)
TEXT 1: Francis and Joseph Gies in the book Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel (1994)
- What does Gies believe created the scientific Renaissance of the 12th century?
- According to Gies´ statement, where and why was it significant that these translations took place...?
TEXT 2: Fletcher in the book Moorish Spain (1992)
- In what 3 ways does Richard Fletcher believe that Muslim Spain affected the Modern world?
- How does he characterize the relationship among diverse groups living in medieval Spain?
TEXT 3: Norman Daniels in the book The Arabs and Medieval Europe (1979)
- Who are Europe´s co-heirs of Antiquity?
- Why does Daniels think it is important that Europe and Islam had this body of Knowledge?
TEXT 4: Rosa María Menocal in the book Ornament of the World (2002)
- Why does Rosa María Menocal think that differences and contradictions are creative?
- How did Al-Andalus provide an example of this creativity in diversity?
Group F working in class...
Group C working in class...
Group D working in class
CITIES OF LIGHT: THE RISE AND FALL OF ISLAMIC SPAIN
an interesting documentary...
Here you hava the link to a page in which you can watch a summary (50 minutes) of the complete documentary (2 hours) it is easy to follow and very interesting... and I will also add some other videos that are part of the same documentary.
http://video.pbs.org/video/1825311011/
http://video.pbs.org/video/1825311011/
A clip from the documentary film, Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain. The clip shows the collaboration between Spanish Jewish, Muslim and Christian scientists in the medieval Spain. Featuring the works of Maimonides (Jewish philosopher) and Averroes (Muslim philosopher).
A clip from the documentary film, Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain. The clip shows the North African Berber revolting in medieval Spain to gain equal rights. Directed by Rob Gardner. Copyright © 2007 Unity Productions Foundation.
