1. FocusQuestionsforUnit3, SecondSemester
Post-ClassicalPeriod: 500 CE –1450 CE Chapters 8-13 plustheAmericas
Compelling Unit IIIQuestions:
 How was order achieved after the fall of Classical Civilizations? To what extent were the old ways
restored, or new ways innovated?
 What CHANGED and why?? What stayed the same and why? Consider the role of religions of
salvation, the role of the masses and the rulers, and whether gender or class systems changed…and
why.
 What was the role of new technologies and learning in this period? Where were these the most
important, and why?
UNIT INTRODUCTION: An Age of Accelerating Connections, 500-1500 Q: Why this Periodization?
Read the Introduction and Time Line for Unit 3, pages 324-331. What changed and what stayed the same from
the classical period to the end of this period? What are the BIG IDEAS?
Chapter 11: Worlds ofIslam: Afro-Eurasian Connections,600 - 1500
Over Arching Questions:
 How did so many traditionalsocietiesand family groupsuniteandbecome a leadingworld power in such a shorttime?
 Specifically what fueledtherise ofthisimpressive cultureto thestatus of a Golden Age?
Directions: Read the Chapter and the Documents, pp. 502-511. There may be a Socratic Circle or a class
discussion over the documents. We will view part of the video, “Inside Islam,” and you will be responsible for
the information in the video. Fill out a PERSIART-ME chart and a Belief System chart. Read your Princeton
Guide and look for information that we did not discuss in class, and was not in your text- it could be on the AP
Exam. Prepare for a Quiz on Terms, Names, Concepts in Chapter 11.
Document Questions:
1. Defining differences within Islam: In what different ways do the various voices of Islamrepresented in
these documents understand and express the common religious tradition of which they are all a part? What
grounds for debate or controversy can you identify with or among them? (Compare & Contrast)
2. Comparing religious traditions: How would you compare Islamic religious ideas and practices with those of
other traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity? (Compare & Contrast)
3. Considering gender and Islam: How do these documents represent the roles of men and women in Islamic
society? Pay particular attention to differences in emphasis. (Comparison, POV)
4. Seeking additional sources: Notice that all of these documents derive from literate elites, and each suggests
or prescribes appropriate behavior. What additional documents would you need if you were to assess the
impact of these prescriptions on the lives of ordinary people? What specific questions might you want to
pose to such a document? (POV, missing voice, context)
Important Names & Terms:
Quran Pillars of Islam sakk Delhi Sultanate

2. Umma Umayyad Caliphate Ibn Battuta Ottoman Empire
Ulama Abbasid Caliphate Al-Andaluz Guru Kabir & Nanak
Hijra Al-Ghazali Harun al Rashid cotton, sugarcane…
Sharia Sikhism Sonni Ali Omar Khayyam
Jizya Timbuktu Seal of the Prophets Cordoba
Bedouin “Muslim” People of the Book mozarabs
Mecca Islam Social Conversion Reconquista, 1220 -1492
Kaaba ghazi Sunni / Shia / Sufi Ferdinand & Isabella
Muhammad jihad Damascus / Baghdad shaykh
Prophet Medina Persian miniatures impact of paper technology
Hajj imam sultan / sultanate moors
Sharia mullah Mansa Musa Ottoman Empire
Timbuktu madrassa polymath scholar Dar al Islam
Chapter 11 Focus Questions:
1. How was the first century of Islamic history different than the early history of Christianity and Buddhism?
2. What historical similarities and differences characterized the religious outlooks of these three great world
religions?
3. Why was Islamso tremendously successful militarily and politically in its early centuries?
4. To what extent might Islamic civilization be described as cosmopolitan, international, or global during this
period? Are there other societies that could be similarly characterized during this period?
5. “Islamwas simultaneously about a single world of shared meaning and interaction, and a series of separate
and distinct communities, often in conflict with one another.” What evidence could you provide to
support both sides of this argument?
6. What changes did Islamic expansion generate in those societies that encountered it, and how was Islam
itself transformed by those encounters? In other words, how did change happen? Is there anything that
did NOT change in the area touched by Islamduring this period?
7. What were the most important contributions/innovations to world history that came from this society
during this period?
Chapter 10:The Worlds of European Christendom- ConnectedandDivided, 500-1300
-Read the Chapter.
-DO NOT READ the DOCUMENTS and VISUAL SOURCES in the book, but instead read the document handout.
SOAPSTone and answer the questions for the Socratic Circle/HW.
-Add the Byzantine Empire and Western Europe to PERSIART-ME charts.
-Look at the picture at the beginning of the chapter – what does it say about this period in European history?
Chapter 10 Terms:
Byzantine Empire Kievan Rus Charlemagne Crusades, 1095

3. Constantinople Prince Vladimir of Kiev Holy Roman Empire Aristotelian Reason
Justinian Sts. Cyril & Methodius Pope Urban ClassicalGreek learning
Caesaropapism Cyrillic Alphabet Roman Catholic Church System of Competing States
icon / iconoclasm St. Basil’s Church Western Christendom Renaissance
Eastern Orthodox Onion Dome European Cities Dark Ages / Medieval
syncretism heresy / heretic Great Schism, 1054 celibacy
monasticism bezant Germanic Barbarians Feudalism/ Manorialism
pagan lord, vassal, serf Investiture Conflict Viking invasions
Guilds Hanseatic League Champagne Fairs women’s work
pillar saints Hildegard of Bingen Beguines, anchoress, nuns Benedict & Scholastica
chivalry Chrystallized sugar “City Air Makes You Free” City Charters
Three Estates Universities Faith and Reason Gothic Cathedral
Focus Questions
1. How and WHY did the histories of the Byzantine Empire and Western Europe differ during the Post
ClassicalPeriod (also called the Era of Third-Wave Civilizations)? How did Eastern and Western Europe
“get along” during this period?
2. How does the history of the Christian world compare with the history of the Tang / Song dynasties in
China during this period?
3. Comparison: How did the spread of Christianity to China differ from its introduction to Western Europe?
How might you describe and explain the very different outcomes of those two processes?
Chapter 12:Pastoral Peoples onthe Global Stage:The Mongol Moment, 1200 –1500
- Read the chapter. Yep.
- Read the Documents and Visual Sources, and be prepared for class discussion.
- Read my online Power Point on pastoral peoples in general.
Chapter 12 Terms:
Pastoralism Temujin / Chenggis Khan Khoumiss Nomad
Xiongnu Yuan Dynasty of China Anda Black Death
Kubilai Khan Kipchak Khanate/ Golden Horde Bubonic Plague Turks
Masai Primary Herding Animals Yurt age grade/age set
Karakorum “Mongols of the Seas” “Fictive kinship”
Focus Questions
1. Familiarize yourself with the map of the Pax Mongolica. How far west and east, north and south did they
rule? What stopped them from expanding farther in each direction?
2. Be familiar with the Circuit of World Trade map on page 543. What does it mean? Who traded with
whom? Which cultures were affected by which others? What items would you expect to have been
traded in each “circuit?”
3. What accounts for the often negative attitudes of settled societies toward the pastoral peoples living on
their borders during this period? Why have historians often neglected pastoral peoples’ role in world
history up to now?
4. In what ways did the Mongol Empire resemble other empires, and in what ways did it differ from them?

4. Why did it last a relatively short time?
5. How did Mongol rule affect the Islamic world, Russia, China, and Europe?
6. How would you define both the immediate and the long-term significance of the Mongols to world history?
Document Questions:
1. Assessing sources: What are the strengths and limitations of these documents for understanding
the Mongols? What exaggerations, biases, or misunderstanding can you identify? What information
seems credible and what should be viewed more skeptically?
2. Characterizing the Mongols: How do your own values affect your understanding of the Mongol
moment? Support the argument t that the Mongols were not just destructive barbarians. Now support the
opposite argument.
3. Considering self-perception and practice: Describe the core values of Mongol culture. How were those
values undermined or eroded as that empire took shape?
Visuals Questions:
1. Assessing motives: Do you think that the artists who created these visuals were trying to reinforce
traditional Christian teachings or to challenge them? What was their motivation, do you think?
2. Using Art as evidence: What do these sources tell you about the impact of and responses to the plague in
14th & 15th century Western Europe?
3. Connecting past & present: Considering the various ways that people sought to avert, cope with, or
explain the plague in these visual sources, what parallels can you identify to the human responses to crises
or catastrophes in more recent centuries or in our own time?
Chapter 13:The Worlds of the FifteenthCentury
- Read the chapter, except for pages 588-594 about the Americas.
- Do Renaissance Project if not done yet. Read Documents, but not Visuals.
- Put together your PERSIART-ME charts for Western Europe, Islamic World (Ottomans, Safavids,
Mughals, Songhay) .
Chapter 13 Terms:
Paleolithic persistence Benin, Igbo Mughal Empire Safavid Empire
Ming dynasty of China Yongle Encyclopedia Timbuktu Ottoman Empire
European Renaissance Timur Songhay Empire Hundred Years’ War
Constantinople / Istanbul, 1453 Zheng He Sonni Ali Malacca (p. 588)
Treasure Junk / Dhow / Caravel/ Middle Kingdom Holy Roman Empire Italian City States
Galleon Humanism
Maps
- Familiarize yourself with the map on page 576 – Asian Empires and the Route of Zheng He.
- Familiarize yourself with the map on page 596 – Religion and Commerce in AfroEurAsia in 15th Century.
- Familiarize yourself with the World Population Growth Chart, 1000 – 2000. Wow.
Big Picture Questions, for general class discussion p. 600:

5. 1. What if the Chinese had NOT ended their maritime voyages in 1433. How might the subsequent
development of world history have been different? What value is there in asking “what if” questions?
2. How does this chapter distinguish among the various kinds of societies that comprised the world of the 15th
century? How does it categorize them? What other ways of categorizing the world’s peoples might work as
well, or even better?
3. Continuity and Change: What would surprise a knowledgeable observer from 500 CE, about the world in
the 1400’s? What early features endured that he might still recognize?
4. What predictions about the future might a global traveler of the 15th century reasonably have made? To
what extent would it depend on precisely when and where those predictions were made?
The Americas onthe Eve of… Destruction?
- Read about the indigenous peoples of the Americas in Chapters 7 and 8.
- Read about the indigenous peoples in the Americas in the Princeton Guide.
- Put together PERSIART-ME charts for the Maya, Aztec, and Inca
- With your group, you will create a Venn Diagramshowing the similarities and differences between
these three civilizations.
Socratic Circle: Visual Sources for Chapter 7, pp. 316-323
1. Considering Art as Evidence: What can you learn from these visual sources about the values,
preoccupations, and outlook of the Maya elite? What are the strengths and limitations of art as a source of
evidence? What other kinds of evidence would you want to discover to further your understanding of the
Maya elite?
2. Assessing Gender Roles: In what ways are women and men depicted in these visual sources? What might
this suggest about their respective roles in the elite circles of Maya society?
3. Making comparisons: How might you compare the life of the Maya elite depicted with that of the Roman
elite of Pompeii on pages 272-79?
4. Considering the values of the historian: What feelings or judgments do these visual sources evoke in you?
Which of your values might get in the way of a sympathetic understanding of the Maya elite?
Create Your Own Essay Assignment: Generalizations about civilizations in the Americas:
- Your group will be assigned a PERSIART-ME theme, and you are to create a Compare and Contrast
essay on that theme, and answer it.