How Did the Middle East Interact with Africa?

Overview: ​(One Class Period of 50 Minutes)

Students will be learning how to break down and compare primary sources in this lesson.
They will be looking at Ibn Battuta’s writing on his experiences in Northern Africa. They will
also be looking at a world map of the societies present at the time of his writing. They will break
down his writing into the Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Speaker, and Tone, or
SOAPSTone. They will answer questions based on their SOAPSTone. Hopefully, the questions
will cause the students to inquire about the purposes of the writer of the document and consider
the historical context of the events described.

Objectives: Students will be able to...

● Use primary sources to identify and explain the caliphate as both a religious and political
institution (WHG 4.2.1).
● Use primary sources to describe the varied characteristics of African societies (WHG
4.3.1).
● Breakdown primary sources using SOAPSTone.
● Analyze how context and purpose can change the interpretation of primary sources.

Anticipated Student Conceptions or Challenges:

The language used may be more difficult for students to work through, as that language is
more archaic. Vocabulary definitions will be provided where necessary. Students may also
accidentally insert their own expectations of society and religion into their analyses. Hopefully,
the questions will help them to recognize their own biases in their interpretations.

Materials:
● Student worksheet
● Primary sources
● Teacher Introduction to Assignment

Assessment:
Student worksheets will be collected at the end of class for a completion grade and for the
teacher to look over in order to gauge student knowledge. This will be the more formal
assessment of their knowledge. Throughout the class, the teacher will be circling the room,
listening to student discussion and asking questions. Both of these will act as an informal
assessment of student knowledge.
Instructional Sequence (50 Minute Class):
1. Teacher takes attendance and then reads the Teacher Introduction to the Assignment to
the class, handing out primary sources and worksheets. Each student gets one worksheet
one primary source (5 minutes).
2. Students read the primary source and fill out their worksheets. Teacher circles the room,
answering questions about vocabulary or context (35 minutes).
3. Teacher and students go through the questions together and discuss (20 minutes).
4. Teacher collects worksheets from students before they leave class for the day.

Teacher Introduction to the Assignment

Before Instruction: ​Teacher takes attendance. Students should be sitting in their assigned seats
and the student in each seat should match their picture. After attendance, pass out the worksheets
and primary source, one to each student. On the board the teacher should define what they mean
by Subject (what is the author talking about?), Occasion (what is going on when the author
wrote?), Audience (who is the author writing to?), Purpose (why is the author writing?), Speaker
(who is the voice of the source? Is it the author or a character?), and Tone (how does the source
sound? Angry? Happy? Critical?).

Read: ​Today you will be working as researchers. You have in front of you a primary source from
one of the societies we will be studying in this unit. Your job as a researcher is to read the
primary source and break it down. You will be turning in the source, and I expect to see written
notes on the source. Your worksheet should guide you. On your worksheet, write down what you
think the Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Speaker, and Tone of the source are. Then,
respond to the questions on the back. You should work on your own to start for about 10 minutes.
After that time has passed, you can talk with your group about your answers. After everyone is
done, we will talk about your answers as a class.

During Instruction:​ Students should begin to work. They have about 25 to 35 minutes to work
on this, depending on how long they take to read and answer the questions. Teacher should circle
around the classroom, keeping students on track and answering vocabulary questions. Keep an
open ear and note terms students use when discussing and any misconceptions they have.

After Instruction:​ Obtain student attention and begin class discussion on the document. Go
through the questions and ask about what the students thought their bias might be.
Teacher collects worksheets and sources from the students as they leave class for the day.
 Ibn Battuta, ​Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354​, ​translated and edited by H. A. R. Gibb
(London: Broadway House, 1929) ​(Modified)
Lexile 1000-1100
Ibn Battuta was a Muslim scholar from Morocco (North Africa) in the fourteenth century. He
explored communities throughout Asia and Africa during his lifetime. This source is an excerpt
from his published autobiography about his experiences while travelling. This excerpt focuses on
African communities he came into contact with, including the kingdom of Mali in Sub-Saharan
Africa.
Vocabulary to Know
Contempt:​ The feeling that a Punctilious:​ Showing great attention Assiduous:​ Showing great care
person or thing is worthless. to detail or correct behavior. and perseverance.

Abhorrence:​ The feeling of Befitting:​ To be appropriate for. Zeal:​ Great energy or

repulsion or disgusted loathing. enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause.

Grotesque:​ Repulsively ugly Reprehensible: ​Deserving censure or Carrion:​ The decaying flesh of
or distorted. condemnation. dead animals.
Thus we reached the town of Iwalatan [Walata]. When we arrived there, the merchants deposited
their goods in an open square, where the blacks undertook to guard them, and went to the farba
[deputy]. The merchants remained standing in front of him while he spoke to them through an
interpreter, although they were close to him, to show his contempt for them. It was then that I
repented of having come to their country, because of their lack of manners and their contempt for
the whites.

[Iwalatan] women are of surpassing beauty, and are shown more respect than the men. The state
of affairs amongst these people is indeed extraordinary. Their men show no signs of jealousy
whatever; no one claims descent from his father, but on the contrary from his mother's brother. A
person's heirs are his sister's sons, not his own sons. This is a thing which I have seen nowhere in
the world except among the Indians of Malabar. But those are heathens; these people are
Muslims, punctilious in observing the hours of prayer, studying books of law, and memorizing
the Koran. Yet their women show no bashfulness before men and do not veil themselves, though
they are assiduous in attending the prayers. Any man who wishes to marry one of them may do
so, but they do not travel with their husbands, and even if one desired to do so her family would
not allow her to go.
The women there have "friends" and "companions" amongst the men outside their own families,
and the men in the same way The negroes possess some admirable qualities. They are seldom
unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people. Their sultan shows no
mercy to anyone who is guilty of the least act of it. There is complete security in their country.
Neither traveller nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence.

They do not confiscate the property of any white man who dies in their country, even if it be
uncounted wealth. On the contrary, they give it into the charge of some trustworthy person
among the whites, until the rightful heir takes possession of it. They are careful to observe the
hours of prayer, and assiduous in attending them in congregations, and in bringing up their
children to them.

On Fridays, if a man does not go early to the mosque, he cannot find a corner to pray in, on
account of the crowd. It is a custom of theirs to send each man his boy [to the mosque] with his
prayer-mat; the boy spreads it out for his master in a place befitting him [and remains on it] until
he comes to the mosque. Another of their good qualities is their habit of wearing clean white
garments on Fridays. Even if a man has nothing but an old worn shirt, he washes it and cleans it,
and wears it to the Friday service. Yet another is their zeal for learning the Koran by heart. They
put their children in chains if they show any backwardness in memorizing it, and they are not set
free until they have it by heart. I visited the qadi in his house on the day of the festival. His
children were chained up, so I said to him, "Will you not let them loose?" He replied, "I shall not
do so until they learn the Koran by heart."
 Name:_________________________

Date:____________

Hour:____________

How Did the Middle East Interact with Africa?

Today, you are tasked with breaking down a primary source from the 1300s. Your job is to fill
out the SOAPSTone for this source and answer the following questions.

Subject
What is being
written about?

Occasion
What is going on at
the time of the
writing?

Audience
Who is this source
written for?

Purpose
Why is the author
writing?

Speaker
Who is the voice of
this writing? The
author or a
character?

Tone
How does the
speaker talk about
the subject?
 Questions

What did Ibn Battuta think of Sub-Saharan Africa overall?

What did Ibn Battuta think of the men he met? What did he think of the women he met?

How do you think local cultures and local environments affected Sub-Saharan African Islam?

How do you think Ibn Battuta’s background of coming from Morocco, a land that has been

Islamic for a very long time, affected his view of Sub-Saharan Africa?
[Teacher should post this as a slide on the board.]
This is a map of the Islamic World from 1250 to 1500 CE. Morocco is on the northern coast of
Africa, in an area that has been Islamic since almost the beginning of Islam in 600. The areas
Ibn Battuta mentions in this excerpt are south of the Sahara.

https://www.edmaps.com/html/islamic_world.html