Dar al-Islam
Teacher Resources
Lesson Guide
Find lesson timing, sample answers, teaching tips, and important teacher instructions.
Teaching Sensitive Topics Guide
Belief systems, while interesting, can be a bit dicey to talk about in class. Before kicking off this lesson, revisit discussion norms so students share ideas respectfully while connecting belief systems to the course frames.
Driving Question: How did the spread of Islam influence human communities and networks in Afro-Eurasia during this period?
Dar al-Islam is Arabic for The House of Islam. It’s a way of describing the Islamic world—the vast regions controlled by Muslim rulers and linked by the Islamic faith. Stretching from West Africa to Indonesia, Dar al-Islam encompassed a vast array of cultures, languages, and traditions in this period, all connected by a shared Islamic culture.
Learning Objectives:
- Assess the role that the Islamic Golden Age played in Afro-Eurasian states and networks.
- Use the historical thinking practice of contextualization to assess how Mansa Musa was able to make his journey during this historical period.
- Use a graphic biography to support, extend, or challenge the overarching narratives of this period.
Vocab Terms:
- belief system
- contextualize
- maritime
- migration
- mosque
- prophet
- trade
Maps can help you understand how beliefs spread and change. Use this quick mapping activity to help guide you through the changes in this lesson.
Looking for an at-a-glance introduction to how OER Project: World History approaches contextualization? Take a look at our contextualization one-pager.
To see where we’re going, we have to remember where we’ve been. That might sound like something from a self-help book, but you’ll soon see why knowing the context for an event is so important.
The Islamic world—often called Dar al-Islam—was expansive. When Ibn Battuta made his journeys, the Islamic world stretched from West Africa to Southeast Asia. The shared cultural system of Islam allowed people to move relatively freely across political borders. Ibn Battuta’s story and the cultural connections forged by the Crusades can help students complexify their preexisting ideas about Islam and its relationship with other parts of the world.
A vast expanse of Afro-Eurasia was connected by the shared cultural and religious system of Islam. Even after empires declined, these cultural ties continued to thicken.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you read
Preview the questions below, and then skim the comic, paying attention to things like prominent colors, shapes, and types of text and fonts. How do you know where to start and in which direction to read? What’s in the gutters (the space between panels)? Who or what is the focus of the comic?
While you read
- Who was Ibn Battuta and why did he leave his home?
- How was Ibn Battuta able to support himself while he traveled?
- What do the quotes from Ibn Battuta’s writing tell you about his experiences while traveling?
- What does the story about Ibn Battua’s interactions with Al-Bushri tell you about the nature of Dar al-Islam during this period?
- How does the artist use art and design to demonstrate Islamic cultural connections during this period?
After you read
Respond to this question: How does this graphic biography of Ibn Battuta support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about the Islamic world?
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Guiding Questions
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Before you read
Preview the questions below, and then skim the article. Be sure to look at the section headings and any images.
While you read
Look for answers to these questions:
- What is Dar al-Islam?
- What were some of the cultural and technological innovations of Islamic scholars during this period?
- What were the effects of these innovations in Dar al-Islam?
- Islam experienced a political fragmentation while it also saw a cultural expansion. What does that mean?
- What does Ibn Battuta’s experience on his travels to tell us about Dar al-Islam?
After you read
Respond to this question: Does it make sense for historians to define a region based on a shared belief system rather than a single government? Why or why not?
Did you know: Women of all classes accompanied the crusaders on their march to the Holy Land. Merchants and servants supplied the crusaders with goods and services. Wives traveled with—and in some cases fought alongside—their crusader husbands, including Eleanor of Aquitaine and Shajar al-Durr, wife of the Sultan of Egypt, who later became the first female sultan. To learn more about women’s roles in the Crusades, see Helen J. Nicholson’s 2023 history, Women and the Crusades, from Oxford University Press.
How did centuries-long wars between Christians and Muslims lead to productive cultural and scientific exchange? It doesn’t seem like war would be great for intellectual reciprocity, but stranger things have happened.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you watch
Preview the questions below, and then review the transcript.
While you watch
Look for answers to these questions:
- Why did the Byzantine Emperor reach out to the pope for help? Why did the pope agree?
- Were the Crusades successful? How did they impact networks in the Mediterranean world?
- Which European powers benefited the most from the Crusades?
- What evidence do we have that the Crusades impacted both Christian and Islamic culture?
- How did the Crusades affect scholarship in Europe?
After you watch
Respond to the following questions:
- As a result of the Crusades, which societies were pushed further apart?
- Which societies became more connected?
Use visual aids: Show pictures of words used in the text to allow students to visualize what they’re reading about. You can also bring actual objects into the classroom to illustrate texts (for example, chocolate, spices, flags). For this activity, you could show students the full Catalan Atlas and zoom in on the depiction of Mansa Musa.
Did you know that the wealthiest person in world history lived in fourteenth-century West Africa? Learn how Mansa Musa embraced Islam and reshaped the economics of Afro-Eurasia.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you watch
Preview the questions below, and then review the transcript.
While you watch
Look for answers to these questions:
- Why are oral traditions important for understanding history?
- Who was Mansa Musa, and why was his hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) so significant?
- What was Mali like when Mansa Musa ruled it, in terms of both politics and religion?
- What kinds of states were built along the eastern coast of Africa at this time, and how were they linked?
- What kinds of goods were traded through the Swahili city-states?
After you watch
Respond to the following questions:
- Why do you think two different kinds of states formed in different African regions (large empires in the interior of West Africa and city-states along the coast of East Africa)?
- How is Ibn Battuta’s life evidence of the Islamic World as a network?
Key Ideas
Rumi wrote poetry and expressed his faith through mysticism and dancing. His teachings crossed borders and inspired people for centuries.
