I particularly wanted to study the Islamic, medieval explorer Ibn Battuta. Being a contemporary of Marco Polo, who we had studied at the beginning of the year, I felt a comparison study would be quite interesting. Both travelled widely throughout the Eastern Medieval world; both met with similar tribes and peoples; and most importantly both wrote about…
Category: World Religions: Islam
Medieval Mini Presentation
When we heard that Gary's parents were coming to stay with us, we thought it might be good for them to see for themselves some of the work we have been doing. So we decided to do a mini presentation. Mini because I knew there was no way we would have the time or the…
Islamic Scientist Study: Alhazan
Source Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham (965 - 1040 AD) was an Arab scientist, polymath, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. His speciality was optics and he showed accurately how the eye worked and used the focal point of magnification to make the fore-runner of the pin hole camera, called the camera obscura, proving his theory…
The Other Side of the Crusades: The Muslims
Over the last few weeks the children have been learning about Islam, the primary religion (and way of life) that made up the other side of the Crusades. This has taken much longer than I anticipated and we still have not quite finished. This post is primarily about the Islamic religion. I wanted to attempt to give a…