Full Description
The Travels of Ibn Battuta: A Guided Reader is a unique Arabic literature and history textbook for students at the High Intermediate to Advanced level. Ibn Battuta was the greatest traveler of the medieval period, and his narrative provides an unmatched view of medieval civilization from Spain to China, and from Russia to Mali. Students will read the authentic descriptions of Ibn Battuta's encounters with cannibals, desert bandits, Mongol chieftains, and his impressions of wonders from Timbuktu to Constantinople to Quanzhou. This book provides a guided and scaffolded survey of Ibn Battuta's greatest travels through twenty lessons, each with extensive preparatory, explanatory, and application exercises, enabling students to read the actual words of the original text without undue difficulty.While telling a fascinating narrative as a whole, each of the twenty lessons is designed to stand alone for classroom or individual study. Individual sections focus on classical grammar and stylistics, historical and cultural background and critical evaluation of the texts. The book also provides teachers with a wide range of comprehension, composition, interpretation, and research activities.
Contents
Introduction
Lesson 1 - Setting off on the Greatest Journey
Lesson 2 - The Lighthouse at Alexandria, one of the Wonders of the World
Lesson 3 -The Mamluk Sultan of Egypt
Lesson 4 - Jerusalem and the Dome of the Rock
Lesson 5 - Damascus, Paradise of the East
Lesson 6 - The Hajj Journey and Medina
Lesson 7 - The Hajj to Mecca
Lesson 8 - Baghdad, City of the Caliphs
Lesson 9 - Yemen, the Gateway to East Asia
Lesson 10 - The African Coast
Lesson 11 - Travels along the Arabian Gulf
Lesson 12 - The Golden Horde of Mongol Russia
Lesson 13 - Constantinople, Capital of the Byzantine Empire
Lesson 14 - The Sultan of India
Lesson 15 - Delhi, the Capital of Muslim India
Lesson 16 - Judge in the Maldives
Lesson 17 - The Rich Kingdom of China
Lesson 18 - Muslim Spain (al-Andalus)
Lesson 19 - Return Home
Lesson 20 - To Mali and Timbuktu
Appendices
Glossary
List of Grammar Points
Index of People
Index of Places (Arabic and English)
Further Reading
