This course fulfilled the Global Citizenship Pillar requirement and focused on the study of ancient civilizations and cultures ranging from prehistoric times to the 1500 CE. Beginning with Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, we moved our way throughout the ancient world and discussed civilizations such as those in ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, and much more. In order to get a better understanding of the cultures we were studying, we were tasked with reading several books that complimented the material discussed in class; some examples include the Popol Vuh, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and Sunjata. We also read the majority of The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century, in preparation for our course paper in which we answered a prompt pertaining to Ibn Battuta’s travels and provided evidence from the book to support our points.

Click Here! Ibn Battuta Paper (5)

Stella Morris, Spring 2020: The above attachment is a copy of my course paper on The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century. My paper analyzes different aspects of Muslim culture that Ibn Battuta found familiar and unfamiliar while on his journey and how he reacted to them.

Reflection: This course was very different from many other courses I have taken while studying at Longwood University; not just because of the unpredictable world events that occurred during the later half of the semester, but because of the type of work done throughout the course. While the class was lecture based, the work done outside of class was mostly reading. However, it was not textbooks that were being read, but real historical texts that relate to the course material. Even our course paper required us to read a book about a real adventurer from history whose findings have helped todays historians understand the ancient Muslim world. This course has helped me to appreciate the use of non-textbook style teaching in classes such as this world history course. I believe that using actual historic texts is even more important in a course like this one because it helps the students get a better understanding of the cultures and people they are learning about.