Calendar of Readings and Assignments

Below you will find a day-by-day list of all readings and assignments. You may print it, but the online version will always be the most accurate, so please check it regularly. I may need to change various things as the course progresses and will always let you know in class.

From this page, you will find links to more detailed information, external resources, images, and other online content. There's a lot here that I have accumulated over the years. Please make use of it!

You will need to enter your Dominican username and password to see some of the pages linked from here.

Readings and Assignments are listed under the day that they are due.

Week I - Introduction

• T 8/31 Introduction to the class. Maps.
• R 9/2 Concepts
  • ASSIGNMENT: Play this game as the Princess for an hour. Download the demo and you can play for awhile for free. Answer the following questions.
  1. What is Khwarazam, where is it located, and what happened to it?
  2. What time period is this game set in?
  3. What do you learn about the Silk Road from this game? What are the most important sites? What are the various cultures, religions, goods, etc. that you observed? What is consistent from one end of the Silk Road to the other? Within  an hour, you should have gotten from Constantinople to Mongolia!
  4. How does the Princess win?
  • Reading: Bentley 3-29.
    • Questions: Come to class prepared to compare the Silk Road as conceived by these two scholars, and to define the critical concepts of conversion, synchretism, and their variations. We will work with these concepts for the rest of the semester.
  • Discussion Questions for the reading.

Week II - Life on the Silk Road

• T 9/7 Life on the Silk Road I:
  • First reading Assignment (Introduction, The Merchant's Tale, the Horseman's Tale).
• R 9/9 Life Along the Silk Road II:
  • Second reading Assignment (The Princess’ Tale, the Courtesans’ Tale, and the Widow's Tale )

Week III - Han China

• T 9/14 The Formation of China
  • Reading: Bentley 29-67
  • Due: 400-word mini-essay on the Nun, Monk, Soldier, Official, or Artist from Whitfield.
• R 9/16 Primary Source Discussion: Han Narrative Histories (Online Source - PRINT THIS OUT!!!)
  • Discussion Questions
  • This is a difficult reading. You will need to work carefully, outline events, and come to class with questions.
  • Come to class with a well-formed answer to the following question: What forms of social conversion (voluntary, pressure, assimilation) do you either see taking place in the Han Histories, or for which you see the potential to take place as a result of the events in the Han Histories?

Week IV - The Silk Road and Buddhism

• T 9/21 - Xuanzang and Buddhism on the Silk Road
  • Reading: Xuanzang's Journey (Online Source. Print this out.)
• Optional - A little essay on Xuanzang.
• Optional - Fa-Hsien
• Discussion Questions
• R 9/23 - Dispersal of World Religions (Guest lecture)
  • Reading: Bentley, 67-110
  • Discussion Questions
  • Some backup reading on Buddhism
  • Discuss Paper Assignment #1
  • Why does Buddhism spread along the silk road? How does it change as it does so? What impact does it have on the places to which it travels? But before that, we need to know - what is Buddhism?

Week V

• T 9/28 - Caritas et Veritas Symposium. Follow the link and register (and attend!) at least one session. Register by 9/9. You will turn in this worksheet with your reaction to the session.
• R 9/30 - Lecture - Introduction to the West
  • Due: Paper 1 - A Life on the Silk road
    • From: Kharosthi Documents.
  • Reading: Gospel of Matthew.
    • Read the gospel as a source of the urbanized world on the eastern mediterranean rim. How does it serve as a source for "The Silk Road." You'll note an absence of silk!
  • Resources:
    • Texts: Conversion of Constantine, Constantine founds Constantinople, The Roman Silk Industry, Hagia Sophia.
    • Diaspora of the Jews
    • Chinese Accounts of Rome, Byzantium and the Middle East, c. 91 B.C.E. - 1643 C.E. (Online Selections)
  • Classplan:
    • Discuss Carlson talk on Buddhism
    • Discuss CV Symposium
    • Discuss Papers
    • Discuss/Lecture on spread of religions on the silk road
      • How do states either assist or resist/hinder the spread of religions on the silk road? You will need specific examples (for the mid-term).
      • How do religions spread in spite of state hindrance?
      • What are the specific factors behind the movement/lack of movement on the silk road for Buddhism, Manichaeism, Islam, and Christianity?

Week VI - The West

• T 10/5 Why Silk? Guest Lecture.
  • Read:
    • The Roman Silk Industry, Hagia Sophia.
    • Diaspora of the Jews
    • Chinese Accounts of Rome, Byzantium and the Middle East, c. 91 B.C.E. - 1643 C.E. (Online Selections). Skim the intro and then skim the documents. Get a sense of what's here. Spend about 15 minutes on it.
• R 10/7 Lecture/Discussion: Heretics on the Silk Road
  • Reading: Foltz 61-89 (handout), Nestorian Stele (online - Print)
  • Discussion Questions

Week VII - Islam

• T 10/12 Islam and the Silk Road
  • Classplan - Introduction to Islam and discussion of document.
  • Reading - The Risala of Ibn Fadlan(Print)
  • Discussion Questions
    • From reading the introduction, what can you tell about the "Normanist" controversy? What are the issues here?
    • Who does the translator seem to think the Rus are?
    • We have talked about physical descriptions and gender roles as important subjects from which one can learn much. Aside from the episodes of the slave-sacrifce (dealt with in a separate question), what do we learn from Ibn Fadlan's statements on this subject?
    • What does it mean to be unfree (a slave) in the world depicted by this text?
    • How do we assess the funeral and sacrifice ritual as described in this text?
    • What can we discern about Ibn Fadlan from his statements on the Rus?
    • What do we think we can actually learn about the Rus from Ibn Fadlan?
• R 10/14 Islam - The Stories of the Golden Age of Baghdad - The Arabian Nights
  • Required: The Voyages of Sinbad.(Print)
  • Discussion Questions
    • 1 – Go through and note trade products and their role
      2 – Role of religion, if any.
      3 – Role of the traveler, role of trade in society
      3– Role of Women, Marriage, etc.
  • Optional: Another story from the Arabian Nights. Read at your own risk. Quite raunchy.
  • Study guide for midterm will go live today.

Week VIII - Nomads and Christians

• T 10/19 - Lecture/Discussion: Sogdians and Uighurs on the Silk Road
  • Reading: Sogdian Letters, Histories of the Uighurs (Print all)
  • Discussion Questions
• R 10/21 - Midterm - TAKE HOME MIDTERM NO CLASS!. The Mid-term goes live at 11:30 A.M. Tuesday the 19th on MyDU - the COURSEWORK page. You should plan to take at least 3 hours to complete it. The Exam is due promptly at 12:00 P.M. (noon) on the 21st.

Week IX - The Mongols I

• T 10/26 The Crusades
  • Reading: Taxes of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. (Print)
• R 10/28 Lecture/Discussion: The Mongols
  • Reading:
    • Excerpts from "The Secret History" - Prepare answers to the questions (and print this out)
    • Daniel C. Waugh - The Pax Mongolica (Print)
    • Karakorum - An essay on the capital city of the Mongols
  • Topics to be discussed:
    • Influence of the Silk Road
    • Temujiin's rise in Mongolia. What are the chief factors?
    • Syncretism and cultural conversion
    • Key aspects of Mongolian culture that lead towards the Mongol's successes and the nature of their rule?

Week X - The Mongols II

• T 11/2 Lecture/Discussion: The Mongol Empire
  • Reading: Bentley, Old World Encounters, chapter 4 (111-165)
    • Discussion Questions
      • I want you to come to class with a detailed outline of the chapter.
      • Note each instance of conversion, resistance, and syncretism.
      • Then ponder - suppose you are Genghis Khan's heirs and you have swept all the enemies off the map before your might. How do you rule the Silk Road?
    • Final project assigned.
    • Midterm notes:
      • Overall - Cite everything! Not just quotes.
    1. Primary sources! More than summary of Bentley and Foltz.
    2. Most people got that it provided an anchor, but also Constantinople pulls closer to Asia and provides a home for Christianity.
    3. You need examples, preferably from primary sources!
    4. Lots of good answers. Note that it's not just examples in which barbarians and urban/agrarian peoples fought, but something more complex.
    5. Tough question. Attitudes promoting exploration, trade, genuine interest in other cultures, safe havens, lingua franca (arabic).
• R 11/4 - NO CLASS - Guest Lecture at 2:30-3:45 in the Springer Suite (CROWN BASEMENT).
  • "Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) and the intersection of Islamic, Jewish, and Christian Thought." Kenneth Seeskin, Northwestern University.
• Dawson Reading for the 9th will be double length. You will need to work hard on this for paper #2.
• Paper Assignment Online.

Week XI -World Systems and Collapse

• T 11/9 The World System of the Thirteenth-Century
  • Dawson: 3-72 and 145-201.
    • We will discuss Marco Polo in class (more) (Print all). Met Exhibition.
    • Discussion Questions for Dawson
• R 11/11 The East in the West
  • Reading cancelled due to the French! (was - Reading - Catalan Atlas: Read this text. Then look at the pictures. What does this map say about Europe's understanding and perceptions of the Silk Road?)
  • We are going to look at this Zheng He project.
  • Also due - Prove you have your final assignment book.

Friday - 11/12 - 7 P.M. PAPER 2 DUE - Franciscan Missionaries and the Mongol Empire via MyDU

Week XII - The Black Death

• T 11/16 The Black Death
  • Reading - Weatherford, 218-254 (handout).
  • Resources
    • Procpius: The Plague, 542, History of the Wars, II.xxii-xxxiii:
      Description of the onset of the earlier "plague of Justinian."
    • Giovanni Boccaccio: Decameron: Introduction, on the Black Death (Print)
    • The Black Death and the Jews 1348-1349.
    • Finally a nice little page on the Black Death and Islam
• R 11/18 The Silk Road just before, during, and after the Black Death
  • Reading - Ibn Battuta #1 - Read the Foreward, Introduction, and pages 3-58. Focus on each city - what is particular about them?
  • Today's plan - make your own discussion question! :) Come to class with a non-descriptive (i.e. NOT "what does IB say about ______ ) question.

Week XIII

• T 11/23 Ibn Battuta #2 - Pages 60-148
• R 11/25 THANKSGIVING

Week XIV

• T 11/30 Ibn Battuta #3 - Pages 161-214 and 261-280.
  • Due - Source Summary for Final Paper.
  • Test #2 Study Guide Posted
• R 12/2 Late Developments on the Silk Road
  • Test #2 put online.
  • Due - Final Paper Outline
  • No reading due. Attendance in class is required. We will be discussing:
  • Resources:
    • Resource: Armenian view of Tamerlane
    • Reading: Pegolotti
    • Reading: "The Islamic World and the Latin West"
    • Reading: Clavijo
  • Topics
    • Tamerlane
    • Ottomans
    • Mamluks
    • Ming and Zheng He

Week XV

• T 12/7 The Atlantic Answer
  • Test #2 Due. No reading.
  • Resources: Columbus' Journal
• R 12/9 Final class discussion of individual projects.
  • No reading. Come to class with your thesis and quick summary of your source prepared.

FINAL PAPER DUE - 12/17 by 5:00 P.M.