| CODE | HST2039 | |||||||||
| TITLE | The Middle Ages: A Global View | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | History | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | In recent years, studies on different geographical and thematic areas have substantially altered the perception that truly global history only began with European long-distance maritime expeditions in the early modern era. Rather we now know that by around 1300 AD there existed interlocking systems of trade, stretching from the East China Sea to the coast of East Africa and the far reaches of Europe. This unit examines connections between different regions of the world between c. 400 and c.1400 AD. One part of the unit focuses on the infrastructure, technologies, the production of geographical knowledge, and political conditions that made these contacts possible. Another part looks at the commodities, objects, human cargo, ideas and occasionally also diseases that were carried in the process as well as hubs of global communication and exchange such as Venice, Baghdad Samarkand, Novgorod and Zanzibar. Students will have the opportunity to read and assess in tutorial sessions various primary sources composed by or for merchants, missionaries, diplomatic envoys and travelers. Study-unit Aims: This unit will focus on the following themes: - Production of geographical knowledge and perceptions of the world and its peoples; - Political conditions, infrastructures and technologies sustaining international trade, travel and communications over time; - Emergence, consolidation and decline of routes and nodal points of communication and exchange; - Information, commodities, religious and secular ideas, technologies and microbes carried as a result of global connections. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Identify and explain the historical significance of events, trends, and themes in global connectedness during the medieval era; - Identify, locate, contextualize, and evaluate the usefulness of different forms of historical evidence; - Construct a historical argument grounded in evidence from primary and/or secondary sources. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Demonstrate command of a substantial body of historical knowledge; - Read and use texts and other source materials critically; - Gather, organise and apply evidence, data and information; - Present the results of one's research with coherence, clarity and fluency; - Complete time-sensitive tasks within assigned deadline. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Dawson, C. (1955). The Mongol Mission: narratives and letters of the Franciscan missionaries in Mongolia and China in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. - Goitein, S. D. and M. Friedman, ed. (2007). India Traders of the Middle Ages. Documents from the Cairo Geniza "India Book". - The Travels of Ibn Battuta, AD 1325-1354, trans. H. Gibb. - Abu-Lughod, J. (1991). Before European Hegemony: the world system, AD 1250-1350. - Bovill, E. W. (1958). Golden Trade of the Moors: West African kingdoms in the fourteenth century. - Dunn, R. E. (1986). The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: a Muslim traveler of the 14th century. - Hansen, V. (2016). The Silk Road. A New History with Documents. Supplementary Readings: - Curtin, P. (1984). Cross-Cultural Trade in World History. - Fernandez-Armesto, F. (1987). Before Columbus: exploration and colonization from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, 1229-1492. - Goitein, S. D. (1967-1993). A Mediterranean Society: the Jewish communities of the Arab world as portrayed in the documents of the Cairo Gheniza, 6 vols. - Lambourn, E. (2018). Abraham's Luggage: A Social Life of Things in the Medieval Indian Ocean world. - Liu, X. (2010). The Silk Road in World History. - Raffensperger, C. (2012). Kievan Rus in the Medieval World. - The Travels of Marco Polo, trans. R. E. Latham. (1958). |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-Requisite Study-units: HST1010 or equivalent | |||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Tutorial | |||||||||
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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