Exploring the Middle Ages Class Summary 12/8/14

with Kim Rodgers

The Birth of the Moors

Today we read about the Islamic invasion of Spain. The Visigoths had taken over the area during ancient times, but had now become more similar to the Romans as the Franks, Burgundians, and Allemanni had done. When their king died suddenly they began to bicker amongst each other over who would be their next ruler. Some suggested one of the sons of the king, but the strongest noblemen wanted to put a warrior in charge named Rodrigo. They put him on the throne and forced everyone to acknowledge his rule. The sons of the king were so angry they decided to ask for help from Tariq Bin Ziyad, a great fighter from North Africa. This
proved a big mistake. Instead of helping the sons regain the leadership of their land, Tariq had his eyes on ruling the land himself! He and his troops boarded ships for Spain and when they arrived he ordered all the ships to be burned! They would conquer or perish trying! Tariq and his men conquered the area and Spain became a Muslim country. Spanish followers of Islam became known as Moors and many mosques were constructed around Spain.

Mosques, Minarets, Muezzins, and Mihrabs!

In honor of the mosques, we used clay to construct our own. We looked at photos of several features of mosques, including domes, minarets, porches for the muezzins to make the call to prayer, and mihrabs, which are essentially prayer walls. The students set to work creating.

Homework

For homework they have the notebooking page and mapwork. I included advanced map work for those who would like to add famous landmarks to their maps.

Next week will be our last week before the holiday break. Our next class will be on January 5th.