Dalhousie University
Dept. of History
HIST 1501 (Fall, 2014)
The Black Death, Silk, and the Mongols:
Shock, Culture, and Awe in Medieval Eurasia
(12-15th centuries)
Instructor: Dr. Colin Mitchell
Location: LSC 240 (Studley Campus)
Times: Lectures M-W, 11:35-12:25 & Tutorials (varied)
Drop-Off Box: 90
Office Hours: Friday, 1:30-3:30
I. Course Description
This class is a first-year introduction to the idea of pre-modern Global History. While many
classes like this in various universities examine the totality of pre-modern global history - i.e.
Africa, Europe, Asia, the Americas – between antiquity and the 19th-century, this particular
course focuses primarily on the landmass of Eurasia during the medieval period (12 th-15th
centuries). We are primarily introduced to Eurasia via the Silk Road which crossed from central
China (Xian) through Inner Asia (Turfan), Central Asia (Samarqand), and the Middle East
(Baghdad), culminating in Smyrna, Tyre, and Constantinople. Spatially, we have significant
ambitions in this class, but thematically we are attracted to examining the relationship
between sedentarized and nomadic societies at a time of profound technological and social
change. As regions and areas were slowly connected via traders and merchants, the sudden
emergence of the Mongol Steppe empire profoundly altered the course of medieval Eurasian
history. For the first time in human history, there was a rough interconnectivity from eastern
Europe to the Indian Subcontinent to East Asia. The period of 1100-1500 is broadly referred to
as Nomad Redux, or revival of the Nomads, when Turks and Mongols of Inner Asia emerged as
the principal political players of the day across the Middle East and Asia. This interconnection
across Eurasia played a crucial role in the transmission and devastation of the Black Death in
the mid-14th century.
Course Units



UNIT 1 – TRAVELING THE SILK ROAD (5 WEEKS)
UNIT 2 – THE MONGOLS (5 WEEKS)
UNIT 3 – THE BLACK DEATH (2 WEEKS)
II. Evaluations
The primary method of evaluation will be through small quizzes, to be held during tutorials.
There will also be grades assigned for written assignments and tutorial participation. Details
regarding tutorial assignments and participation will be discussed during introductory tutorial
sessions at the beginning of semester.
Assignment
%
Date
1st SR Unit Quiz (multiple choice, map)
10
Sept. 26
2nd SR Unit Quiz (multiple choice, map)
10
Oct. 10
Mongol Unit Quiz (multiple choice, map)
15
Nov. 14
Final Quiz (all units, multiple choice, short answers)
20
Dec. 1
Silk Road Unit Project (to be discussed in tutorial)
15
Oct. 3
Mongol Unit Project (to be discussed in tutorial)
15
Nov. 21
Tutorial participation
15
Ongoing
III. Course textbooks and readings
There are two required textbooks which are available at the Dalhousie
University Bookstore:
a) HIST 1501 – The Black Death, Silk and the Mongols: Shock, Culture,
and Awe in Medieval Eurasia (12-15th centuries) - Dalhousie
University
b) Mark Norell et alia, Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the
Modern World.
Note: tutorials will also have web-based readings throughout the semester.
Students will be notified of these on a week-by-week basis.
Lecture and Tutorial Schedule

GETTING STARTED
S5 (Fri)
Introduction to Class
No readings
S8 (Mon)
Introducing the Silk Road
(Part 1)
TSR 27-46; BDSM 3-11

UNIT 1 – TRAVELING THE SILK ROAD
DATE
TOPIC
READINGS
S10 (Wed)
Geography of the Silk Road
S12 (Fri)
TUTORIAL 1: CANCELLED
S15 (Mon)
Introducing the Silk Road (Part
2)
TSR 27-46; BDSM 3-11
S17 (Wed)
Silk Road Station: Xian
TSR 54-63; TSR 79-81;
BDSM 85-97
S19 (Fri)
TUTORIAL 2: SILK
TSR 64-78
S22 (Mon)
Buddhism
TSR 81-92; BDSM 1820; 78-85
S24 (Wed)
Silk Road Station: Turfan
TSR 100-109
S26 (Fri)
TUTORIAL 3: FRUIT
TSR 110-126
S29 (Mon)
Silk Road Station: Samarqand
& WINE
SPECIAL
TSR 16-27
TSR 134-147; TSR
162-170
QUIZ
1
O1 (Wed)
Late Antiquity and Islam
BDSM 49-59; BDSM 2632
O3 (Fri)
TUTORIAL 3: PAPER
TSR 148-161
O6 (Mon)
Silk Road Station: Baghdad
TSR 178-193
O8 (Wed)
Asian Pottery
O10 (Fri)
TUTORIAL 4: CERAMICS

TSR 194-202; TSR
239-244
QUIZ
2
QUIZ
3
UNIT 2 – THE MONGOLS
O13 (Mon)
University closed
O15 (Wed)
Rise of the Steppe Nomad
BDSM 32-47
O17 (Fri)
TUTORIAL 5: CHINGIZ KHAN AND
SOURCES
T.B.A.
O20 (Mon)
Rise of Chingiz Khan
BDSM 104-107
O22 (Wed)
Mongols in China and the
Muslim World
BDSM 107-109
O24 (Fri)
TUTORIAL 6: THE MONGOL
LIFESTYLE
T.B.A.
O27 (Mon)
Ogedei Khan and the Invasions
of Europe
O29 (Wed)
Christendom and the Mongols
BDSM 110-111
O31 (Fri)
TUTORIAL 7: EUROPEAN VIEWS OF
THE MONGOLS
T.B.A.
N3 (Mon)
The Golden Horde in Russia
BDSM 64-68; BDSM
117-120
N5 (Wed)
The Ilkhans of Iran & Central
Asia
BDSM 112-117
N7 (Fri)
TUTORIAL 8: MUSLIM VIEWS OF THE
MONGOLS
T.B.A.
N10 (Mon)
University closed
N12 (Wed)
Qublai Khan and Mongols in
China
BDSM 120-132
N14 (Fri)
TUTORIAL 9: CHINESE VIEWS OF THE
MONGOLS
T.B.A.
N17 (Mon)

UNIT
Understanding the Mongol
Empire
BDSM 147-156
3 – THE BLACK DEATH
N19 (Wed)
Marco Polo
TSR228-237
N21 (Fri)
TUTORIAL 10: READING MARCO
POLO
T.B.A.
N24 (Mon)
Introducing Medieval Disease
N26 (Wed)
The Black Death
BDSM 159-163
N28 (Fri)
TUTORIAL 11: NOMADS, DISEASE
T.B.A.
AND GLOBAL HISTORY
D1 (Mon)
Final Quiz
QUIZ
4
Accommodation Statement:
Students may request accommodation as a result of barriers related to
disability, religious obligation, or any characteristic under the Nova Scotia
Human Rights Act. Students who require academic accommodation for either
classroom participation or the writing of tests and exams should make their
request to the Advising and Access Services Center (AASC) prior to or at the
outset of the regular academic year. Please visit www.dal.ca/access for more
information and to obtain the Request for Accommodation – Form A.
A note taker may be required as part of a student’s accommodation. There is
an honorarium of $75/course/term (with some exceptions). If you are
interested, please contact AASC at 494-2836 for more information.
Please note that your classroom may contain specialized accessible furniture
and equipment. It is important that these items remain in the classroom,
untouched, so that students who require their usage will be able to participate
in the class.
Academic Integrity Statement:
All students in this class are to read and understand the policies on academic
integrity and plagiarism referenced in the Policies and Student Resources
sections of the academicintegrity.dal.ca website. Ignorance of such policies is
no excuse for violations.
Any paper submitted by a student at Dalhousie University may be checked for
originality to confirm that the student has not plagiarized from other sources.
Plagiarism is considered a serious academic offence which may lead to loss of
credit, suspension or expulsion from the University, or even to the revocation
of a degree. It is essential that there be correct attribution of authorities from
which facts and opinions have been derived. At Dalhousie there are University
Regulations which deal with plagiarism and, prior to submitting any paper in a
course, students should read the Policy on Intellectual Honesty contained in
the Calendar or on the Online Dalhousie website. The Senate has affirmed the
right of any instructor to require that student papers be submitted in both
written and computer-readable format, and to submit any paper to be checked
electronically for originality. As a student in this class, you are to keep an
electronic copy of any paper you submit, and the course instructor may require
you to submit that electronic copy on demand.