Unit: The Rise and Spread of Islam
Lesson Title: The Cultural Achievements of
Muslims (See textbook pages 94-98)
Muslims over the centuries made important
advances in science, literature, and art.
They did so because of 3 key reasons:
• Their deep involvement in trade and
conquests brought them into contact with
many cultures.
• They had a common language, Arabic—the
language of the Qur’an—that enabled them to
share ideas in different parts of the world.
• They “blended” cultures—took ideas from
different peoples and combined them to form
new and better ideas.
Left Side Notebook Activity
Create and complete this chart as you learn about
the cultural achievements of Muslims from the
slides and your reading. List one important
achievement for each category.
Category
Astronomy
Geography
Math
Medicine
Philosophy
Achievement
Many Muslim cities had observatories—places to
study astronomy: the moon, planets, and stars.
Muslim scientists used astronomy to improve their
understanding of time and to make good calendars.
Muslim scientists also improved the “astrolabe” – a
device invented by the Greeks to chart the position of
stars. Muslim scholars used the astrolabe to figure
out their location on earth and determine direction
(especially to know the direction of Mecca).
astrolabe
What is the modern counterpart of the astrolabe?
Muslims’ use of astronomy to determine time and
location helped them to explore the world.
Because they traveled so much as merchants, Muslims
became good geographers and improved the accuracy
of maps and determining distances between places.
12th century Arab map
An example is Ibn Battuta, a
Muslim merchant and an explorer.
He travelled to Africa,
India, Central Asia, China,
and Spain during the 1320’s.
Look at how many places he saw!
He is important because his memories of his journey
were written down describing places and people he saw
in the Muslim world.
Muslim scholars also improved mathematics.
In the 800s they combined the Indian (Hindu) number
system, including the use of zero, with the Greek
science of mathematics to start the study of algebra.
The Europeans were using the Roman numbers
I,II,III,IV,V, VI,VII, VIII, IX, X until Muslims brought
them Arabic-Indian numbers: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.
Which numbers would you rather work with?
Muslims made very important advances in
medicine.
They learned medicine from the Greeks and Indians and
then made their own medical discoveries. In the 800s,
Muslim doctors:
• made encyclopedias of drugs and their effects on
people;
• recorded descriptions of diseases;
• started the first pharmacy school.
The Muslims advanced philosophy.
Muslims scholars studied the philosophy of the Greeks
(Plato and Aristotle) and also scholarly works from India,
Persia, and China.
The Muslims preserved these and other works in libraries
and worked with them, while the Europeans entered the
“Dark Ages” where scholarship mostly stopped.
Muslim philosophers led by Avicenna used reason and logic
to try to prove important truths and religious beliefs.
Their thinking influenced European philosophers.
Avicenna
In class reading assignment:
Read “Literature and Arts” on pages 97-98.
Add these rows to the chart and complete them:
Category
Literature
Architecture
Art
Achievement
Muslim artists created
beautiful paintings
and Muslim writers wrote
exciting adventures and
beautiful poems.
A story is told that
Chinese prisoners taken
during a battle by a
Muslim army in 751
taught the Arabs how to
make paper.
Later, the famous city of
Baghdad had an entire section
of the city making and selling
paper. Because paper became so
cheap, schools were created and
many books were published.
Arabs then passed it on to
Europeans !
Right Side Notebook Activity
You work for an ad agency and want to promote amazing
Islamic advancements. Choose one of the Muslim
advancements and create an advertisement promoting it.
Focus on how this advancement improves peoples’ lives.
Include: 1. Name and description of advancement.
2. Explain what it did to improve people’s lives.
3. Drawing of the advancement.
Arabian merchants helped spread
the language of Arabic, the
religion of Islam and new
technology into parts of Asia,
Africa, and Europe .
Muslim scholars (people
who study) made
important discoveries in
science, medicine, and…
What was a main reason Muslims were able to share
their knowledge throughout the Muslim world?
1. They all spoke different languages.
2. They all came from Cordoba.
3. They all understood Arabic.
4. The only knowledge they shared was mathematics.
In the 700’s A.D., Arabian merchants played an
important role in
1. Spreading new technology to Asia, Africa, and
Europe
2. Converting large numbers of Western Europeans to
Islam
3. Uniting most of Asia and Europe under a single
religion
4. Stopping invasions of nomadic people from Central
Asia
Muslim mathematicians (students of math) began the
study of which of these?
1. Calligraphy 2. Medical encyclopedias
3. Sufism
4. Algebra
How was paper introduced to Europe ?
1. The Chinese taught the Arabs, who passed it on to
Europeans
2. Swedes bought it from Russians, who learned about it
from Indians
3. Turks learned to make it and sold it to Europeans
4. Arabs learned about paper making from the Japanese,
and then taught Europeans