G U I D E
T O
G E O G R A P H Y
C H A L L E N G E
The Arabian Peninsula and Surrounding Lands
20°W
0°
20°E
North
Sea
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
SPAIN
Cordoba
Rome
Constantinople
Black Se a
Athens
Medi
Tripoli
te rrane
Damascus
ARABIAN
PENINSULA
A
H
A
R
1,000 miles
0
500
1,000 kilometers
Azimuthal Equal-Area Projection
Islamic lands by 750
A
AFRICA
Sea
500
S
rs
Pe
E
Samarkand
ASIA
PERSIA
Baghdad
Jerusalem
EGYPT
S
0
Antioch
SYRIA
Red
W
an Sea
Alexandria
Cairo
N
Sea
an
spi
Ca
40°N
EUROPE
FRANCE
ia n
G ul
Herat
f
Medina
20°N
Jeddah
Makkah
(Mecca)
Arabian
Sea
40°E
Aden
60°E
MW_LG_U02_01 The Islamic World by 750
Second Proof
TCI20 66
© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
The Origins and Spread of Islam 1
G U I D E
T O
G E O G R A P H Y
C H A L L E N G E
Geography Skills
Score 1 point for each correct answer. Use the map
on the previous page to check shading and labeling.
1. Students should label Europe, Africa, and Asia.
2. Students should label the Mediterranean Sea.
3. Students should label the Atlantic Ocean, the
North Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the
Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Persian Gulf.
4. The cities of Aden, Makkah, Jedda, Jerusalem,
Damascus, and Baghdad would have been
important trading centers, due to their locations on the coasts of the Red Sea and the
Mediterranean Sea, and due also to their proximity to the continents of Africa, Asia, and
Europe.
9. The Arabian Peninsula is located between
Africa, Asia, and Europe, which brought its
people into contact with outsiders from these
places. This contact helped to spread Islam.
10.Medieval Europe was largely Christian.
In addition, it was strong economically.
Geographically, its many mountain ranges
would have made conquest more difficult.
11.The location of the Arabian Peninsula was
close to lands in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Using Scores to Inform Instruction
Geography Skills A score of 5 out of 8 or better
indicates that students have acquired sufficient
geographic information to proceed with the unit.
5. A trader traveling from Makkah to Cairo
would likely have traveled by sea, while a trader from Makkah to Baghdad would likely have
traveled overland.
Critical Thinking A score of 6 out of 9 or better indicates that students are beginning to
understand the relationships between physical
geography and the different ways in which people
live.
6. They would have been slowed by the Pyrenees
Mountains.
Modifying Instruction
7. Jerusalem is closest to Cairo. Because of this
proximity, it is likely that these two cities traded frequently.
8. The Sahara formed the southern boundary of
Islamic lands in Africa. The empire stopped
at this physical barrier because traders and
armies would have found it difficult to survive
in the desert.
ELL or Learners with Special Education Needs Consider focusing on map-reading questions or
limiting the number of “Critical Thinking” questions.
Students with Weak Map or Critical Thinking
Skills Assign appropriate pages from the Social Studies
Skills Toolkit in the back of the Lesson Masters.
Critical Thinking
Questions may have more than one correct
answer. Score 1 to 3 points for each reasonable
answer, depending on the strength of students’
geographic reasoning. Possible answers are given
here.
© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
The Origins and Spread of Islam 2