document and study
guide questions for week 2
Please note: your answers to these questions should be submitted
24 hours before your weekly workshop and as an attached MS Word file, named in
this way: LastNameWeek2
Assigned
Documents
1. IBN
BATTUTA, excerpt on Iwalatan and Mali.
Brief Introduction. For background on Ibn Battuta, consult the article on
him in the entry
on him in the Encyclopædia Britannica Online
(which is also available to you through the Honnold website), and for a
map that shows where and when Ibn Battuta travelled, click
here.
For the e-reserve copy
of the assigned reading by Ibn Battuta (in pdf format), click
here.
Questions
Answer the following questions, being
sure to support each answer with well chosen quotations from the documents (and
giving page citations for the passages you quote).
1a. Which social practices that ibn
Battuta observes in Iwalatan and Mali does he find
objectionable?
1b.
Which social practices does he indicate he sees as being in conflict
with Islam or as un-Islamic?
2. FOR DISCUSSION ONLY (no written answer
required but be prepared to respond if called on): The document provides
evidence that in ibn Battuta’s time, Muslims differed on some points in their
understanding of Islam and its stipulations. What would you say, and on what
basis, about who is right and wrong in their views about Islam? And to think
more about this, read this article about our own time; what different
understanding of Islam is presented in this
article? (You may have to register to open the file, but there will be
no charge; it’s a free account.)
