documents and study
guide for week 2
Please note: your answers to these questions should be submitted
24 hours before your weekly workshop.
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.
2. AGRICOLA of Eisleben, Johann, "Commentaries on German Proverbs" (1528).
Brief Introduction. Johann Agricola of Eisleben (Saxony) lived from 1496 to circa 1570. In the early days of the Protestant Reformation, he was a close friend and associate of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, but later broke with them over a theological controversy on the nature of repentance and sin. Like Martin Luther, he was a prolific writer and preacher who was active as a preacher, disputant, and ecclesiastical administrator in Saxony and Brandenburg. In 1528, a collection of his commentaries on familiar German proverbs appeared that was widely popular.
For the e-reserve copy of this document (in pdf format), click here.
Questions
Answer the following questions, being sure to support each answer with apt quotations from the documents (and give page citations for the passages you quote).
1a. Which social and cultural practices that ibn Battuta observes in Iwalatan and Mali does ibn Battuta specifically identify as in conflict with Islam?
1b. Which social and cultural practices that Agricola writes about does he specifically identify as in conflict with Christianity?
2. Look up “gulden” in the Oxford English
Dictionary (specifically this dictionary, not any other). Which
definition for that entry fits Agricola’s usage?
3. FOR DISCUSSION ONLY (NO WRITTEN ANSWER
NEEDED, BUT BE PREPARED TO RESPOND IF CALLED ON): Compare the two
author’s views of commerce.
