Written Expressions 3rd Year Classes
Collected by GUELLIL MABROUK (mgbay13.com)
Unit One: Exploring the Past
Topic16:
Write a composition on the scientific achievements of the ancient Islamic civilization.
Typical Essay:
Because HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/history/abbasids.htm" West Asia was such an HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/economy/index.htm" economic crossroads in the medieval Islamic period - because of the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/economy/index.htm" Silk
Road that connected HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/economy/index.htm" China and HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/india/history/muslim.htm" India in the east to HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/economy/index.htm" Europe and HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/africa/economy/index.htm" Africa in the West - there were always lots of
new HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/science/index.htm" scientific ideas coming through West Asia too. HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/people/schools.htm" Educated West Asian scholars were able to make use of
these foreign ideas to develop new scientific theories and approaches.
One example from the East is the use of "Arabic" numbers, which really came from HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/india/science/index.htm" India, about 630 HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/ad.htm" AD.
The Arabic word for numbers, in fact, is hindsah, which means "from India". Arab scientists, especially the
Persian Mohammed Al-Khwarizmi, were able to make use of the new numbers (and possibly the work of
HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/science/math/index.htm" Greek mathematicians like Diophantus of Alexandria) to develop HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/science/math.htm" algebra around 830 AD (The English word
"algorithm" comes from Al-Khwarizmi). (Ordinary people, however, kept on using the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/science/math/numbers.htm" Greek system of
numbers; only mathematicians used Arabic numbers).
In the 800's AD, the great schools at Cordoba in Spain, under HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/history/spain.htm" Umayyad rule, inspired many scholars to
investigate new scientific ideas. Among them was a man of HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/africa/history/carthage.htm" Berber origin, Ibn Firnas, who designed the first
glider, which he successfully used in 875, when he was 65 years old, to fly down from a cliff near Cordoba
(though he hurt his back when he landed). This was the first controlled human flight.
A more successful invention also from Islamic Spain was the glass mirror, invented around 1000 AD. Even
earlier, in the 900's, Ibn Sahl and others made curved glass mirrors that concentrated sunlight to focus heat.
About 1000 AD, West Asian blacksmiths also learned how to make HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/science/steel.htm" steel from India, and then they
developed the idea further to produce the very high quality Damascus steel that was used in fighting the
HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/history/highmiddle/bernard.htm" Crusades.
Another example from the East is the use of HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/literature/paper.htm" paper, which the Arabs learned from the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/science/index.htm" Chinese about 750
AD. The HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/science/index.htm" magnetic compass also came to West Asia from HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/history/tang.htm" China, about 1100 AD.
From the West, Arabic scholars were able to read the books of the Greek philosophers HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/philosophy/plato.htm" Plato and HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/philosophy/aristotle.htm" Aristotle,
and the Roman encyclopedist HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/literature/elderpliny.htm" Pliny the Elder, and they translated these books into HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/literature/index.htm" Arabic. They were
especially interested in Aristotle and Pliny's studies of plants and animals, and produced many new studies
like that of their own, often with beautifully detailed and accurate illustrations. This led to the classification and
description of many new species of plants and animals, and also to advances in HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/science/medicine/index.htm" medicine. All through the
Middle Ages, everyone knew that the best doctors, men like HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/science/ibnsina.htm" Ibn Sina or HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/science/medicine/maimonides.htm" Maimonides, lived in the Islamic
kingdoms.
Topic17:
Write a composition on the achievements of the Islamic civilization in architecture.
Typical Essay:
The first buildings that were built in the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/index.htm" Islamic Empire were designed by HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/architecture/romarch.htm" Greek architects who had already
been living in the area when the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/history/mohammed.htm" Arabs conquered it. Because of that, these buildings look a lot like earlier
buildings in the area - Late Roman Empire buildings. But because they were now building Islamic HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/architecture/mosque.htm" mosques
and not Christian HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/architecture/basilicas.htm" churches, these Greek architects were able to experiment with some new forms,
developing a new Islamic style. One of the earliest mosques is the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/architecture/umayyad.htm" Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, from the
600's HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/ad.htm" AD. It's octagonal, like Hadrian's HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/architecture/pantheon.htm" Pantheon, instead of being cross-shaped like a HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/architecture/transept.htm" Christian church. In
the late 700's AD, the new Arab rulers of North Africa marked their new territory by building great mosques
like the one at HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/architecture/kairouan.htm" Kairouan (modern Tunisia) and the one at HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/architecture/cordoba.htm" Cordoba in Spain.
In the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/architecture/abbasid.htm" Abbasid period, beginning about 800 HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/ad.htm" AD, the capital of the Islamic empire moved further east, to
Baghdad, and so the caliphs needed a lot of new beautiful palaces and HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/architecture/mosque.htm" mosques built in Baghdad. Because
Baghdad was in the old HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/history/sassanids.htm" Sassanian Empire, the architects who lived there followed HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/architecture/westarch.htm" Sassanian architectural
traditions, and these buildings, like the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/architecture/abbasid.htm" mosque at Samarra, looked very different from the ones built by the
Greek architects.
In the end, though, the Islamic Empire made it so easy to travel around that all the architects got to know
each other's styles, and there got to be one main style of building all across the Islamic Empire. As the
empire broke down into a lot of smaller kingdoms, the ruler of each kingdom needed to show how important
he was, so he built mosques and palaces in his own capital. The HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/architecture/fatimid.htm" Fatimids, for example, built the Al-Azhar
mosque in Cairo in the 900's AD. In Spain in the late 1200's AD, the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/history/almohads.htm" Almohads, built their own palace at
Granada, the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/architecture/almohad.htm" Alhambra.
The Ottoman sultan built the last great Islamic building before 1500 AD - his HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/architecture/ottoman.htm" palace in Istanbul, which he built
in the late 1400's AD.
Topic18:
Write a composition on the achievements of the Islamic civilization in art.
Typical Essay:
For the earliest years of the Islamic Empire, under the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/history/umayyads.htm" Umayyad dynasty, we don't have very much art
surviving. The best of it is the elaborate HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/arts/mosaic.htm" mosaics on the Dome of the Rock HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/architecture/mosque.htm" mosque in Jerusalem and on the
Great Mosque in Damascus. These mosaics are done in a HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/art/index.htm" Roman style, probably by Roman craftsmen.
But already we can see one big difference between Roman art and Islamic art: the followers of HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/religion/index.htm" Islam, like
the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/religion/jews/middleages.htm" Jews, took seriously the idea that you should not make graven images, and although these mosaics show
HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/environment/index.htm" plants and buildings they do not show people or animals.
By the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/history/abbasids.htm" Abbasid period, even plants and buildings were frowned on. Most of the art was geometric designs.
A lot of these designs seem to be from fabric patterns. The Arabs, because they were HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/government/nomads.htm" nomadic, had always
relied on carpets and hangings for decoration. Now that they lived in buildings, they used those same familiar
patterns only in stone or tile. They often used HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/literature/index.htm" calligraphy (beautiful writing) of verses from the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/religion/koran.htm" Koran to
decorate buildings, HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/art/pottery.htm" plates, and vases.
In this period, also, the focus of the Islamic Empire shifted from Damascus and the old HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/history/byzantine/heraclius.htm" Roman territory east
to Baghdad and the old HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/history/sassanids.htm" Sassanian territory. So the art also became more HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/art/index.htm" Persian and less HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/art/index.htm" Roman.
By about 1000 AD, the Islamic empire was breaking up into smaller states, and each state developed its own
art style. There are individual styles for HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/history/highmiddle/reconquista.htm" Spain, the Maghreb, HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/history/fatimids.htm" Egypt, the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/history/turks.htm" Ottoman Empire, and Persia.
In some of these places, the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/religion/christians/iconoclasm.htm" iconoclastic rules against using pictures of things or people were relaxed as
time went on. In Persia (modern Iran), painters made beautiful little miniature paintings of people at court, and
of famous people from history.
The arrival of HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/literature/paper.htm" paper from HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/history/sui.htm" China in 751 AD let artists do a lot more painting, because paper was so much
cheaper than HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/egypt/literature/papyrus.htm" papyrus or HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/literature/parchment.htm" parchment.
After the HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/india/history/mongols.htm" Mongols conquered Persia and HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/history/mongol.htm" China in the 1200's AD, many Chinese motifs started to show up
in Persian painting and HYPERLINK "http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/art/pottery.htm" vases.
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