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Islamic History students


Mr. Shiver

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I'm wondering, what were some of the books that you guys used while you are/were studying the course? I'm planning on doing my Extended Essay on this subject, and I want some good preliminary reference material, because I don't know where to start and we all know how important good sources are for IH. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

what topic are you thinking of doing? I did pre-Islamic Arabia and the Crusades, but I did Islamic architecture for my EE (but in Arabic B) and my IA on Islamic architecture as well. I see that you're a VIP so download IA and my EE and check the bibliographies for Islamic architecture books. Otherwise if you're interesitng in pre-Islamic arabia or the crusades give me a shout I'll list you all the books I used (can't be arsed to look for them now if you're not using them :) )

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Well at the time I was thinking about doing Ibn Sina's contributions to medicine, but I sort of decided that I didn't really know what direction I wanted to take with it, and didn't think I'd be able to have sources that were focused or relevant enough to my research question.

So now I've gone back to the drawing board. I've done some basic reading over the entire time period covered in the course, right from pre-Islamic Arabia all the way to the rise of the Ottoman Empire, and I'm still figuring out what will simultaneously interest me the most and allow for a solid research question/thesis. What I have in mind right now by asking for resource suggestions is pretty much stuff that's comprehensive and detailed, sort of like a textbook. But overtime I'm starting to realize that with IH the reading material is more specific to particular topics or time periods. So I'll first figure out exactly what area of IH I want to write my essay on and then I'll let you know in this thread what I've decided on in case you're able to throw some book titles my way.

Thanks a bunch for the help. :)

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my advice is stick to architecture! almost everyone in my class did their IA on it! and 85% of my class got 6s in IH my year :)

it's the easiest topic to discuss, and since you have the "relate the past to the present" thing in History investigations, it would be the easiest thing to relate to!

just an idea to throw out there, you could also discuss the quote the pope used a while back from the crusades, about Muslims (God this is bad that I forgot this because I used it in so many essays!) anyway it was very politically incorrect, and it instigted a kind of a war against Muslims as the Crusades was in the first place. You could discuss that, then again it did happen about a year ago and would have been done by now...

good luck anyway :)

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"For you must hasten to carry aid to your brethren dwelling in the East, who need your help, which they have often asked...........*more rambling*.........Let those who fought against brothers and relatives now fight against these barbarians. Let them zealously undertake the journey under the guidance of the Lord." (November 1095)

That one?

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I think you'll be happy to know I've finally come to a working research question.

Should be something like this: What was the effect of the first three Crusades on the transmission of Ibn Sina's medical theories to Europe during the 11th and 12th centuries?

I think it has opportunity for reasonable depth, but I hope it's not too simple or hasn't been too overdone. I could probably relate the past to the present by talking about his influences on modern-day medical practices, but probably just as an aside.

So, any recommended books?

I checked the TSR thread on IH and I saw the following book titles.

History of the Arabs, by Philip K. Hitti
The First Crusade: A New History: The Roots of Conflict between Christianity and Islam, by Thomas Asbridge
The New Concise History of the Crusades, by Thomas Madden
God's War: A New History of the Crusades, by Christopher Tyerman

Are there any others that you think would be useful, maybe one that you read but isn't in this list?

And I wouldn't mind reading about pre-Islamic Arabia, just out of personal interest. Do you remember what books you read for that topic? If you don't that's fine it's not that urgent, but I'd love to know when you're not busy with exams.

Thanks again. You're the best. XD

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