Lecture 1. The Arabian Peninsula, in late Medieval times

The structure of the lecture focuses on eleven cities of the Arabian relating to the three travellers Marco Polo, Zheng He and Ibn Battuta and which were flourishing cultural and commercial centers of the Medieval era. Namely, these cities were the holy cities of Islam in the Western coast of the peninsula: Jeddah, Mecca and Medina; the cities of the Najd plateau and the Persian Gulf (Hofuf, Riyadh, and Bahrain); and the cities in the southern part of the peninsula, in what is today Yemen and Oman (Aden, Sanaa and Zafar).


supporting documents:

Lecture Notes

Handout

Quiz with Answers