Hello, I'm Mr. Marchin, and thank you for joining me for today's history lesson.

I'll be guiding you through all of our resources today, and my top priority is to make sure that by the end of our lesson, you're able to successfully meet our learning objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on 11th century Islamic worlds, where we are really trying to consider what some of the similarities and differences were between different Islamic states and areas in that period of time.

In today's lesson, we are gonna be working towards describing what Cordoba was like in the 11th century and explaining how it differed from Baghdad.

There are two key words which are gonna help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are scholars and architecture.

Scholars are people who have studied a subject and know a lot about it, and architecture refers to the design and style of buildings.

So today's lesson is gonna be split into three parts, and we'll begin by focusing on the idea of different Islamic worlds.

Historians talk of Islamic worlds, not an Islamic world.

Note the difference between the plural and the singular there.

The Abbasid Caliphate was not the only Islamic state in the 11th century.

The Caliphate in Cordoba was just one of many other Islamic states.

Cordoba is located in modern day Spain.

If you look at the screen, you can see a globe, which shows the location of the Cordoban Caliphate, highlighted in green.

Now what we can see is that the Cordoban Caliphate was located in Western Europe.

The Caliphate was also located with easy reach to the Mediterranean Sea.

Now we'd have to look much further east to find Baghdad, which was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate.

So let's just check our understanding of what we've heard so far.

Which statement is most accurate? A, that the Abbasid Caliphate was the only mediaeval Islamic state, B, that the Abbasid Caliphate and Cordoban Caliphate were the only mediaeval Islamic states, or C, that the Abbasid Caliphate and Cordoban Caliphate were two of many mediaeval Islamic states.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C.

The Abbasid Caliphate and Cordoban Caliphate were two of many mediaeval Islamic states, which could be found in many different areas such as Africa, Europe, and Asia.

And let's try another question.

Where was the Cordoban Caliphate located? Was it in Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, or Western Europe? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said the correct answer was D.

The Cordoban Caliphate was located in Western Europe, mostly across the area we'd think of as modern day Spain.

Cordoba did not accept the religious and political leadership of the Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad.

Cordoba had their own Caliphs.

In other words, their own Islamic leaders who could direct them in politics and religion.

So let's check our understanding again.

We've got a statement on the screen that says, Cordoba respected the leadership of the Abbasid Caliphs.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our answers.

How can we show that Cordoba did not respect the leadership of the Abbasid Caliphs? We have two justifications which have appeared on the screen.

The first says that Cordoba also declared itself to be a Caliphate, and our second says Cordoba was loyal to Christian kings in Europe.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said the correct answer was A.

Cordoba also declared itself to be a Caliphate.

That meant it had its own Caliph and it did not look to the Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad for political or religious leadership.

So now we're in a good position to put all of our knowledge about different Islamic worlds in the 11th century into practise.

I want you to complete the passage, which you can see on the screen by adding in the missing words.

We have four gaps in our passage, and the missing words can be seen beneath the passage.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answers.

Okay.

Well done for your hard work on that task.

So I asked you to complete the passage by adding in the missing words, which means the paragraph should have looked like this.

Historians often use the phrase Islamic worlds.

This is because there were many different Islamic states in the mediaeval period, for example, in the 11th century, as well as the Abbasid Caliphate, which was ruled from Baghdad.

Another Caliphate existed in Western Europe, which was ruled from Cordoba.

So now we're ready to move on to the second part of our lesson where we're gonna talk about Cordoba in a little bit more detail.

Cordoba was a large city by the 11th century with a population of over 300,000 people.

This made Cordoba the largest city in Western Europe at the time, and the second largest city in all of Europe.

The population of the city included the Caliphs of the Cordoban Caliphate, as well as a mixed population of Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Cordoba was a centre of learning and culture in Western Europe.

The Royal Library in Cordoba contained as many as 500,000 books written in many different languages.

Cordoba was an important location for the translation of books from Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin.

Many leading scholars from the 11th century lived and worked in Cordoba.

This included al-Zarqali, who is considered one of the best surgeons of the entire mediaeval period.

The astronomer al-Zarqali also lived in Cordoba, where he developed new tools for navigating like the Azafea, which was a perfected astrolabe and remained in use until the 16th century.

So let's check our understanding of some of the details we picked up so far about Cordoba.

How big was Cordoba? Was it the largest city in Europe, the second largest city in Europe, the third largest city in Europe, or the fourth largest city in Europe? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said the correct answer was B.

Cordoba was the second largest city in Europe.

If we're gonna be more specific just about Western Europe, Cordoba then became the largest city in that particular area.

And now we've got a statement on the screen that says, scholars in Cordoba studied a wide range of subjects.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that that statement was true, but we want to justify our answers.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that scholars studied Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, but rarely spent time on other subjects.

The other justification says that scholars studied religion and other subjects including groundbreaking work in medicine and navigation.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that justification B was our correct answer.

Scholars studied religion and other subjects including groundbreaking work in medicine and navigation at Cordoba.

These scholars included al-Zarqali, who created a perfected astrolabe whilst living in Cordoba.

Cordoba shed links with many other places around the Mediterranean sea.

So many architecture in Cordoba was influenced by designs used elsewhere in the Mediterranean.

Parts of the Great Mosque built in Cordoba were based on styles used in other European and North African cities like Seville, Rabat, and Marrakesh.

You can see an image of some of the architecture in Cordoba's great mosque currently on the screen.

Cordoba also earned a lot of wealth from trade.

Many items were traded by Cordoba, including glassware, metalwork, and a range of food stuffs such as spices, rice, and wheat.

However, one of the biggest trades which Cordoba was involved in was the slave trade.

The Cordoban Caliphs used enslaved Christians, mostly from Northern Europe to work in the government and military of the Caliphate.

Even greater numbers of enslaved Christians were sold in Cordoba and transported to Muslim slave holders in North Africa and elsewhere around the Mediterranean.

So let's check our understanding of some of those new details that we've heard about Cordoba.

Which statement most accurately describes Cordoba's trade? Cordoba was involved in very little trade.

Cordoba traded a lot with both Europe and North Africa, or Cordoba traded a lot with both the Middle East and Central Asia.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody that said the correct answer was B.

Our most accurate statement was Cordoba traded a lot with both Europe and North Africa.

To check our understanding a little bit further, I now want you to write the missing word in the following sentence.

One of the main things traded in Cordoba was blank people.

So what's our missing word there? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said the correct answer here was enslaved.

One of the main things traded in Cordoba was enslaved people to be even more specific, enslaved Christians who were often purchased from areas in northern Europe.

So now we're in a good position to put all of our knowledge about Cordoba into practise.

I want you to describe one way in which historians can tell that Cordoba was closely connected to other places in Europe and North Africa.

As part of your answer, I want you to ensure that you include a specific example to back up whatever your point is.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your response.

Okay.

Well done for your hard work on that task.

So I asked you to describe one way in which historians can tell that Cordoba was closely connected to other places in Europe and North Africa.

I also asked you to ensure that your answer included a specific example.

So your response may have included that historians can tell Cordoba was closely connected to other places in Europe and North Africa because of its architecture.

For example, the Great Mosque in Cordoba used styles which were used in other cities like Seville, Rabat, and Marrakesh.

So if your own response looked something similar to that answer, which we've just seen, really well done, and now we're ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson today, where we're gonna think about Cordoba and Baghdad in the 11th century.

To compare Cordoba and Baghdad, historians can focus on some of the following areas, size, politics, influences, and also learning.

So if we start by thinking about the size and location of Cordoba and Baghdad, over 300,000 people lived in Cordoba.

500,000 people lived in Baghdad in the 11th century though.

This means that Baghdad was a larger city than Cordoba, which is perhaps unsurprising.

If we remember that Baghdad was the largest Islamic city anywhere in the world by the 11th century.

So let's just check our understanding of how Baghdad and Cordoba compared in size and location.

Which city is best described by the following statement? It was the largest Islamic city in the 11th century.

So does that best describe Baghdad, Cordoba, or both cities? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement best describes Baghdad.

Baghdad with 500,000 people living there was the largest Islamic city in the 11th century.

Cordoba was still quite large.

It had 300,000 people living there, but was not quite as big as Baghdad.

Okay, so now we can think about politics to compare our two areas.

Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, and Cordoba did not accept Abbasid leadership.

Instead, Cordoba was the capital of the Cordoban Caliphate.

So both Baghdad and Cordoba were the capital cities of a Caliphate.

So let's check our understanding of that with another quick question.

Which city is best described by the following statement? It was the capital city of a Caliphate.

Does that statement best describe Baghdad, Cordoba, or both cities? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that that statement best describes both cities.

Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, and Cordoba was the capital of the Cordoban Caliphate.

So both cities were capitals of a Caliphate, and that means we can now compare our two cities based on the influences which affected them.

Persian influence was very strong in Baghdad, and a clear example of this is the round layout of Baghdad as a city which was influenced by the design of other cities elsewhere in Persia.

By contrast, Mediterranean influence was very strong in Cordoba.

The Great Mosque helps to reveal Mediterranean influences on architecture in Cordoba, as it was based on styles that had also been used in cities such as Seville, Rabat, and Marrakesh.

So let's try answering another quick question.

Which city is best described by the following statement? Its architecture was influenced by the Persians.

Does that best describe Baghdad, Cordoba, or both cities? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that that statement would best describe Baghdad, we can see that in the round layout of Baghdad, which was also used in many Persian cities.

And now we have a similar but slightly different statement that reads its architecture was influenced by Mediterranean styles.

Which city is best described by that statement? Baghdad, Cordoba, or both? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that that statement best describes Cordoba.

And we can see that in examples such as the Great Mosque, which was based on styles used in other Mediterranean cities.

And now we can think about our final area from comparison, which is learning.

Baghdad was a centre of learning.

The city was home to the House of Wisdom.

And as well as that the Al-Nizamiyya, a university was set up in Baghdad in 1065.

Cordoba was also a centre of learning, though it had a royal library, which included as many as 500,000 books.

And it was also home to many leading scholars such as al-Zarqali, who developed a perfected astrolabe.

So let's quickly make sure our understanding is really secure about learning in our two cities.

Which city is best described by this statement? It was considered a centre of learning.

Does that best describe Baghdad, Cordoba, or both? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Welcome to everybody who said that that statement best describes both cities.

We know that in Baghdad there was the House of Wisdom, but also the Al-Nizamiyya University, which was set up.

Whereas in Cordoba, we know there was the Royal Library with a huge collection of books for scholars to study.

We know that many leading scholars such as al-Zarqali lived there.

So both cities can certainly be described as centres of learning.

We know that Baghdad was home to the House of Wisdom, a place where scholars would meet and debate.

So it's quite clear that that city was a centre of learning.

But Cordoba was also home to the Royal Library with over 500,000 books.

So it was clearly also a centre of learning.

And let's try one more statement.

Which city is best described in the following way? It had a university called the Al-Nizamiyya.

Does that best describe Baghdad, Cordoba, or both cities? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that that statement best describes Baghdad.

Baghdad was home to the Al-Nizamiyya University founded in the 11th century, which had over 3000 students studying there by the end of the 11th century.

So now we're in a good position to put all of our knowledge into practise.

So I want you to answer the following question.

How similar were Cordoba and Baghdad in the 11th century? So first I want you to pick a statement which you think is most accurate, that Cordoba and Baghdad were exactly the same, that Cordoba and Baghdad were somewhat similar, or that Cordoba and Baghdad were completely different.

And then for the second part of our task, I want you to write one paragraph to support your chosen statement.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done to everybody for your hard work on that task.

So if we're thinking about how similar Cordoba and Baghdad were in the 11th century, I asked you first to pick the statement which you thought was most accurate.

The correct statement to pick was the second one, which says that Cordoba and Baghdad were somewhat similar.

It would not be accurate to say that the two cities were completely different.

It also wouldn't be accurate to say they were completely the same.

For the second part of our task, I asked you to write one paragraph to support your chosen statement.

So you may have written something that looked like this.

Cordoba and Baghdad were somewhat similar in the 11th century.

Baghdad was larger than Cordoba, as its population was 500,000 compared to 300,000.

However, Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, and Cordoba was the capital of the Cordoban Caliphate.

This meant both cities were very important.

So if your own response looks something like this model answer, then really well done because it was a lot for us to think about when answering this question.

And that means we've now reached the end of our lesson for today.

So we're in a good position to summarise all of our learning.

We've seen that there were many different mediaeval Islamic states, including the Cordoban and Abbasid Caliphates.

Historians discuss Islam in the 11th century by talking about different Islamic worlds.

Cordoba was a centre of learning in Western Europe and was home to many leading scholars.

Cordoba was an important centre of trade for Europe and the Mediterranean.

These areas also influenced its architecture and Cordoba shared similarities to Baghdad and the Abbasid Caliphate, but still had some differences to the Eastern Islamic world.

So thank you for all of your hard work in today's lesson.

I look forward to seeing you again in future, as we think further about some of the similarities and differences between different parts of the 11th century Islamic worlds.