Hello, I am Miss Krijnauw.

And I'm really pleased that you have joined me today for this history lesson.

In this unit, we are learning about a very exciting time in history, the early Islamic civilization, and how Baghdad became the City of Peace.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to describe how Islam grew from its early origins to the founding of Baghdad, the City of Peace.

Before we start with the lesson, there are some key words I would like to introduce you to.

You could pause the video and take a note of these keywords and their meanings so that you can refer back to them during the lesson when we come across them.

Here are other keywords, Golden Age of Islam, tolerance.

I'm going to say these words again and this time you can say them with me.

Golden Age of Islam, tolerance.

Let's find out what these words mean.

The Golden Age of Islam was a time of incredible learning, success and wealth.

Tolerance is to accept other people's culture, religion, and differences.

Today's lesson about how Baghdad became the City of Peace is split into two parts.

The first part is entitled "Islam spreads to other parts of the world." Islam began in a cave on Mount Hira near Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula in the year 610 CE.

Muslims believe that it was then that the prophet Muhammad received revelations from Allah delivered by the Angel Gabriel.

Muhammad started spreading the teachings of Islam and it was not long before he had a huge following on the Arabian Peninsula.

After Muhammad's death, the Islamic Empire was ruled by the caliphate.

First they were the Rashiduns, then the Umayyads ruled, and that was followed by the Abbasid Caliphate.

By the time the Abbasid Caliphate was in power, Islam had spread to the Middle East, parts of Asia, as well as the Southern Mediterranean.

Let's pause here for a moment to check our understanding of what we have just learned.

Use the map of the Abbasid Caliphate to say how Islam spread by filling the blanks in the sentence below.

Islam started in the mm, and then sprayed to the the hmm parts of mm and mm.

Pause the video here.

And when you are ready to hear the answer, press Play.

Let's check the answer.

Islam started in the Arabian Peninsula and then spread to the Middle East, parts of Asia and the Southern Mediterranean.

Well done if you managed to complete that sentence with all the words highlighted in purple.

The Islamic Empire was extremely successful and Islam spread far and wide.

But what caused Islam to spread so quickly, and over such a large area? You could pause the video here and tell your learning partner what you think may have caused Islam to spread so successfully.

When you are ready to continue learning, press Play.

Well, to be honest, there were many reasons why Islam spread so successfully, but the four main reasons were due to strong leadership, military strength, enemies' weaknesses, and tolerance shown to captured cities.

Let's look into each of these reasons in more detail.

The first reason is that the Islamic Empire had strong leaders.

Think, for example, of the Prophet Muhammad.

He united warring Arabian tribes through Islam and under his leadership, Islam spread across the Arabian Peninsula.

Another strong leader was the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, Abu Bakr.

He was Muhammad's close friend and protected him during the days that Muhammad was persecuted in Mecca.

It was also under his leadership that Muhammad's revelations were collected and written down into a single book called the Quran.

Another reason why Islam spread so successfully was due to its military strength.

The Muslim army was very strong because they were well organised and disciplined.

Their faith in Allah helped them fight with bravery and fearlessness.

The success of the growth of Islam was also helped by the weaknesses of their enemies.

The Byzantine and Persian empires neighbored the Arabian Peninsula.

These two empires had been at war with each other for years.

This had left these empires weak and poor, so that when the Prophet Muhammad and the caliphates wanted to expand the Islamic Empire, they knew that invading them and winning battles would be much easier.

The fourth reason is the tolerance shown to people in captured cities.

The Islamic rulers showed tolerance towards non-Muslims, allowing them to practise their religion within the Islamic empire.

This meant that people of different religions could live side by side peacefully, and in some cases, this convinced people to convert to Islam too.

Let's check our understanding of what we have just learned.

Say whether the following statement is true or false.

During the early spread of Islam, Muslims showed no tolerance of other religions.

Pause the video here and when you are ready to hear the answer, press Play.

Well, of course that statement is false, but let's give a reason why we say so.

Let's justify our answer.

Is the justification that, A, people living in captured cities were allowed to practise their own religion? Or B, people living in captured cities were not allowed to practise their own religions? Pause the video here and when you are ready to hear the answer, press Play.

Well, of course it is because people living in captured cities were allowed to practise their own religions, well done.

We are now ready for the first learning task of this lesson.

Islam spread due to four reasons.

Give an example for each of these reasons.

Strong leadership, military strength, enemies' weaknesses, and tolerance.

Pause the video here to give yourself enough time to give an example for each of these four reasons.

Well, you could have said that the Prophet Muhammad or Abu Bakr were examples of strong leadership.

You could also have said that the defeated rebellious tribes and the defeated Byzantine forces were examples of military strength.

You could have said that the Byzantine and Persian armies were weakened by years of fighting.

And that is an example of the Muslim's enemies' weaknesses.

An example of tolerance is that the Muslim leaders allowed other religions to practise.

Well done if your answers look similar to these.

We are now going to move on to the second part of this lesson, which is entitled "The City of Peace." Al-Mansur, the second caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate founded Baghdad, which was a new capital city for the Islamic Empire in the year 762 CE.

Well, of course, building a city as spectacular as this required a lot of money.

So where did that money come from? The Silk Road, which was a network of trade routes, and that ran through parts of the Islamic Empire, brought a lot of wealth to the caliph, because people had to pay taxes to buy and sell their goods in Baghdad.

Al-Mansur used this money to build the marvellous city Baghdad.

Let's check our understanding.

How did the Abbasid Caliphate pay for the building of the new capital city, Baghdad? Was it A, from money that came from trading on the Silk Road? B, from money that came from mining gold? Or C, from money that came from trading on the Paper Road? Pause the video here, and when you are ready to hear the answer, press Play.

Well, yes, of course.

The Abbasid Caliphate paid for the building of the new capital city with money that came from trading on the Silk Road.

Well done if you got that right.

Al-Mansur designed Baghdad to be a grand and well-planned city.

It was built on the Tigris River so that traders on the Silk Road could have easy access to Baghdad.

Baghdad also boasted many public facilities such as parks, hospitals, mosques, and a library, which attracted many people from around the world.

Baghdad was soon known as the City of Peace, and it was proof of the wealth of the Abbasid Caliphate.

Baghdad was founded in the early days of the Golden Age of Islam.

This was a time of incredible learning and discovery and creativity for the Islamic Empire.

One of the most exciting things about the Golden Age of Islam was how much people learned about science, maths, and medicine, and how many people made discoveries in these subjects.

Scholars and intellectuals from all over the world came to Baghdad's House of Wisdom to learn about art, world cultures, science, and inventions.

They enjoyed talking about their new knowledge and ideas, and one would've been able to hear scholars debate with each other over a range of subjects.

The House of Wisdom was also a huge library where books were kept that had been translated into Arabic from Greek, Persian, Indian and other languages.

Let's take some time to check our understanding.

Solve the clues to complete the puzzle about the Golden Age of Islam.

Number one says the circular city.

Number two, a, mm, age is a time of incredible learning, success and happiness.

And number three, it was during the Abbasid mm.

Pause the video here and when you are ready to hear the answers, press Play.

Let's check our answers.

Clue number one said the circular city.

Did you say that that was Baghdad? Well done if you did.

That is the answer running vertically the second clue, a Golden Age is a time of incredible learning, success and happiness.

And the third clue, it was during the Abbasid Caliphate.

Well done if you got that right.

Baghdad, the City of Peace, played an important role in the golden age of Islam.

Baghdad continued to be the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate for hundreds of years.

And its wealth and culture left a lasting impact on the rest of the world.

The golden age of Islam lasted for approximately 500 years until 1258 CE, which is around the same time that the Abbasid Caliphate ended.

Let's look at the last learning task of this lesson.

Read Andeep's statement below.

Write two or three sentences explaining why you agree or disagree with it.

Al-Mansur's dream to create a great city was realised.

A good answer should include the following, the Golden Age of Islam and the Silk Road.

Pause the video here to give yourself enough time to write two or three sentences.

And when you are ready to reflect on the answer, press Play.

Here is an example of an answer that you could have given.

I agree with Andeep, because Al-Mansur wanted to build a great city and he achieved this.

He chose the site for Baghdad because it was on the Silk Road, which attracted traders and scholars from around the world.

It became a time of incredible learning, discovery and creativity, and is known as the Golden Age of Islam.

And with that, we have come to the end of this lesson about how Baghdad became the City of Peace.

Before we go, let's summarise what we have learned in this lesson.

Islam spread from the Arabian Peninsula to the Southern Mediterranean, Middle East, and parts of Asia.

Islam spread due to strong leadership, military strength, opponents' weaknesses and tolerance shown to captured cities.

The wealth that came from trading networks like the Silk Road led to the founding of Baghdad as a new capital for the Abbasid Caliphate.

Baghdad was founded in the early days of the Golden Age of Islam and soon became known as the City of Peace.

Thank you for joining me in today's history lesson about the early Islamic civilization and how Baghdad was founded.

I've really enjoyed accompanying you on this learning journey and I hope to see you again very soon, buh-bye.