1. Who travelled the ‘silk road’ trade routes?
UKS2 Topic: Early Islamic Civilisation
Block C: Trade and Travel
Session 2
Who travelled the ‘silk road’ trade routes?
© Original resource copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
We refer you to our warning, at the foot of the block overview, about links to other websites.

2. merchants soldiers slaves scholars
Islamic civilisation: widest extent [
scholars

3. There were others too…

4. Constantine teaching at at the School of Salerno
Some time around 1065 an interesting visitor arrived in Salerno, Italy. He came from across the sea in north Africa and became known as Constantine the African. He was a doctor who had travelled a lot and understood Arabic, Greek and Latin. He had collected many great works about Muslim medicine. When he heard that the Norman kings and bishops were interested in Muslim learning, he gathered his collection and set sail for Italy.
Constantine provided an important link in the spread of medical knowledge by translating Arabic manuscripts into Latin, so introducing the teachings of Islamic/Arabic medicine at the School of Salerno and eventually to all of Europe.
Despite losing quite a few of his medical books in a storm at sea, Constantine made a great impression on the Norman rulers in Salerno. The Norman rulers rewarded Constantine well.
Constantine stayed in Italy translating more and more Muslim books until he died in 1088.
Constantinus
Africanus
Constantine teaching at at the School of Salerno

5. Adelard of Bath was an English monk who lived between 1080 and 1152
Adelard of Bath was an English monk who lived between and Like most Christian monks at that time he was taught that all he needed to know was in the Bible.
But Adelard had heard that people in the great Muslim lands far to the south and east of Europe used their minds to try to make sense of God’s world. In 1109 he set off on a journey that helped to change history.
Adelard visited Sicily, then based himself in Antioch, Syria. He loved what he found there: a huge treasure trove of Arabic translations of ancient Greek texts – among them, works on geometry, astronomy, and chemistry. Adelard learned Arabic on his travels and mingled with Islamic scholars and wise men that aided him in his quest.
He translated into Latin many of these books about mathematics and astronomy.
Adelard fully appreciated Islamic learning and its role in cultural renewal. His following of Islamic learning techniques: experimentation, rational thought & personal experience would come to replace Europe’s traditions of blind acceptance and submission to authority.
Adelard
of Bath

6. Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta was born in Morocco into a family of Muslim legal scholars in He studied Muslim law as a young man. Aged 21, he began a pilgrimage to Mecca (the hajj), travelling overland along the coast of North Africa.
Arriving in Tunis, Ibn Battuta stayed in a college (madrasa) dormitory and met with the scholars and judges in high positions. He left Tunis in a larger caravan of pilgrims and was appointed ‘qadi’ (Islamic judge and settler of disputes) for the hajj caravan - quite an accomplishment for the young traveller!
Over the following thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands. His journeys included trips to North, South and West Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China.
After returning home from his travels in 1354, Ibn Battuta dictated an account of his journeys, the only source for his adventures, known as the Rihla or "The Journey“.

7. Traders would also have travelled in fear of bandits or raiders, out to steal their wares!

8. What was life on the road like?
UKS2 Topic: Early Islamic Civilisation
Block C: Trade and Travel
Session 2
What was life on the road like?
© Original resource copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
We refer you to our warning, at the foot of the block overview, about links to other websites.

9. What can you see going on here?
The caravanserai
What can you see going on here?

10. Peshawar caravanserai
in Pakistan…
…and in 1928!
still there in 1910

11. Wicked Weather!
baking heat
sandstorms

12. freezing conditions too…
Wicked Weather!
freezing conditions too…

13. Spin Ghar mountains, seen from Jalalabad
Difficult terrain…
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Spin Ghar mountains, seen from Jalalabad
The ‘Khyber Pass’ is a high mountain pass on the road between the capital cities of Kabul in Afghanistan and Islamabad in Pakistan. At 1070m in elevation, it is the only way through the barrier of the Spin Ghar mountains.