The Coins of Abd al-Malik
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11/02/2024 5:56 pm
- First, consider how objects are part of your classroom discussions, lecturers, or activities. Please share creative ways that you incorporate material culture into your classroom.
- I often use objects in station activities in my classroom. For example, when we begin our African Kingdoms unit, students examine 4 of the common myths about Medieval Africa by visiting stations with primary and secondary sources (based on the NHC course - Medieval Africa and Africans). Students look at the Benin Bronzes, coinage, other artworks from Europe that use ivory and gold from West Africa, and other objects. Through analyzing images of these objects, they use them to disprove the myth about medieval Africa.
- I haven’t yet used one of the culture trunks from the University of Texas at Austin Hemispheres program, but I have wanted to do that for some time. There is something really valuable about students being able to touch and hold various objects in order to learn more about a culture or religious group. Here is the link in case anyone is interested (and I believe there are more on their website): Religion Trunks & Culture Trunks
- How do the coins expand your knowledge of the caliphates and the trade system in the early Islamic world?
- The coins are archaeological evidence that takes us back in time to the caliphates and how they adapted the common use of currency for their own political and religious benefit and messaging. Currency is something that makes its way from one place to another, so it is an easy way to disseminate their religious message to citizens of all faiths throughout their empire. In essence, the coins became missionaries of the Islamic faith.
- How do you see religion and politics blending together in the minting of these gold coins?
- I see religion and politics blending together in the minting of these gold coins because the coins became the ambassadors of faith while also serving an economic purpose. Like emperors before them, the caliphs needed to assert their political dominance in their new lands, and currency allowed them to permeate the economic and religious lives of their conquered peoples.
This topic was modified 3 months ago by Kaitlyn King