• 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 immediately thought of how I use money in my classroom. Depending on the particular economics class, I use international money in a variety of ways, from calculating exchange rates or "worth" of the amount they have in their hand, to analyzing the imagery/message to learn about the values of the country producing the money, to just a reminder that when we are working with Tanzanian shillings (like two classes were last week), a number like 1,000 or 2,000 might not mean a high value, given that coins are worth 500 shillings. Other than money I don't have a lot of artifacts/realia that I use in the classroom. I do use a lot of images of realia, though.

• How do the coins expand your knowledge of the caliphates and the trade system in the early Islamic world? 

I was unable to access the BBC documentary, but I found it very interesting to trace the changes in coinage in the Bacharach article and the significance of each change. For example, that the caliph would choose to highlight religious words to emphasize that it is a "Muslim" coin to show the extent of his power, was a point that was fairly obvious to me but I'd never considered. 

• How do you see religion and politics blending together in the minting of these gold coins? 

The choice of image or no image, which phrases/texts to use, etc. show a varying degree of religious influence, while literally putting one's "stamp" on the coins shows political power, particularly in establishing their own coinage instead of using the money from other nearby political powers.