"Brother, you had written to me that you sent roughly 6,300 pounds of block iron to me from India in the ship of the Muslim captain Abu'l-Kata'ib. But when the ship arrived here, it only carried 5,100 pounds and the Muslim shipowner said that that was everything he had received from your Indian agent before setting sail. To compensate for the difference, I have charged you the Muslim captain's transportation fee for the above-mentioned iron that was sent to me here in Aden and for pepper that was sent with it. I am also charging you the transportation fee for items that I am sending to you in India, including twenty-five pounds of copper bars, ten Berbera mats in a package, cloth, a piece of lead weighing two hundred and forty-five pounds, two large boxes of sugar, and a package of the best Egyptian paper." *Aden and Berbera were prominent Indian Ocean port cities. Letter from Madmun ibn al-Hassan, a Jewish merchant in Aden, to his brother in India, circa 1133 C.E. The letter was written in Judeo-Arabic, a form of the Arabic language written in the Hebrew script. The letter best illustrates which of the following continuities in the period circa 600-1450 C.E.? C D Which of the following lists three places Ibn Battuta, the fourteenth-century Muslim traveler, visited? A B C D E "After leaving India, we arrived in Sumatra. It is a fertile area, in which coco-palm, clove, Indian aloe, mango, and sweet orange trees grow. Local commerce is facilitated by tin and Chinese gold. The sultan was informed of our visit and sent the judge and experts on Islamic law to meet me. The sultan is an illustrious and generous ruler and a patron of religious scholars. He is constantly waging war against the non-Muslims of Sumatra, but is a humble man who walks on foot to Friday prayers. The non-Muslims of the area must pay a poll-tax to obtain peace. One Friday after leaving the mosque, the sultan mounted an elephant and we and his entourage rode with him on horses until we reached the palace. Male musicians came into the audience hall and sang before him, after which they led horses into the hall. The horses were embroidered in silk and wore golden anklets and danced before the sultan. I was astonished, even though I had seen the same performance at the court of the Delhi sultan in India*. My stay at the sultan's court lasted fifteen days, after which I asked his permission to continue my journey to China because it is not possible to sail to China at all times of the year. We then traveled to a kingdom on the Malay Peninsula aboard a Chinese ship. This kingdom is inhabited by non-Muslims and contains great quantities of aromatic spices and aloes. The merchants sell Indian aloe for a roll of cotton cloth, which is dearer to them than silk. The ruler is a non-Muslim. We then left the Malay Peninsula and sailed to another non-Muslim kingdom in Southeast Asia. After seventeen days at sea, with a favorable wind and sailing with maximum speed and ease, we reached the land of China." *The Delhi Sultanate was a Muslim state in northern India that was ruled by a Turkic elite. Ibn Battuta, Muslim traveler from North Africa, account of his journey to China, circa 1345 Ibn Battuta's claim in the second paragraph that the ceremony that he observed at the court of the sultan of Sumatra was similar to a ceremony that he had seen at the court of the Delhi sultan in India is most likely understood in the context of which of the following developments in the Indian Ocean region in the period 1200-1450 ? A B C D "Consider how in our time God has transferred the West into the East. He who was a Roman or a Frank is now an inhabitant of Palestine. We have already forgotten the places of our birth. Some already possess homes and servants here. Some have taken wives not merely of their own people, but Syrians, or Armenians, or even Muslims who have received the grace of baptism. Different languages, now made common, become known to both peoples, and faith unites those whose forefathers were strangers. Our parents and relatives from day to day come to join us, abandoning, even though reluctantly, all that they possess. For those who were poor there, here God makes rich. Those who had few coins, here possess countless riches. Those who did not have a home in the West, by the gift of God, already possess a city in the East. Therefore, why should one who has found the East so favorable return to the West? God does not wish those to suffer poverty who, carrying their crosses, have vowed to follow Him, even unto the end." Fulcher of Chartres, French clergyman, chronicle written in Jerusalem, early twelfth century C.E. The linguistic processes alluded to in the passage were most likely the result of which of the following? A B C D The following questions refer to the passage below. "I, Edward, by the grace of God king of England, sent this decree to the sheriff of Kent (a region in southeastern England). A great portion of the people of our realm have recently died. Those who survive see that masters need servants, which are scarce, and the servants will not serve unless they receive excessive wages. After consulting with the nobles and clergy, we have decided that every man and woman of our realm of England shall be required to serve his or her lord at the wages that were provided in the year 1346. Merchants, those who belong to craft guilds, and those who own their land are exempt from this rule. The lords are entitled to keep their serfs. If any such serf, man or woman, who is required to serve their lord will not do so, they shall be immediately committed to jail." King Edward III of England, the Statute of Laborers, parliamentary decree, 1351 Based on the passage, the Statute of Laborers was most likely a direct response to which of the following? A B C D "Between the eighth and tenth centuries Arabs brought back from India a variety of crops that they then began cultivating in the Middle East. These included staple crops such as hard wheat, rice, sugarcane, and new varieties of sorghum; fruits such as banana, sour orange, lemon, lime, mango, watermelon, and the coconut palm; vegetables such as spinach, artichoke, and eggplant; and the key industrial crop, cotton. From Iraq, many of these crops then spread westward all the way to Muslim Spain, which was transformed into a veritable garden under Muslim rule. Other crops passed by ship from southern Arabia to East Africa, while still others moved by caravan from northwest Africa across the Sahara to tropical West Africa. This was especially true for cotton, whose diffusion in Africa directly paralleled the spread of Islam itself." Richard Eaton, United States historian of South Asia, Islamic History as Global History, 1990. The passage can most directly be used to illustrate which of the following aspects of the environmental history of the period 600-1450 C.E.? B C D |
