At a glance
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Walk this pathway
8steps · 60min · teacher · student · intro
Baghdad: a new round city
How Baghdad was founded, who lived in it and why it grew so large.
The House of Wisdom: the city's library
A place for books and translation: who worked there and what they did.
Cordoba: a city in al-Andalus
A European city ruled by Muslims for centuries, where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived.
The Great Mosque of Cordoba
A great building with its famous arches: how it was built and what it was used for.
Cairo and al-Azhar
A city on the Nile, and a mosque that became a school where people still study today.
Timbuktu and Mansa Musa
A city at the edge of the Sahara, and a famous king who travelled from it to Mecca.
Trade links the cities
Caravans, ships and markets: how paper, gold, salt and books travelled from city to city.
The mosque at the heart of the city
A place for prayer, learning and meeting: what the mosques of the four cities share.
What you now know
Mastery check
Five questions on what you walked through. Marked on your device; nothing is kept but the stamp in your passport when you pass.
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Answer key (for the teacher)
- On which river does Baghdad stand? — The Tigris(Learn it at step 1: Baghdad: a new round city)
- What work was done at the House of Wisdom? — Translation and copying(Learn it at step 2: The House of Wisdom: the city's library)
- In which country is Cordoba today? — Spain(Learn it at step 3: Cordoba: a city in al-Andalus)
- Where did Mansa Musa travel from Timbuktu? — To Mecca(Learn it at step 6: Timbuktu and Mansa Musa)
- What linked the four cities? — Trade, mosques and learning(Learn it at step 7: Trade links the cities)
Tell it back
Tell what you learned in your own words. What you write stays on this device only, and no one else reads it.
- I can name four Muslim cities before 1500 and place them on a map.
- I can describe how people learned and traded in these cities.
- I can compare life in an old city with my community today.
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Write at least two sentences, or tick that you told it, to earn the stamp in your passport.
Overview
A Grade 4 lesson on four cities of societies before 1500: how people lived there, who governed, how they learned and traded, and what is like our life today and what is different.
For the teacher
Sixty minutes: ten for the four cities on a projected map, thirty for the steps in groups (one city per group), twenty for the worksheet and the class comparison. Pair the lesson with a First Nation and an Inuit society, as the strand requires.
Sources
- The Ontario Curriculum: Social Studies, Grades 1 to 6; History and Geography, Grades 7 and 8 (2023)
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Four Muslim cities before 1500: Baghdad, Cordoba, Cairo and Timbuktu”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/exhibits/pathway-g4-social-studies-four-cities/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.