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Abbasid Baghdad and the Silk Roads

Grade 11 · World History to the End of the Fifteenth Century, Grade 11, University/College Preparation · 75 min · standard

Mapped by the museum, not endorsed by the Ministry.

A CHW3M pathway on Baghdad in its golden century and the network of routes that linked it to Samarqand, Bukhara and China: the city, the House of Wisdom and the translation movement, al-Khwarizmi and Ibn Sina, and the trade that carried paper, learning and people.

Curriculum mapping

Ontario, Canada
World History to the End of the Fifteenth Century, Grade 11, University/College Preparation CHW3M
Grade
11
Strand
E · The Legacy of Civilizations
Overall expectations
E1, E2
What the lesson does, in the museum's words
The lesson treats the cultural and scientific legacy of the Abbasid civilisation (translation, algebra, medicine) and the kinds of interaction between societies along the Silk Roads: trade, the movement of paper and books, travel, and what each side gained and lost. The Ontario Grades 7 and 8 curriculum (2023) has no strand on medieval trade, so the museum places the Silk Roads here.
Curriculum document consulted
The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: Canadian and World Studies, 2015
Codes checked on
23 October 2026 CE · 12 Jumada I 1448 AH†

Mapped by the museum, not endorsed by the Ministry.

Lesson goal

Students analyse how one city and one trade network contributed to a flourishing civilisation, and assess the legacy of interaction between societies along the Silk Roads before 1500.

Seventy-five minutes. The nine steps form three stations (the city, the learning, the road) that groups rotate through. The museum has no Silk Roads map yet; use the classroom map.

Print the pack: teacher page, worksheet and answer key Classroom quiz Walk this pathway

Lesson steps

Walk this pathway

9steps · 75min · teacher · student · standard

  1. The Abbasid state

    The caliphate passes from Damascus to Iraq in 750, and what changed with it.

    Abbasid Caliphate

  2. The founding of Baghdad

    A round city on the Tigris: who planned it and why here.

    The Founding of Madinat al-Salam (Baghdad)

  3. Harun al-Rashid and al-Ma'mun

    Two caliphs at the city's height: court, money, and learning as policy.

    Harun al-Rashid · Abd Allah al-Ma'mun ibn Harun al-Rashid

  4. The House of Wisdom and the translation movement

    From Greek, Persian and Syriac into Arabic: who translated, what, and for whom.

    Bayt al-Hikma — the House of Wisdom · The Abbasid Translation Movement

  5. Al-Khwarizmi and algebra

    A book on solving equations gave a science its name, and Indian numerals enter the Arabic world.

    al-Khwarizmi

  6. Ibn Sina and medicine

    A physician from Bukhara wrote a book taught in Europe for centuries.

    Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

  7. Samarqand and Bukhara

    The two cities of the road in Central Asia: paper, silk and schools.

    Samarqand · Bukhara

  8. A traveller on the road

    Ibn Battuta from Morocco to China: what he relates about cities and merchants.

    Ibn Battuta, Muhammad ibn Abd Allah

  9. Trade as interaction

    What the caravans carried besides goods: ideas, languages, diseases and religions.

    Trade in Islam

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What you now know

  • I can explain the role of Baghdad and the House of Wisdom in preserving and passing on ancient learning. — 2, 4
  • I can name two scientific achievements and show their effect beyond the Muslim world. — 5, 6
  • I can weigh the benefits and harms of interaction along the Silk Roads for more than one side. — 7, 8, 9

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.

Marking needs JavaScript; the questions and their key read and print without it.

Question 1 of 5
In which year did the caliphate pass to the Abbasids?

Question 2 of 5
From which languages did the House of Wisdom translate?

Question 3 of 5
With which science is al-Khwarizmi's name linked?

Question 4 of 5
From which city did Ibn Sina come?

Question 5 of 5
What did the caravans carry along the Silk Roads besides goods?

Answer key (for the teacher)
  1. In which year did the caliphate pass to the Abbasids? — 750(Learn it at step 1: The Abbasid state)
  2. From which languages did the House of Wisdom translate? — Greek, Persian and Syriac(Learn it at step 4: The House of Wisdom and the translation movement)
  3. With which science is al-Khwarizmi's name linked? — Algebra(Learn it at step 5: Al-Khwarizmi and algebra)
  4. From which city did Ibn Sina come? — Bukhara(Learn it at step 6: Ibn Sina and medicine)
  5. What did the caravans carry along the Silk Roads besides goods? — Ideas, languages and diseases(Learn it at step 9: Trade as interaction)

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.

  1. I can explain the role of Baghdad and the House of Wisdom in preserving and passing on ancient learning.
  2. I can name two scientific achievements and show their effect beyond the Muslim world.
  3. I can weigh the benefits and harms of interaction along the Silk Roads for more than one side.

Writing here needs JavaScript; the prompts read and print without it.

Write at least two sentences, or tick that you told it, to earn the stamp in your passport.

Worksheet

Answer in your own words after each step; every question points back to a museum page.

  1. Why did al-Mansur choose the site of Baghdad? Give two geographical or economic reasons.

  2. From which languages was translation done at the House of Wisdom, and why did caliphs fund it?

  3. What links al-Khwarizmi's name to the word 'algorithm' today?

  4. Trace one sheet of paper from Samarqand to Baghdad: who made it, who carried it, who wrote on it.

  5. Name one benefit and one harm of Silk Road interaction for two different societies.

Free and open: print, quote and adapt, with no account and no student data.

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