Mr. Dorrough’s History Class

Today in class we played a game that simulated the wars fought to get control of the “Holy Land.”

During the Middle Ages there were many factions (or groups) fighting for the land we now call Israel and Palestine. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all held this area to be sacred. They particularly believed that Jerusalem was important. In fact, several wars were fought to control this Holy city. We call these wars The Crusades.

Jerusalem has several places that all three religions believe to be important. For Jews there is the last remaining wall of the Temple. In 70 ce The Romans destroyed the Holy Temple to God. This temple was built on the same ground as the Temple that King Solomon Built the original Temple. For Christians there is the Church of The Holy Sepulchre. This is a huge Church that covers the area where Jesus was crucified and the tomb where he was buried. For Muslims there is the Dome of The Rock. This is an important Mosque where the rock that Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac. It is also the place where Muhammad was brought by the winged horse during his Night Journey.

This area is still being fought over today.

What do you think about the game we played?

So far in unit two we have studied the geography of Arabia, the life of Muhammad, and the teachings of Islam. Now we are going to explore how the ideas and inventions from the Islamic world during the Middle Ages traveled through out the world, and how we use them today.

For our warm up we created a study guide from the key terms and the essential questions.

In class we did The Prereading Questions for chapter ten. We also defined the key terms.