The idea for this lesson plan was inspired by Amida Carey, Martin Beadle, Katherine Haas, and Emily Legum of The Key School in Annapolis, Maryland, who received a teacher grant from the National Geographic Education Foundation in support of a semester-long project called The Travels of Ibn Battuta.

In this lesson, students will work in groups to research the different areas that the 14th century Islamic traveler Ibn Battuta visited. They will review some of the basics of Islam, and create posters illustrating what they have learned about Ibn Battuta.

[Note: It would be ideal if students could have studied some of the basics of the Islamic religion before doing this lesson.]

Geography, world history

Standard 10: "The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics"
Standard 17: "How to apply geography to interpret the past"

Two to three hours

• Computer with Internet access
• Wall map of the world
• Copies for each student of a map of Ibn Battuta's travels
• Blank Xpeditions outline maps of Africa or Asia (one map for each group, depending on their assigned regions)
• Writing and drawing materials, including large sheets of paper for posters

Students will

• use the Web to review some basics of Islam;
• in groups, research assigned regions that Ibn Battuta visited and answer questions about these places;
• map some of the places Ibn Battuta visited; and
• create posters showing Ibn Battuta's travels.

Have students review some of the things they have learned about Islam by spending a few minutes at the Mosques Web site. Start with "Outside the Mosque" and explore the site. In particular, ask them to look for information to answer the questions "What is the pilgrimage?" and "What are some traditions practiced in the mosque?" Discuss their findings as a class.

Explain that Ibn Battuta was an Islamic traveler in the 14th century. He traveled in northern Africa, the Middle East, India, and Central and East Asia.

Give each student a copy of the map from Ibn Battuta's travels. Explain that this map shows the approximate route that Ibn Battuta took on his travels. You might want to have students compare this map to another map, which shows the extent of the Islamic world at the time of his travels.

Explain that there may be an error on the map you have given students: although the map shows Ibn Battuta's route extending to Beijing, most experts doubt that he traveled all the way to Beijing from the southern part of China. He wrote about Beijing, but he probably did not actually go there. Have students cross out this part of the route and write, "He probably didn't go to Beijing" next to their marks. The map also does not show all of Ibn Battuta's travels, such as his journey down the East Coast of Africa. Ask students to keep these maps for the remainder of this lesson.

Divide the class into eleven groups. Assign each group to one of the following parts of Ibn Battuta's journey:

Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia
Egypt
Syria and Palestine
The Hajj
Persia and Iraq
East Africa
Turkey (Anatolia)
The Steppe (the central Asian area near the Caspian Sea, including the Volga River)
India
Malaysia and China
West Africa

Inform students that they will be recreating some of the places Ibn Battuta visited on posters that they will share with their classmates. To do this, they will have to learn about where he went and what it was like there.

Ask groups to use The Travels of Ibn Battuta—A Virtual Tour With the 14th Century Traveler, plus the Web sites below and any printed materials you may have in the classroom or library, to find out about their assigned areas of travel. Ask them to take notes to answer these questions:

• Where did Ibn Battuta go in this area? What city names are mentioned?
• What does the landscape look like in this area?
• What did Ibn Battuta do here?
• What did he observe about the place and people here?

General site:
National Geographic: Wild World—Terrestrial Ecoregions (Students should draw rectangles around the area they are studying and then click on the colors in the locations where Ibn Battuta traveled to see what it looks like in these places.)

Sites specific to regions Ibn Battuta visited:
An Introduction to Africa
An Introduction to India
Malaysia
Samarkand (This site is about Uzbekistan, for the group studying the Steppe.)
Yahooligans! (Students can search for additional Web sites on their regions.)

Give each group a blank outline map of Africa or Asia, depending on the group's assigned region of travel. Ask them to use a modern atlas to locate some of the cities and places Ibn Battuta visited. Have them label these places on their blank maps.

Have students return to the maps you gave them at the beginning of the lesson. Have any of the groups learned about routes Ibn Battuta took that are not shown on this map? Ask those groups to show the class where he traveled; they can point out his route on a world wall map. Ask the rest of the class to draw these routes on their own maps.

Have each group create a poster showing some of the things it has learned about Ibn Battuta's journey and illustrating what the region's landscape is like. They should include maps, drawings, and text explaining what he did and saw there. Have groups display their posters around the classroom and take turns sharing them with the class.

Ask students to imagine that they can go back in time and travel with Ibn Battuta along part of his journey. Have each student choose which part of the trip he or she would like to take and write a paragraph answering these questions:

• What interesting things will you see?
• What might you discuss with the people you meet?
• What interesting customs do the people have?
• What will you tell people about your trip once you get back home?

National Geographic Magazine: The World of Islam
The Travels of Ibn BattutaA Virtual Tour With the 14th Century Traveler