Where does coffee come from? Coffee history starts in Africa. Coffee plants grew wild in East Africa. Sometime before 1000 AD, the people who lived in Ethiopia, in East Africa, began to pick [...]
A bunch of bananas: History of bananas Where do bananas come from? Wild ancestors of banana trees grew in southeast Asia. Like chickens, bananas were first domesticated in southeast Asia. [...]
Islamic archery contest If you're a teacher, parent, or day camp counselor thinking of spending a week or so on ancient Islam, here's some ideas other people have found useful: [...]
Men playing polo When was polo invented? Polo was first invented in the Islamic Empire, during the Abbasid period (as far as we can tell). Probably it comes from earlier [...]
A chess project: Two medieval Islamic men playing chess Playing a game of chess Chess is an game that was very popular in the Islamic Empire. The game of chess [...]
Ottoman archer on horseback Archery competitions were very popular in the Islamic Empire. You could sign up for an archery class through your local community center or college. Or you [...]
Children being vaccinated A vaccination is a way to keep animals (both people and other kinds of animals) from getting sick when viruses get inside their bodies. The earliest kind [...]
A chunk of kaolin clay Kaolin clay and porcelain Kaolin is a kind of clay with a lot of aluminum, silica, and oxygen in it. It is the kind of [...]
Palace of the Hafsids in Tunis (now the Bardo Museum) - where the economist Ibn Khaldun spent time Ibn Khaldun's childhood The economist Ibn Khaldun was born in Tunis, in [...]
Ibn Battuta in China - on his travels Continuing travels of Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta had already traveled much more than most people did! But even after visiting East Africa he [...]
