Venn Diagram of Chinese Influence in East Asia

Map of Post Classical India

Harun Post

This could be a mediocre post, because it does seem somewhat reliable but yet this can benefited and this can be easily manipulated and changed. This could fault the information on the website and change it. I have a question about his relationship with sister, it seems quite awkward and seems very shady also. He did become caliph and it would be interesting to see how he would function as a leader. Wikipedia definitely leaves more questions for me because it has very shady answers with little explanation. Harun sparked such imagination since not much was actually factual about, so some room for imagination and interpretation was left. His fame came because he was the real life Aladdin, he filled the timeframe and you could say that it is based off him. The Wikipedia page adds to serve to it by explaining a thousand nights and how he relates to it.

Benjamin of Tudela at Baghdad Reading

Benjamin is very biased towards the Muslims and his view point cannot be taken seriously. He often describes the power that the leaders of the Muslim religions have and when he talks about others he almost condescends them.he describes the caliph as a benevolent man even though he has not met every all of them and therefore he is making judgements on stuff he doesn't have any idea on. He clearly favors Baghdad describing it as an almost heaven like land that cannot be found anywhere in the whole land of Mesopotamia. He also says wise men live there, and this clearly isn't factual and just another judgment he makes that has no evidence.

Quran's Reading excerpt from Book

The Quran's teachings on the relationship between Allah and human beings are similar with other monotheistic religions in that men and women are taught to give themselves fully to God and devote themselves to their religion as their life goal. Also praying differs in Islamic religion in that it is a way of praise and thanks as opposed to others in it is a way of helping to make choices and asking for things. Also the warning of not following the church and teachings are given in all of the religions and tell of a bad place where pain and suffering occur. Also the religions all show that god loves you and cares about you and he is comparable to no one.

Islamization of the Silk Road

Bentleys arguments are not supported in this writing. Foltz immediately throws out the idea of much believed force Muslims use if "convert or die.pressure and force was one of the arguments that Bentley supported to have people accepted and join a religion. Interestingly he brings up a point of Muslims expansion being driven by ancient Arabian tradition of raiding. This is not something Bentley supports or explains. Also the idea of Muslim domination of the Silk Road has some heavy influence of people traveling along the way, but no force so this maybe could be voluntary action. I believe Foltz was much more aimed towards the economy and Silk Road having a much bigger role in the transformation and spread of Islamic beliefs along the Silk Road.

Liudprand of Cremona Excerpt

This excerpt has a much more negative and condescending connotation to it. At first the author complains about the house calling it "hateful, waterless, draughty stone house". This is probably over exaggerated and it is not nearly as bad as described. Then in the next paragraph the author describes the trip to Nicephorus as a terrible and that seemed to describe his ugliness pretty in depth. I would not trust this because it seems pretty false and over exaggerated.

The Wealth and Commerce of Constantinople

This passage comes across as praising the city of Constantinople,discussing the wealth and economic boom saying,"there is none like it in the world except Baghdad". Clearly this is an opinionated statement and there is no actual evidence backing this up. Also the author of this article claims that in the church Hagia Sophia there are, "pillars of gold and silver, and lamps of silver and gold more than a man can count." Once again, this is another opinionated statement and clearly the comment about "more than a man can count" is a clear exaggeration. Also at the end of the passage the author claims, "Wealth like that of Constantinople is not go be found in the whole world", once again this is another opinionated statement that has no evidence to support it. I don't think I can trust this as accurate just because there is way too many positive connotations and it sounds practically like heaven, sounds too good to be true.

Ibn Battuta Passage

Ibn Battuta comes across as a pretty neutral writer in the first paragraph , he does not praise or condescend Constantinople. He describes Constantinople in a physical aspect. He focuses much more on the location and what it is near rather than describing the people. He discusses the river and how Constantinople is located close to the sea. In the second paragraph, Ibn comes across as condescending the people calling their church filthy and dirty, if course this is all from his viewpoint. I believe I could trust this viewpoint because it comes across as very neutral with both the pros and cons of Constantinople.