Outstanding lessons early Islamic civilization in KS2 history

KS2 Early Islamic civilization: The Golden Age of Islam

All the lessons featured below flow from the detailed medium-term planner ( Early Islamic civilization at KS2) which you can find in the planning section. Each has been chosen to help pupils not only to learn about this magnificent society in the Golden Age of Islam, but also to enable them to compare this society to what was happening at the same time in Britain at the time of the Vikings. A thousand years ago Islamic civilization bestrode the world. For Arab Muslims at that time, the overwhelming sense was one of pride in occupying the very summit of the global pecking order.

Each lesson in this topic is  clearly tied to an important historical skill or concept , whether it be analysis of sources, causation or appreciating cultural diversity. The lessons start with getting pupils to engage with the early Islamic society and to help them to grasp why this important topic is on the KS2 history curriculum. We then look at why the civilization grew so rapidly at the time, explaining how far it spread. Although much of the material is based on Baghdad in the 10th century there is also an important case studies of Cordoba. Naturally, we spend considerable time exploring the richness of the civilization and the legacy but we also leave time to work out how we know about this civilization when so little of Baghdad from this time is still in existence.