Abbasid Caliphate · about 800-1000

Silver on the Volga: the trade of the Abbasid world

Arab silver coins turn up in buried treasure in Sweden. Students follow the routes north along the Volga and east by sea to China, meet the traveler Ibn Fadlan, and ask who gained and who suffered from this trade.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 900
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Arab silver coins turn up in buried treasure in Sweden. Students follow the routes north along the Volga and east by sea to China, meet the traveler Ibn Fadlan, and ask who gained and who suffered from this trade.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Trace the Volga Trade Route and the Maritime Spice Route on the map.
  • Describe the journey of Ibn Fadlan in 921-922.
  • Explain what goods, including enslaved people, moved along these routes and why.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 900

The road north

Open the map in 900 and turn on the Trade Routes layer. Follow the Volga Trade Route from the Caspian Sea to the Baltic. Which peoples and states does it pass?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 922

Bulghar on the Volga

Zoom in where the Kama river joins the Volga. This is the land of the Volga Bulgars, whom Ibn Fadlan visited in 922. What could people here offer to traders from the south?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 900

The sea road east

Now follow the Maritime Spice Route from Baghdad and Basra to India and beyond. Which goods would ships bring back to Baghdad?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Tens of thousands of Arab silver coins have been found buried in Scandinavia. How did they get there?
  2. Ibn Fadlan described the Rus traders he met on the Volga in great detail. Why are eyewitness accounts so valuable to historians?
  3. Furs, wax and honey went south; silver went north. Why would each side want what the other had?
  4. Some of the people sold on these routes were captives taken in raids. How should we remember them when we tell the story of trade?
  5. A ship that sank near Indonesia in the 800s was full of Chinese bowls. What can a shipwreck tell us that a book cannot?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Charlemagne, who ruled while Abbasid silver began to flow into northern Europe. Discuss: why do rulers want to control trade routes, and who really profits from them?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.