Islamic Golden Age · about 865-1037

Ibn Sina, al-Razi and medieval medicine

Two doctors from Persian lands, al-Razi and Ibn Sina, wrote medical books that were used for centuries, even in Europe. Students follow their lives on the map and look at how hospitals worked.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 1000 to AD 1100
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

Two doctors from Persian lands, al-Razi and Ibn Sina, wrote medical books that were used for centuries, even in Europe. Students follow their lives on the map and look at how hospitals worked.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Rayy, Bukhara and Hamadan and connect them to al-Razi and Ibn Sina.
  • Describe one discovery of al-Razi and the importance of Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine.
  • Explain how hospitals in the Islamic world cared for patients.
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 1000

Bukhara

Open the map in 1000 and zoom in on Bukhara, west of Samarkand. Ibn Sina was born near here in 980 and studied in the ruler's great library. Why would a library attract a young scholar?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1000

Rayy and Hamadan

Turn on the Trade Routes layer and follow the Silk Road west. Find the area of Rayy, near today's Tehran, where al-Razi was born, and Hamadan, where Ibn Sina is buried.

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1100

Medicine travels west

Zoom out to see Iran and Spain. Ibn Sina's Canon was translated into Latin in Toledo in the 1100s. Follow a line from Hamadan to Toledo. How many lands did his ideas cross?

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. Al-Razi showed that smallpox and measles are two different diseases. Why does it matter to tell diseases apart?
  2. Ibn Sina's Canon was used in European universities until the 1600s. What does that tell us about the book?
  3. Hospitals in Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo treated rich and poor. Why would a ruler pay for a hospital?
  4. Ibn Sina wrote rules for testing medicines carefully. How is that like science today?
  5. Both men came from Persian-speaking lands but wrote mostly in Arabic. What does that tell us about the language of science then?
4

Game round

10 min

Rule History has no ruler from Ibn Sina's world. Play one round as Saladin, who ruled Egypt and Syria about 150 years after Ibn Sina's death. Discuss: how could doctors, hospitals and scholars help a ruler win the loyalty of his people?

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.