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Crusades Primary Source Quest: Lesson Plan, Kitty Lam

History of Cultural Contact

In this lesson, students will assess the nature of Christian-Muslim interaction during the Crusades by examining multiple accounts by individuals who participated in or were observers of the Crusades. In this activity, students pretend that they are researchers who have discovered new primary sources related to the Crusades. These documents cover a range of topics from conflict to religion to everyday life. The purpose of this exercise is to have students explore the meaning of the Crusades beyond the concept of holy war. This exercise also mimics, to a certain extent, the process that historians go through when conducting archival …

Crusades Primary Source Quest: Student Handouts, Kitty Lam

History of Cultural Contact

The scenario:

About 30 years ago, a group of archeologists discovered excerpts of texts written by people who had witnessed the Crusades, buried inside the tomb of a scholar who died in the late 13^th century. The archaeologists hired Bernard, an archivist at the Museum of the Middle Ages, to analyze the texts and determine just exactly what these documents were and who wrote them. Unfortunately, before Bernard had finished his task, aliens had abducted Bernard and the team of archeologists who discovered the documents. No one heard from any of these people again, and the discovery was forgotten …