Middle East
Lady Florentia Sale Diary
Lady Florentia Sale (1790-1853), wife of Major-General Sir Robert Henry Sale, wrote a journal of her experiences during the First Afghan War.
Analyzing Oral Histories
The modules in Methods present case studies that demonstrate how scholars interpret different kinds of historical evidence in world history. This module is based on a series of oral history interviews conducted in the mid-1990s.
Interview with Sa’ida Jarallah
Read the excerpt on this page of an oral history interview taken by Professor Ellen Fleischmann. In it, Sa’ida Jarallah, one of the first Palestinian Muslim women to study abroad, discusses her life, especially the social and cultural aspects of growing up as a young woman in the 1930s.
Fundraising for Palestinian Families in Jerusalem
This is a photograph of Palestinian women activists, shedding light on the political experience of women in Palestine. The leadership of the movement ended up mostly being single women because most of the women involved in the movement were married, had family responsibilities.
Analyzing Religious Texts
The modules in Methods present case studies that demonstrate how scholars interpret different kinds of historical evidence in world history. In the video below, historian Sumaiya Hamdani analyzes a Hadith. Hadith are reports about what the Prophet Muhammad said or thought.
The Prophet Muhammad and A’isha
This is a depiction of A’isha, one of Muhammad’s wives. She was close to the Prophet and is the author of roughly 1,200 Hadith. Her involvement tells us something about the public role that some women played in the early Muslim community and the respect she was given.
Excerpts from the Hadith by A’isha
Hadith are reports about what the Prophet Muhammad said or thought. They provide Muslims with a sense of how Muhammad applied the guidelines of the Koran to daily life. They are based on the memories and stories of those who knew the Prophet and were recorded a few generations after his death.
Analyzing Official Documents
The modules in Methods present case studies that demonstrate how scholars interpret different kinds of historical evidence in world history. In the video below, historian Dina Khoury analyzes two official proclamations by the government of the Ottoman Empire.
World War II American Soldiers and a Bengali Child
These photographs are among a series of fifteen taken in 1945 by U.S. soldier Glenn S. Hensley. Hensley was a professional photographer participating in aerial surveillance of Burma for the U.S. Army. The images illustrate an encounter between Hensley and four fellow U.S.
Indus Valley Climbing Monkey Toy
The monkey figurine shown in two views is mounted on a wooden platform for display, but it was apparently designed with the ability to slide down a string or thin rod so as to appear to climb or jump.