Untold histories and historical beliefs that might change

 I started teaching medieval history in 2019. Whilst I have an overall interest in general history, this period was quite new to me and I have since tried to refresh and renew my knowledge on it. Being a historian of the 20th and the 19th centuries social policies, it was quite a leap to teach on crusades and lived religion in 12th century Europe. 

As I progress as a teacher, I always find certain aspects of a time period or a social phenomena as more interesting than others. For the past years, this have led to an increased interest in the ”Islamic period” with the height of the caliphate and the moor presence on the Iberian peninsula between 900-1400. I have also come to think a lot of why this period is of particular interest.

One aspect is that this was not taught in schools when I was in highschool. It was first at the university I encountered the Islamic period and first as a teacher I seriously engaged with it. The reason for this is quite simple, what is taught in schools generally connects to what politicians and curriculum writers find interesting and relevant to know. And perhaps this is also why there exist a need to also teach on the Islamic period not only at universities, but also at highschools.

The Islamic period showcase two, in my view, important aspects of history. The first is that people generally tend to think of the world as isolated islands with civilisation at some places before Columbus sett sail in 1492. The Islamic period does not challenge the notion of the world as ”non-globalized”, but still show an interesting aspect in that it existed a Asian, Arabic and north-African influence on Europe well before the early modern period.

Furtheron, I do believe that this form of ”protoglobalism” might be needed be taught due that our world in the last twenty years or so have changed. Whilst cultures always have met, we know live in highly globalized local communities, with a vide array of both nationalities and religions. Bringing up the Islamic period might thus better present a curriculum that teach students of previous interactions between continents, thereby enabling to think more about continuity and change.

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