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SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1WORLD HISTORYQuestion 1 (Document Based Question)Required reading and writing time: 45 minutesIt is suggested that you spend 10-15 minutes reading the documentsand 30-35 minutes writing your response. Note: You may begin writingyour response before the reading period is over.Directions: Question 1 is based on the accompanying five documents. The documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise. In your response you should do the following. ?Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning.?Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.?Support an argument in response to the prompt using at least four documents.?Use two additional pieces of specific historical evidence (beyond that found in the documents) relevant to an argument about the prompt.?For at least two documents, explain how or why the document’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument.?Use evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the prompt.Evaluate the extent to which the state impacted religious practices as the religions spread in Afro-Eurasia between the 9th and 16th centuries.Document 1Source: Account by a Christian monk who served Kubilai Khan, describing two Christian monks encounters with the sons-in-law of Kubilai Khan during their travels from China to Jerusalem, late 13th century“[The monks] selected for [the kings] gifts, namely, beasts on which to ride, and gold, and silver, and wearing apparel [and rugs]. Then the two monks said, "We have no need of any [of these things]. For what can we do with these possessions? And how can we possibly carry such a weight [as] this?" And the kings mentioned above replied, "Ye have no knowledge of the length of this journey, and the expenses which it demands. We, however, do know, and we advise you not to set out empty [handed]; if ye do ye will be unable to arrive at the place which ye have decided to be your destination. Accept then these gifts from us as a lon (or trust), and if some occasion of necessity should befall you, spend what ye need from them; if, on the other hand, the necessity does not arise, and ye arrive safe and sound, distribute them among the monasteries and habitations of the monks which are there, and the Fathers (i.e. Bishops), so that we may enjoy association with our Western Fathers.” Document 2Source: Map of North Africa in which figures the Atlas Mountains, the king of Mali (Mansa Musa), the king of Organa, the king of Nubia, the king of Babylon, and the Red Sea. Atlas catalan, Spain, Majorca, c, 14th CenturyDocument 3Source: except from the book of the Turkish Admiral Sidi Ali Reis, entitled "Mirat ul Memalik" (the Mirror of Countries), describing the celebration of an Islamic festival by merchants in China, 1557 CEMoreover, I was told in Gujarat, by the merchants Khodja Bashi and Kara Hasan (God alone knows whether their story is true), that when the Turkish merchants in China desired to insert the name of their [Turkish] Sovereign in the Bairam prayers on Bairamday, they brought the request before the Khakan of China, stating that their Sovereign was Padishah of Mecca, Medina, and the Kibla… and therefore entitled to have his name inserted in the Bairam prayers. The Khakan, although an unbeliever, had insight enough to see the justice of their request, which he granted forthwith… Ever since that time the name of the Padishah of Turkey has been included in the Bairam prayers [in China]Document 4Source: Abu Ubaydallah Al-Bakar, Muslim scholar living in Cordoba, Spain, 1067.The king of Ghana, when he calls up his army, can put 200,000 men in the field. The city of Ghana consists of two towns situated on a plain. One of these towns, which is inhabited by Muslims, is large and possesses twelve mosques. When they assemble for the Friday prayer the king adorns himself like a woman, wearing necklaces round his neck and bracelets on his forearms, and he puts on a high cap decorated with gold and wrapped in a turban of fine cotton. Their religion is paganism and the worship of idols. They make sacrifices to their dead and make offerings of intoxicating drinks.On the opposite bank of the Niger River is another great kingdom, the king of which has the title of Daw. The king had as his guest a Muslim who read the Quran and was acquainted with the Sunna* to him. To this man, the king complained of the calamities’ that assailed him and his people. The man said “if you accepted all the religious laws of Islam, I would pray for your deliverance from you plight and that God’s mercy would envelop all the people of you country.” Thus he continued to press the king and the latter accepted Islam and became a sincere Muslim. *The traditional portion of Muslim law based on Muhammad’s word or acts, accepted (together with the Quran) as authoritative by Muslims.Document 5Source: Tang Emperor Wu, Edict on Buddhism, 845 CE.We have heard that the Buddha was never spoken of before the Han dynasty; from then on the religion of idols gradually came to prominence. So in this latter age Buddhism has transmitted its strange ways and has spread like a luxuriant vine until it has poisoned the customs of our nation. Buddhism has spread to all the nine provinces of China; each day finds its monks and followers growing more numerous and its temples more lofty. Buddhism wears out the people’s strength, pilfers their wealth, causes people to abandon their lords and parents for the company of teachers, and severs man and wife with its monastic decrees. In destroying law and injuring humankind indeed nothing surpasses this doctrine!Now if even one man fails to work the fields, someone must go hungry; if one woman does not tend her silkworms, someone will go cold. At present there are an inestimable number of monks and nuns in the empire, all of them waiting for the farmers to feed them and the silkworms to clothe them while the Buddhist public temples and private chapels have reached boundless numbers, sufficient to outshine the imperial palace itself.Having thoroughly examined all earlier reports and consulted public opinion on all sides, there no longer remains the slightest doubt in Our mind that this evil should be eradicated. ................
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