Overview

The Travels of Ibn Battuta: A Guided Reader is a unique Arabic literature and history textbook for students at the High Intermediate to Advanced level. Ibn Battuta was the greatest traveler of the medieval period, and his narrative provides an unmatched view of medieval civilization from Spain to China, and from Russia to Mali. Students will read the authentic descriptions of Ibn Battuta's encounters with cannibals, desert bandits, Mongol chieftains, and his impressions of wonders from Timbuktu to Constantinople to Quanzhou. This book provides a guided and scaffolded survey of Ibn Battuta's greatest travels through twenty lessons, each with extensive preparatory, explanatory, and application exercises, enabling students to read the actual words of the original text without undue difficulty.While telling a fascinating narrative as a whole, each of the twenty lessons is designed to stand alone for classroom or individual study. Individual sections focus on classical grammar and stylistics, historical and cultural background and critical evaluation of the texts. The book also provides teachers with a wide range of comprehension, composition, interpretation, and research activities.

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9789774167157

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Reviews

"""Dimeo and Hassan seamlessly blend critically important historical, religious, and cultural information about the medieval world together with meticulously planned Arabic grammar and vocabulary lessons. Structured around one of the most important texts of classical Arabic-Ibn Battuta's travels through cosmopolitan Islam of the fourteenth century--this text is the perfect springboard into advanced language study and cultural knowledge.""--Jonathan Smolin, Dartmouth College ""DiMeo and Hassan take an exciting and effective approach to repositioning culture at the center of Arabic-language learning. Instructors will find this textbook a useful, enriching, and valuable asset for their students.""--Mbaye Bashir Lo, Duke University ""This textbook is unique in its sound pedagogically approach, its rich historical background, its smooth transitioning within and across lessons, and its use of a wide variety of text-handling strategies that enhance students' reading and comprehension skills of authentic material."" --Hanada Al-Masri, Denison University ""The authentic texts of one of the best known Arabic literary classics combined with a wealth of activities, including vocabulary and writing skill building, comprehension and discussion questions, grammar explanations and exercises, and culture and history notes prepared by two innovative and dedicated teachers make this textbook an indispensable contribution to the field of Arabic language instruction. I will definitely use it in my advanced Arabic classes at Cornell University and I highly recommend it to my colleagues in Arabic-as-a-foreign-language programs."" --Munther Younes, Cornell University"

Dimeo and Hassan seamlessly blend critically important historical, religious, and cultural information about the medieval world together with meticulously planned Arabic grammar and vocabulary lessons. Structured around one of the most important texts of classical Arabic-Ibn Battuta's travels through cosmopolitan Islam of the fourteenth century-this text is the perfect springboard into advanced language study and cultural knowledge. --Jonathan Smolin, Dartmouth College DiMeo and Hassan take an exciting and effective approach to repositioning culture at the center of Arabic-language learning. Instructors will find this textbook a useful, enriching, and valuable asset for their students. --Mbaye Bashir Lo, Duke University This textbook is unique in its sound pedagogically approach, its rich historical background, its smooth transitioning within and across lessons, and its use of a wide variety of text-handling strategies that enhance students' reading and comprehension skills of authentic material. --Hanada Al-Masri, Denison University The authentic texts of one of the best known Arabic literary classics combined with a wealth of activities, including vocabulary and writing skill building, comprehension and discussion questions, grammar explanations and exercises, and culture and history notes prepared by two innovative and dedicated teachers make this textbook an indispensable contribution to the field of Arabic language instruction. I will definitely use it in my advanced Arabic classes at Cornell University and I highly recommend it to my colleagues in Arabic-as-a-foreign-language programs. --Munther Younes, Cornell University

Author Information

David DiMeo received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, specializing in Arabic Literature and M.A. from Princeton University in Near Eastern Studies. He is an assistant professor and coordinator of the Arabic program at Western Kentucky University.Inas Hassan has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Arabic linguistics from Alexandria University in Egypt and is currently visiting assistant professor of Arabic at Loyola University in Maryland.

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