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ME4855   Crusaders, Mongols and Mamluks: West and East in the Mid-Thirteenth Century

Academic year(s): 2023-2024

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 60

ECTS credits : 30

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: Full Year

Availability restrictions: Available only to students in the Second Year of the Honours Programme.

Planned timetable: TBC

This module will consider the range of interactions between the Latin West and the powers and cultures of the Near East and beyond, in the period will roughly between the first two Councils of Lyons, 1245-74, both of which dealt with crusading to the Levant and with matters relating to the Mongols: initially their threat and latterly the opportunities for alliance. The module will examine the crusades of the Louis IX, in their wider context; the arrival of the Mongols in the West and the creation of Mongol states there; and the beginnings of the Mongol-Mamluk conflict and of attempts to create an Ilkhanid-Latin alliance. We will look in some depth at a variety of sources, especially focusing on the account of Louis IX's crusade by John of Joinville, and the accounts of two Franciscan travelers in the Mongol Empire, John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck.

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 1 x 3-hour seminar, plus 1 office hour.

Scheduled learning hours: 66

Guided independent study hours: 534

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: 1 x 3-hour Written Examination = 30%, Coursework = 70%


Re-assessment: New Coursework: 1 x source exercise (2,500 words) and 1 x 5,000-word essay = 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Dr A D Stewart
Module teaching staff: Dr A D Stewart

Intended learning outcomes

  • By the end of the module, students will have developed skills of sustained close reading of a thematically and chronologically focused collection of texts
  • By the end of the module, students will have developed skills of critical analysis both of ‘primary sources’ and of modern scholarship
  • By the end of the module, students will have developed an awareness of themes relating to social, military, cultural, and ethnographic history
  • By the end of the module, students will have developed considerations of cultural interaction and exchange
  • By the end of the module, students will have developed an understanding of the relations of Western Europeans with the wider world in the Middle East and beyond, and of how Western Europeans have sought to portray these regions and people over time
  • By the end of the module, students will be able to refine and broaden writing and communication skills