The adventures of ibn battuta

Guided Review Final Assignment, WQ 2020

(200 points)

For your final assignment you are to write an analytic review of the book assigned. You are to follow the guidelines below explicitly. Variance or deviation from these directions will result in lower grade. Where appropriate, you should cite passages in the text to support your analysis.

1. Provide a proper citation of all relevant bibliographic data, following the citation format provided here. Place this citation at the top of your first page where it will serve as the title of your paper.

Ross E. Dunn. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14^th Century. Revised edition. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012. Pp. 359 + xxiv.

2. In your opening paragraph, identify the subject matter of the book. Your first job in a review is to tell the reader what the book is about.

3. Your next task is to identify and discuss the author’s interpretation of the subject matter. Remember that historians do not just compile facts, they interpret them. What is the author’s main thesis—i.e., the point she wishes to prove in the book? Is this thesis explicit or tucked away between the lines? What are the presuppositions as to what is important, what is the relevant evidence, etc.?

4. It is useful to delineate how the author pursues her argument: so your next task is to analyze the structure of the book. What is the topic and the purpose of each chapter? How do they fit together?

5. Authors usually have some attitude or feeling towards the subjects they write about; this attitude is called tone. So, what tone of voice does the author address towards his subject? Is the author sympathetic, ironic, partisan, or condescending?

6. Discuss why the author wrote this book. All authors have some purpose in mind in writing, and some have an agenda—i.e., they are advocating that a particular course of action be taken. Does it have an agenda? Is that agenda overt or hidden? An aspect of this issue is audience: What is the intended audience of the book?

7. A book of historical analysis must be based on evidence; otherwise it is fiction. So you need to discuss what kind of evidence the author used. Why did she chose this evidence? Why not other kinds?

8. Finally, you are to mention what kind of contribution this book has made to your understanding of the history of the Islamic community over the period 1000-1500 CE. (We will discuss this further in class)

Your paper is to be typed (double-spaced, using 10-12 point font, with standard margins) and six to seven pages in length. Please number your pages. While length is secondary to fulfillment of the obligations above, experience has shown that it is extremely difficult to address well the demands of this assignment in fewer than six pages. The grading rubric mentioned in the comparison/contrast paper instructions still applies.