Encourage further exploration by your students with these excerpts from primary sources. Individual or discussion activities follow each primary source excerpt to further enrich students’ learning. The excerpts may be read on the screen or printed out. Permission to photocopy these primary source excerpts for classroom use is hereby granted to teachers using History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond.

1. Medieval Fairs and Markets

3. Account of Ghana by Abu Ubayd Al-Bakri

4. The Travels of Marco Polo
as Told by Marco Polo (1254 - 1324)

5. The Seventeen Article Constitution by Prince Shotoku (574 - 622)

6. The Popul Vuh

7. Boke of Nurture
by Hugh Rhodes (1577)

8. Freedom of Thought and Religion
by Baruch Spinoza (1632 - 1677)

Unit 1: Europe During Medieval Times

Unit 2: The Rise of Islam

Unit 3: The Culture and Kingdoms of West Africa

Unit 4: Imperial China

Unit 5: Japan During Medieval Times

Unit 6: Civilizations of the Americas

Unit 7: Europe’s Renaissance and Reformation

Unit 8: Europe Enters the Modern Age

Chapter 4: Life in Medieval Towns

Chapter 10: Contributions of Muslims to World Civilization

Chapter 13: Ghana: A West African Trading Empire

Chapter 19: China’s Contacts with the Outside World

Chapter 20: The Influence of Neighboring Cultures on Japan

Chapter 23: The Maya

Chapter 30: Leading Figures of the Renaissance

Chapter 35: The Enlightenment