Featured Resource Pages
The following pages are highlighted as useful resources for educators.
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![]() Jewish Life in the Middle Ages Special Series Learn from world-renowned scholars about the daily lives and cultural traditions of Jewish people in the Middle Ages. |
![]() Princeton University Library MAFE Series Click here for resources featuring Princeton-based scholars and medieval items from the Princeton University Library. | ||
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Use the filters below to search by century, era, geography, type of resource, and other topics of interest to students of the medieval past.
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This video surveys the significance of chess in medieval Europe, reflecting on the capacity of games to provide commentary on contemporary standards of behavior, respond to societal changes, and mediate relationships.
This video introduces the power of autodidactic inquiry as a way of gaining understanding of both the universe and ourselves by discussing twelfth-century Andalusi Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy Ibn Yaqzan.
This video focuses on how medieval Christians use mythical animals to tell their stories. It discusses how people of the Medieval world related to animals and why they would use beasts for symbolism. Beasts were used to represent the battle of good vs evil, as guides, and allegorically.
Kalila and Dimna is a book containing a collection of fables, translated into Arabic during the Abbasid Caliphate in the 8th century. The fables contain many animals as main characters as the stories explore various subjects, lessons, and morals. This video delves into specific fables, analyzing portrayals of good and bad rulers to understand medieval conceptions of effective leadership.
Completed in 1399 in what is now India, the Gwalior Qur’an has many features that distinguish it from other Qur’ans. Curator Dr. Marika Sardar delves into the fascinating details in this history-rich short video which is also part of the digital exhibit, "Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk Roads."
A video introduction to some of the Early Islamic coins kept at the vault at Princeton University Library.
This video is a discussion of item 27 in Islamic Manuscripts, Garrett Additional Box no. 20 at the Princeton University Library. This document of sale was written in 980 CE on behalf of the Coptic Christian Yuhānnis ibn Suqayna and his wife Maria, residents of the small town in the Fayyum called Buljusuq. They were buying a house from Maria’s father, Ibn al-Ḥillī. The document was registered by the notary Shuʿayb ibn Zakariyā and witnessed by several Muslims, including Muḥammad ibn Ḥisān ibn Dāwud who made a noticeable typo while writing his testimony.
Skjærvø, Prods Oktor. The Spirit of Zoroastrianism. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2011.
The Multimedia Yasna: https://muya-film.soas.hasdai.org/yasna/
Further ReadingBoyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs…
View lectures by leading Syriac scholars contextualizing the important Syriac theologian and church leader Jacob of Serugh.
Access a resource that catalogues the people, places, and practices of the Medieval Middle East.
View an exhibit on the New Testament Book of Revelation through medieval and Renaissance objects produced after about 1100 C.E.
View extensive bibliographies on early, late antique, and medieval Christian apocrypha (anonymous and pseudepigraphical narratives, gospels, and epistles).
Browse illuminating articles about how to get the most out of new and old technologies in the classroom, with many practical activities for busy teachers.
Access a teacher-friendly recipe and instruction sheet for helping students recreate and understand ancient writing technologies through the creation of a papyrus.
Browse a collection of resources pertaining to Early Christian churches and monasteries in the Holy Land.
Find a host of curated links to medieval resources online. Also includes links to a number of late antiquity sources.
Follow links to syllabi on all eras of Jewish history.
See a portal for PEACE, the Portal for Epigraphy, Archaeology, Conservation and Education on Jewish Funerary Culture.
Search or browse papyri from a wide range of dates, including late antique and medieval papyri.
Access a list of links to published and online prosopographies for Greek, Roman, and Byzantine persons.