Mini-DBQ: Early Spread of Islam

This mini-DBQ has multiple classroom uses. It can serve as an assessment associated a unit the Islamic Golden Age, World Religions, or an introduction to DBQs and DBQ writing. It can also serve as a class activity on the spread of Islam. A major emphasis of this mini-DBQ is looking at the factors that contributed to Islam's rapid spread (mostly by conquest) of Southwest Asia, Persia, and North Africa.

The assignment contains a brief historical context on the origins of Islam. It revolves around a writing prompt that asks students to explain how Islam was able to spread so rapidly. It includes five documents, including primary and secondary text sources and a map of the spread of Islam and an image of a converted mosque. Each source is accompanied by a quick evaluation question and 1-2 analysis questions to help guide student reading. The documents were edited for clarity, vocabulary, and approachability.

Also included are two and half planning pages with directions and sentence starters for each part of the written response, a writing page, and a detailed three level scoring rubric based on five grading criteria.

This assignment/activity helps students develop an argument based on historical documents, use evidence, and organize supporting ideas in service of a central claim. This mini-DBQ has a focus on the historical thinking skill of cause and effect.