Middle Eastern Religions & Trade

Phoenicia, 1000 - 300 BC/BCE

  1. On a map of the ancient Mediterranean world, locate Greece, Asia Minor, Crete, Phoenicia, the Aegean and the Red Sea.

  2. Explain how the location of Phoenicia contributed to its domination of maritime trade in the Mediterranean from c. 1000-300 BCE.

  3. Describe how the alphabetic Phoenician writing system differed from Mesopotamian cuneiform or Egyptian hieroglyphic writing; explain how Phoenician maritime traders contributed to the spread of the use of the alphabetic system, which eventually evolved into the Greek alphabet and then into letter symbols used in other languages.


Ancient Israel, Palestine c. 2000 BCE - 70 CE

  1. On a historical map of the Mediterranean, locate Asia Minor, Greece and Mesopotamia, the kingdoms of the Hittites and ancient Israel and Palestine and ancient Egypt.

  2. Trace the migrations of the ancient Israelite tribes from Mesopotamia to the land called Canaan, and explain the role of Abraham and Moses in Hebrew history.

  3. Describe the history of ancient Israel and early Christianity:

a. monotheistic religion (e.g., the belief in one God, the Ten Commandments, the emphasis on individual worth and personal responsibility, the belief that rulers and the ruled must adhere to the same moral obligations)

b. the Hebrew Bible’s accounts of the history of early Israel: the unification of the tribes of Israel under Saul, David, and Solomon; the founding of Jerusalem as capital city by David (c. 1000 BCE), the building of the first temple by Solomon (c. 900-800 BCE), the destruction of the first temple (c. 400 BCE), the annexation of Judea by the Roman Empire and the Roman destruction of the second temple (c. 70 CE).

c. the emergence of Christianity as a distinct religion, with roots in Judaism, but increasingly diverse followers throughout the Roman Empire and the relationship of early Christians to the officials of the Roman Empire.

d. the central features of Christianity (e.g., the belief in a messiah who could redeem humans from sin, the concept of salvation, the belief in an Old and a new Testament in the Bible, the life and teachings of Jesus.).


The ancient Arabian Peninsula (7th century CE)

  1. On a map of the Arabian Peninsula, identify the Red Sea and the cities of Mecca and Medina as the sites of the beginning of the Muslim religion.

  2. Explain Islam’s historical relationship to Judaism and Christianity as monotheistic religions.

  3. Describe the life and teachings of Muhammad (570-c. 632 CE) and the significance of the Qur’an as the primary source of Islamic belief.


Interactions among ancient societies in Western Asia, North Africa and the Middle East

  1. Describe the impact of encounters through trade, cultural exchange, and conquest among the societies and empires in the region, in particular, exchanges on land routes of the Silk Roads linking Europe, the steppes of West Asia, East Asia, and Africa, and the goods, languages, and cultural motifs exchanged (e.g., gold, ivory from Africa, grain from Western Asia, produce, horses, livestock, wood, furs from the steppes, ceramics, silk, and other luxury goods from China).

  2. Use information from primary and secondary sources to research contributions of one of the ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Phoenician, Israelite, Islamic, and Eurasian societies to the modern world.