Beyond a Thousand and One Nights: A Sampler of Literature from Muslim Civilization

This curriculum resource offers primary source readings in English translation from twelve types of literary works written between the 7th and the 15th centuries across numerous Muslim societies. Each includes a reading, background on the writer and the work, and a set of discussion questions. The categories include early Islamic letters and biographical dictionaries; historical, political, philosophical and scientific writings; essays, poetry, prose and travel accounts. This collection represents a walk through the literary tradition that goes beyond the usual default choices and opens up a wide range of thought that is inaccessible without research in libraries to which few secondary educators have access. The curriculum materials can be directly downloaded from http://cie.org.

Introduction to the Institute on Religion and Civic Values Resources (IRCV)

We are pleased to announce that a group of teaching resources that were previously only available in print, have now been released to educators for free download. These teaching units were produced for the purpose of providing teachers and textbook publishers with materials based in sound scholarship to reflect global perspectives in teaching world history and humanities. The organization that sponsored these works over two decades, The Institute on Religion and Civic Values (IRCV), is a national, non-profit research center with a mission to strengthen civil society by exploring issues at the intersection of faith, citizenship, and pluralism, and to serve as a catalyst to align public policymaking with our nation’s core values. IRCV advances religious freedom, religious pluralism, and religious literacy. Utilizing a non-advocacy approach, IRCV’s research, consulting, training and resource development work encompasses areas such as public education, civic engagement, media/discourse analysis, inter-religious cooperation, and international development.