"(claim) The emancipation of Russian peasants was merely symbolic because (evidence) it didn't improve the material conditions of their daily lives."

"Even if I grant that your evidence regarding the quality of life for Russian peasants did not improve, why should that lead me to believe your claim that their emancipation was merely symbolic?"

(CLAIM) Gandhi sees modern civilization as a threat to the Indian people because it promotes an endless cycle of selfish want. (EVIDENCE) He says, "the railways, machineries and the corresponding increase of indulgent habits are the true badges of slavery of the Indian people" (p. 118). In Gandhi’s mind, such things are unnecessary because happiness -- he asserts -- is "largely a mental condition" (p. 123). (WARRANT) For Gandhi, accordingly, if acquiring material goods will not make us happier, then the money and energy we devote to do so should be considered a form of slavery.

Sudanese chiefs and petty kings are known to have converted to Islam as early as the tenth or eleventh centuries. Whatever purely religious feelings may have motivated such men individually, conversion enhanced their esteem among Muslim merchants, the economically most powerful group in the land, and potentially tied them to a much wider commercial and diplomatic world than they had known before.

Yet the military and political success of the mansas (rulers) also depended on their continuing allegiance and cooperation of the mass of their subjects -- farming, fishing, and herding people who for the most part adhered to ancient animistic beliefs and rituals, not Islam. Unlike the sultans of Delhi [(see our textbook, pp. 19 - 21)], the mansas had not come to power as foreign invaders, prepared to organize a state as formally Islamic as they pleased. The legitimacy of their authority rested to a large extent on satisfying traditional ...expectations in their public conventions and ceremonies. Consequently, they were obliged to walk a narrow line between their urban Muslim subjects, who wanted them to behave up to the public standards of [cosmopolitan Cairo or Damascus], and the vast majority of the tax- and tribute-paying population, which took no notice of [the stricter legal dictates] of [sharia] or proper procedure of Friday Prayer.

[The sultan] has a lofty pavilion, of which the door is inside his house, where he sits for most of the time. . . . There came forth from the gate of the palace about 300 slaves, some carrying in their hands bows and others having in their hands short lances and shields. . . Then two saddled and bridled horses are brought, with two rams which, they say, are effective against the evil eye. . . . Dugha, the interpreter, stands at the gate of the council-place wearing fine garments of silk brocade and other materials, and on his head a turban with fringes which they have a novel way of winding. . . . The troops, governors, young men, slaves, the Masufa, and others sit outside the council-place in a broad street where there are trees...[They] are the humblest of people before their king and the most submissive towards him. They swear by his name, saying: “Mansâ Sulaymân kî.” When he calls to one of them at his sessions in the pavilion which we have mentioned the person called takes off his clothes and puts on ragged clothes, and removes his turban and puts on a dirty shâshiyya, and goes in holding up his garments and trousers half-way up his leg, and advances with submissiveness and humility. He then beats the ground vigorously with his two elbows. . . . Inside the council-place beneath the arches a man is standing. Anyone who wishes to address the sultan addresses Dugha and Dugha addresses that man standing and that man standing addresses the sultan. If one of them addresses the sultan and the latter [the Sultan] replies, [the person before the Sultan] uncovers the clothes from his back and sprinkles dust on his head and back, like one washing himself with water. I used to marvel how their eyes did not become blinded. . .This is good manners among them.

How can the evidence from Ibn Battuta be interpreted to demonstrate that the rulers of Mali tempered their Islamicism with local West African cultural practices?

(cl)Ibn Batuttuta found in Mali rulers who integrated local West African
cultural practices into their practice of Islam. (ev)For example, Ibn Battuta wrote ___put evidence here__________________. We can conclde that such rituals were of local Malian rather than Islamic origin because____put warrant here_______________.

The people of Takadda carry on no business but trading. Every year they travel to Egypt and bring from there everything there is in the country by way of fine cloths and other things. For its people ease of life and ample condition are supreme; they vie [vie: verb, meaning to compete] with one another in the number of male and female slaves they own—as likewise do the people of Mali and Iwalatan. They do not sell educated women-slaves, except very rarely and at a great price.

…There is a copper mine outside Takadda. The people dig for it in the earth, bring it to the town, and smelt it in their houses. This [difficult work] is done by their male and female slaves. When they have smelted it into red copper, they make it into rods about the length of a span and a half: some are of fine gauge and some thick. The thick are sold at the rate of four hundred rods for a mithqal [mithqal is a unit of measure] of gold, the fine for six or seven hundred to the mithqal it is their means of exchange. They buy meat and firewood with the fine rods: they buy male and female slaves, millet, ghee, and wheat with the thick. Copper is carried from there to the city of Kubar (Gobir) in the land of the unbelievers, to Zaghay and to the country of Barnu (Bornu) which is at a distance of forty days from Takadda. Its people are Muslim; they have a king whose name is Idris, who does not appear before the people nor speak to them except from behind a curtain. From this country are brought beautiful slave women and eunuchs and heavy fabrics.

How can the evidence from Ibn Battuta above be interpreted to demonstrate the economic function as well as the social prestige value of slaves within many West African societies at this time?

(cl) From Ibn Battuta's wriing we can conclude that slaves not only served

an economic function by ______(put slaves' economic function

here)____, but also served a social function by ____(put slaves' social

prestige value here)_____. Ibn Battuta presented evidence as to the

economic role of slaves when he noted that in Takadda (ev)

______(put quotation "A" here)___. In recording the role of

slaves,(wa) _____(put warrant for quotation "A" here )____ (ev) But

slaves also served a social function. Ibn Battuta observed

the social prestige ownership of slaves brought their masters when

he observed, ___(put quotation "B" here)___. (wa)____(put warrant

for quotation "B" here)______