Chapter 11 Documents

When reading Chapter 11 Documents I really liked the aspect of anda, which is a close relationship between two related men. When reading about the Temujin and Jamugha I felt happy to see how close they were to one another and how they acted like brothers by protecting and loving one another unconditionally. I think this is an interesting concept for the Mongols to have since they are known for their aggressive behavior and usually don’t ever show signs of love and respect.

            After reading the first two documents I start to have this view of the Mongols of not so bad of people, and then I get to the document about Russia, and my idea of loving Mongols has completely disappeared. The Mongol invasion in Russia is really sad to read. The author talks about how so many people were killed in the fire, like when he talks about how children were killed in front of their mothers and fathers, and vice versa. It is such a tragic thing to talk about and I go back to my thought of thinking how horrible Mongols were and how aggressive and angry they were.

Chapter 9 Documents

Reflecting on the question “what it would be like to follow the Quran and reading Chapter 9 documents there are things I was surprised to read. I agree with the Quran’s understanding of Allah and how it resembles Christian ideas about God. There is only one God.  I like how the Quran focuses heavily on charity and giving to the poor and less fortunate. I think this is something that people need to be more aware of, especially now during the holiday season.

I was not happy to read about the subject of gender, which said that God gave men more strength then the other, I have to disagree with that, I believe that either gender can obtain more strength than the other. Another statement was that if women and disloyal that they should be beaten lightly (EXCUSE ME!)… This part really pissed me off because there should be no rule or regulation that a women or any person should be treated with violence, I was surprised to read that the Quran would even state that in the first place. The Quran had its ups and down with me as I read it but looking back in my opinion, as a woman, I would not be happy about following the Quran.

Chapter 7 Documents Reflection

Xuanzang was a Buddhist monk from China and what motivated him to travel to India was based on his religion, Buddhism. He visited many of the holy sites in India that were associated with Buddha. He wrote the Record of the Western Regions that was an account of his travels and impressions of Indian civilizations in the 7^th century C.E.

There were various rules and regulations during this time. The families were divided into 4 classes. I thought it was surprising how people could rise or fall into a specific class. I think that it allowed fairness into the caste system because they did hold specific rules on marriage, such that women can only be married once and promiscuous marriages were not allowed. This helps enforce the fact that the people cannot abuse that fact that they can change their caste level through marriage. I believe this idea is smart and something that I would have to agree with.