Snow Day Assignment

This Thursday, class was cancelled due to a significant amount of snow we received. Just like everyone else, I was happy that class was cancelled, but I knew that we still had an assignment to do. This is one of the only assignments that I had to do for a class that was cancelled that I actually enjoyed. I thought that the clips we watched were interesting and were an excellent portrayal of the Middle East and a good reflection of what we have been learning in class. I thought that the videos made the Middle East look like a beautiful area even in the midst of the constant conflicts occurring over there. The architecture of the palaces that we got to see from the Safavid Empire and the Ottoman Empire were beautiful. It was fascinating to see how much thought went into the architecture of those buildings. For example, the walls were constructed so that when music would play, the sounds would bounce off the walls and make it sound even more beautiful than it would be in a room that was constructed differently. I liked to pay attention to how the Shah Abbas ruled and how Suleiman the Magnificent ruled to see what the differences and similarities between the two were. Although the two leaders were from different parts of the Middle East and had different beliefs, both leaders still had a huge impact on their empires. Both benefitted the empire greatly. Suleiman freed prisoners who were unjustly in prison, and he significantly improved the life of the slaves. Shah Abbas transformed the economic, religious, and social landscape of the country. This snow day assignment was great because it taught me more about the Middle East that I did not know and was therefore beneficial.