Ancient Islam Mantle of The Expert

Mrs Humphrey's visited us to support us in our Mantle of the Expert learning about Sheherezade and 1001 Arabian Nights, a story set in Baghdad in Ancient Islamic times.

Together we considered who the items in the middle of the circle may have belonged to and when they might have been from. I was very impressed with children using existing knowledge and vocabulary from our History lessons suggesting that the person may have been a Vizier (a minister or assistant to the Caliph or King at a ruler's court.)

In role, we heard Sheherazade's story of how the King had been betrayed by his wife, so had decided to marry a new bride every day and then behead her and marry a new one the next day so they could not be unfaithful to him. Sheherezade (who was in fact the daughter of the King's closest adviser) had volunteered to become the King's latest wife and had learnt off by heart as many stories as possible to tell the King. Each night she would tell him a story but end on a cliff hanger; she explained to him that if he wanted to hear the end of the story he must keep her alive and return to her again the following evening. In this way Sheherezade remained alive and saved any other women from their fate as the King's new wife. Sheherezade had told hundreds of stories to the King so far and was running out of ideas. Our challenge was to head to The House of Wisdom and gather as many stories for Sheherezade as we could. In our Literacy lessons we would even attempt to write some stories of our own to share with her.