The Near East

Mesopotamia

Tribute to Sargon of Akkad (local)

Hammurabi’s Code of Laws (local)

Assyrian Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I (local)

Egypt

The Status of Women in Ancient Egyptian Society (secondary source)

The Precepts of Ptah-Hotep, c. 2200 BCE (at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Pen-ta-ur: The Victory of Ramses II Over the Khita, 1326 BCE (at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Women’s legal status in Roman-controlled Egypt (at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Persia

Kurash [Cyrus] the Great: The Decree of Return for the Jews, 539 BCE (at Ancient History Sourcebook)

The Story of King Vahahran & his Queen, c. 300 CE (at Ancient History Sourcebook)

India

Ancient

Chert weights and copper balance, Mohenjodaro, 2300–1750 BCE (Bridgeman collection, SCP 57231; National Museum of India, New Delhi, India )

Peoples and languages in Pre-Islamic Indus Valley

The early Vedic Age

Excerpt from the Rig Veda (local)

The Laws of Manu

Spiritual Traditions

The Upanishads- Creation Story

Vishnu Pura-na (excerpts)

Jain Respect for Life (from the Acaranga-sutra)

Prince Siddartha encounters Old Age, Sickness, and Death

The Buddha: Sermons and Teachings (6th century B.C.E.)

The Four Noble Truths

Buddha, Basic Teachings

The Classical Age

Kautilya: From The Arthashastra – on Gender Issues, c. 250 BCE

The Arthasastra- The Duties of a King

KING ASHOKA: His Edicts and His Times

Greek Reports of India & Aryavarta

Southeast Asia

China

Shang

Zhou

The
Mandate
of Heaven (local)

Confucius:

The Analects

Examples

of Filial Piety

Lao

Tzu: Tao te Ching

Warring States Period

Qin

Han

Fei: Selections from The Writings of Han Fei (c. 230 BCE)

Sima Qian Ssuma Ch’ien: The Legalist Polices of the Qin, Selections

from The Records of the Grand Historian

Han

Ban

Zhao (45-116 CE): Lessons for a Woman, 80 CE

Sima

Qian Ssuma Ch’ien: Two Biographies, from The Records of the Grand

Historian of China (The Shih Chi)

The

Tang and Song

Ta-Hsüeh:

“The Great Learning”

Selections

of Chinese Poetry

Ch’ing-Tsing:

Nestorian Tablet: Eulogizing the Propagation of the Illustrious

Religion in China, with a Preface, composed by a priest of the Syriac

Church, 781 A.D.

Ming

Chu

Yuan-Chang: Manifesto of Accession as First Ming Emperor, 1372 C.E.

Maps

from the Ming Period (in Chinese)

Japan

Shinto

Creation Stories, various

Jimmu

Tenno- The Story of the First Emperor

A

short description of Prince Shotoku and his education

The

Japanese Constitution of 604 CE

The

Taika Reform

Edicts (local)

Vietnam

Greece

and the Greek City States

Hesiod:

Theogony, excerpts (at Ancient

History Sourcebook)

Herodotus:

The Battle of Marathon (at

Ancient History Sourcebook)

Herodotus

on

the Battle at Thermopylae

(local)

Ostracism

at Athens (at Ancient History

Sourcebook)

Xenophon:

The Spartan War Machine, c. 375 BCE

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Pericles’

Funeral Oration from the Peloponnesian War (Book 2.34-46)

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Philosophy

Plato:

The Allegory of the Cave (at

Ancient History Sourcebook)

Aristotle:

from The Politics, c. 340 BCE

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

The

Hellenic World

Plutarch:

Selections from the Life of Alexander

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Strabo

writes of India (at Ancient

History Sourcebook)

Accounts

of Meröe, Kush, and Axum, c. 430 BCE – 550 CE

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

The

Roman Republic

The

Roman Republic: Checks and Balances

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Sallust:

Life in Rome in the Late Republic, c. 63 BCE

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Tacitus:

The End of the Republic (at

Ancient History Sourcebook)

The

Roman Candidate, 64, 54 BCE (at

Ancient History Sourcebook)

The

Roman Empire

Julius

Caesar: The Germans, c. 51 B.C.

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Seneca:

Epistles 7: The Gladiatorial Games

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Tacitus:

Admitting Provincials (at

Ancient History Sourcebook)

Pliny the

Elder

discusses Seres (China) (local)

Description

by Tacitus of Boudicca’s Rebellion, AD 60-61

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Diocletian’s

division of the empire (at ROMA-

History and Civilization of the Eternal City)

Late

Roman Economic Policy (at

Ancient History Sourcebook)

Sozomen

(d. c. 450 CE): Constantine Founds Constantinople, 324 CE

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

The Rise

of Christianity

Nero’s

persecution of the Christians

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Eusebius:

Conversion of Constantine (at

Ancient History Sourcebook)

The

Decline of the Western Empire

Procopius

of Caesarea: Alaric’s Sack of Rome, 410 CE

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

The Rise

of the Byzantine Empire

Paul

the Silentiary: Descriptio S. Sophiae

(at Medieval Sourcebook)

Procopius:

JUSTINIAN SUPPRESSES THE NIKA REVOLT, 532

(at Medieval Sourcebook)

Procopius:

Secret History, extracts (at

Medieval Sourcebook)

Procopius

on

Empress Theodora (local)

An

Arab Ambassador in Constantinople, 10C

Islam

and the Islamic Empires

Foundations

of Islam

The

Qu’ran (at Hanover)

Ibn

Ishaq (d. c. 773 CE): Selections from the Life of Muhammad

(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)

Selections

from the Hadith (at the Islamic

History Sourcebook)

The

Koran on women (at ccny)

Mansur

al-Hallaj: Sayings (Sufism) (at

the Islamic History Sourcebook)

Islamic

expansion and conflict with Christian Europe

Pact

of Umar, 7th Century (at the

Islamic History Sourcebook)

Ibn

Abd-el-Hakem: The Islamic Conquest of Spain

(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)

Arabs,

Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732

(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)

James

M. Ludlow: The Tribute of Children, 1493

(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)

Old

Serbian Tales: Marko and the Turks, c. 1450

(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)

Usmah

Ibn Munqidh (1095-1188): Autobiography, excerpts

(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)

Muslim

and Christian Piety in the 13th Century

(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)

The

Mongols

Ibn

al-Athir: On The Tatars, 1220-1221CE

(at the Medieval Sourcebook)

Marco

Polo: The Glories Of Kinsay [Hangchow] (c. 1300)

The

Tatars: A 13th Century Description

Africa

Neither

Goddesses Nor Doormats: The Role of Women in Nubia

(Secondary source- at Historical Texts Archive)

Accounts

of Meröe, Kush, and Axum, c. 430 BCE – 550 CE

(at Ancient History Sourcebook)

Kingdom

of Gali (at Boston University)

Leo

Africanus: Description of Timbuktu

(at Washington State)

Accounts

of Ancient Mauretania, c. 430 BCE- 550 CE

(at Ancient History Soucebook)

The

Americas

Medieval

Europe

Early

The

Conversion of Clovis: Two Accounts, 496(at

Medieval Sourcebook)

Laws

of the Salian Franks (at

Hanover)

Bede

on the Conversion of England(at

Medieval Sourcebook)

Documents

on the Conversion of England(at

Medieval Sourcebook)

The

Rule of Saint Benedict, excerpts, ca. 530(at

Medieval Sourcebook)

General

Capitualary of the Missi (at

Hanover)

Abbo

of Fleury: The Martyrdom of St. Edmund, King of East Anglia, 870

(at Medieval Sourcebook)

Three

Sources on the Ravages of the Northmen in Frankland, c. 843 – 912(at

Medieval Sourcebook)

Apocalyptic

fragments (at Boston University)

High

Fulbert

of Chartres: On Feudal Obligations, 1020

(at Medieval Sourcebook)

Thomas

Aqunias- Excerpts from Summa Theologic

(at Hanover)

Urban

II: Speech at Council of Clermont, 1095, according to Faulcher

of Chartres (at Hanover)

The

Investiture Controversy (at

Hanover)

Feudalism

(selected documents) (at

Hanover)

Excerpts from Magna Carta (local)

Soloman

bar Samson: The Crusaders in Mainz

(at Medieval Sourcebook)

Rhineland

Jews 1096: Christian Sources (at

Medieval Sourcebook)

Late

Froissart:

Beginning of the English Peasant Revolt

(at Medieval Sourcebook)

Joan

of Arc: Letter to the King of England

(at Medieval Sourcebook)

The

Renaissance

Petrus

Paulus Vergerius Letter to Urbertino c. 1400

Giovanni

Pico della Mirandola Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486)

Machiavelli-

Excerps from The Prince

Giorgio

Vasari Lives of the Artists (1550)