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)
Spiritual Traditions
The Upanishads- Creation Story
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 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)
The Analects
of Filial Piety
Tzu: Tao te Ching
Warring States Period
Qin
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
Zhao (45-116 CE): Lessons for a Woman, 80 CE
Qian Ssuma Ch’ien: Two Biographies, from The Records of the Grand
Historian of China (The Shih Chi)
The
Tang and Song
“The Great Learning”
of Chinese Poetry
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
Yuan-Chang: Manifesto of Accession as First Ming Emperor, 1372 C.E.
from the Ming Period (in Chinese)
Japan
Creation Stories, various
Tenno- The Story of the First Emperor
short description of Prince Shotoku and his education
Japanese Constitution of 604 CE
Taika Reform
Edicts (local)
Vietnam
Greece
and the Greek City States
Theogony, excerpts (at Ancient
History Sourcebook)
The Battle of Marathon (at
Ancient History Sourcebook)
on
the Battle at Thermopylae
(local)
at Athens (at Ancient History
Sourcebook)
The Spartan War Machine, c. 375 BCE
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
Funeral Oration from the Peloponnesian War (Book 2.34-46)
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
Philosophy
The Allegory of the Cave (at
Ancient History Sourcebook)
from The Politics, c. 340 BCE
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
The
Hellenic World
Selections from the Life of Alexander
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
writes of India (at Ancient
History Sourcebook)
of Meröe, Kush, and Axum, c. 430 BCE – 550 CE
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
The
Roman Republic
Roman Republic: Checks and Balances
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
Life in Rome in the Late Republic, c. 63 BCE
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
The End of the Republic (at
Ancient History Sourcebook)
Roman Candidate, 64, 54 BCE (at
Ancient History Sourcebook)
The
Roman Empire
Caesar: The Germans, c. 51 B.C.
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
Epistles 7: The Gladiatorial Games
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
Admitting Provincials (at
Ancient History Sourcebook)
Elder
discusses Seres (China) (local)
by Tacitus of Boudicca’s Rebellion, AD 60-61
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
division of the empire (at ROMA-
History and Civilization of the Eternal City)
Roman Economic Policy (at
Ancient History Sourcebook)
(d. c. 450 CE): Constantine Founds Constantinople, 324 CE
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
The Rise
of Christianity
persecution of the Christians
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
Conversion of Constantine (at
Ancient History Sourcebook)
The
Decline of the Western Empire
of Caesarea: Alaric’s Sack of Rome, 410 CE
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
The Rise
of the Byzantine Empire
the Silentiary: Descriptio S. Sophiae
(at Medieval Sourcebook)
JUSTINIAN SUPPRESSES THE NIKA REVOLT, 532
(at Medieval Sourcebook)
Secret History, extracts (at
Medieval Sourcebook)
on
Empress Theodora (local)
Arab Ambassador in Constantinople, 10C
Islam
and the Islamic Empires
Foundations
of Islam
Qu’ran (at Hanover)
Ishaq (d. c. 773 CE): Selections from the Life of Muhammad
(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)
from the Hadith (at the Islamic
History Sourcebook)
Koran on women (at ccny)
al-Hallaj: Sayings (Sufism) (at
the Islamic History Sourcebook)
Islamic
expansion and conflict with Christian Europe
of Umar, 7th Century (at the
Islamic History Sourcebook)
Abd-el-Hakem: The Islamic Conquest of Spain
(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)
Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732
(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)
M. Ludlow: The Tribute of Children, 1493
(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)
Serbian Tales: Marko and the Turks, c. 1450
(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)
Ibn Munqidh (1095-1188): Autobiography, excerpts
(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)
and Christian Piety in the 13th Century
(at the Islamic History Sourcebook)
The
Mongols
al-Athir: On The Tatars, 1220-1221CE
(at the Medieval Sourcebook)
Polo: The Glories Of Kinsay [Hangchow] (c. 1300)
Tatars: A 13th Century Description
Africa
Goddesses Nor Doormats: The Role of Women in Nubia
(Secondary source- at Historical Texts Archive)
of Meröe, Kush, and Axum, c. 430 BCE – 550 CE
(at Ancient History Sourcebook)
of Gali (at Boston University)
Africanus: Description of Timbuktu
(at Washington State)
of Ancient Mauretania, c. 430 BCE- 550 CE
(at Ancient History Soucebook)
The
Americas
Medieval
Europe
Early
Conversion of Clovis: Two Accounts, 496(at
Medieval Sourcebook)
of the Salian Franks (at
Hanover)
on the Conversion of England(at
Medieval Sourcebook)
on the Conversion of England(at
Medieval Sourcebook)
Rule of Saint Benedict, excerpts, ca. 530(at
Medieval Sourcebook)
Capitualary of the Missi (at
Hanover)
of Fleury: The Martyrdom of St. Edmund, King of East Anglia, 870
(at Medieval Sourcebook)
Sources on the Ravages of the Northmen in Frankland, c. 843 – 912(at
Medieval Sourcebook)
fragments (at Boston University)
High
of Chartres: On Feudal Obligations, 1020
(at Medieval Sourcebook)
Aqunias- Excerpts from Summa Theologic
(at Hanover)
II: Speech at Council of Clermont, 1095, according to Faulcher
of Chartres (at Hanover)
Investiture Controversy (at
Hanover)
(selected documents) (at
Hanover)
Excerpts from Magna Carta (local)
bar Samson: The Crusaders in Mainz
(at Medieval Sourcebook)
Jews 1096: Christian Sources (at
Medieval Sourcebook)
Late
Beginning of the English Peasant Revolt
(at Medieval Sourcebook)
of Arc: Letter to the King of England
(at Medieval Sourcebook)
The
Renaissance
Paulus Vergerius Letter to Urbertino c. 1400
Pico della Mirandola Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486)
Excerps from The Prince
Vasari Lives of the Artists (1550)