ABSTRACT
The first section of the chapter, The Mystery of the Saracens’ Receipt, examines the initial phase of identifying and working on a single historical source, the receipt, to introduce a topic. The Mystery of the Empty Grave incorporates a Harry Potter genre magic history novelette to illuminate how creative thinking can be turned into creative teaching. Pupils are enabled to investigate both the oldest surviving dated Islamic document and to link this with the exploration of a Saxon burial in Suffolk. These connections illustrate the role of Arab conquests, and so the role of Islam, in the decline of the Roman Empire.
