Winter Courses

Banner Credit: Marrakesh, Morocco. Photograph by Luke Yarbrough.

Winter 2022

  • AF AMER M10A/History M10A – History of Africa to 1800 (Tentative)

    Instructor: Ghislaine Lydon

    Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Exploration of development of African societies from earliest times to late 18th century. P/NP or letter grading.

  • ANTHRO M247Q/ HIST M287/ NR East M287 – Central Asian Studies: Discipline, Methods, Debates (Tentative)

    Instructor: Domenico Ingenito

    Seminar, two hours. Introduction to study of central Asia as practiced in humanities and social sciences disciplines. S/U grading.

  • Arabic 142: Media Arabic

    Instructor: Michael Cooperson

  • Arabic 150: Pre-modern Arabic literature in English

    Instructor: Michael Cooperson

  • HIST 200J: Advanced Historiography: Near East

    Instructor: James Gelvin

    Second part of History 200J (A).  Note: Each seminar may be taken independently.

  • History 174E: Indo-Islamic Interactions, 1750-1950: A Muslim Reformation in Colonial India-Pakistan?

    Instructor: Nile Green

    The nineteenth and early twentieth century witnessed the emergence of ‘modernist’, ‘reformist’ and ‘renewal’ movements in almost every corner of the Muslim world and South Asia was no exception. As home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, South Asia (comprising modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) gave birth to many Muslim revival movements under colonial rule. These reform movements reshaped the religious, cultural and political lives of Muslims worldwide through the twentieth century until today. Looking at various movements between around 1800 and the mid-twentieth century, this lecture course examines the interplay of factors that, from competition with Christian missionaries to Islamic madrasa schools and anti-colonial rebellions, helped reshape Islam into the force it is in Asia and the wider world today.

  • History 191N / 201K (Seminar)- Global Islam and South Asia

    Instructor: Nile Green

    While Islam is usually associated with the Middle East, the world’s largest Muslim population actually lives in South Asia (Pakistan and India). Key question of why and how South Asia has contributed so significantly to global Islamic movements.

  • IRANIAN 103B – Advanced Persian: Introduction to Classical Persian Prose (Tentative)

    Instructor: Domenico Ingenito

    Lecture, three hours. Requisite: course 102C. Students who do exceptionally well in course 20C may be permitted to enroll with consent of instructor. May be taken independently for credit. P/NP or letter grading.

  • IRANIAN 220B – Classical Persian Texts (Tentative)

    Instructor: Domenico Ingenito

    Lecture, three hours. Requisites: courses 103A, 103B, 103C. Study of selected classical Persian texts. May be taken independently for credit.

  • Islamic Studies 220: Themes in Islamic History (Tentative)

    Instructor: Asma Sayeed

    This graduate seminar provides an overview of early and classical Islamic history (up to 1250) with a focus on selected issues such developments in political and military organization of the Islamic empire, sectarian history, non-Muslims under Muslim rule, and ethnicity. The course is also designed as an initial step in preparing for a PhD field exam in early and classical Islamic history and is required for students taking an Islamic History MA or PhD field exam with Prof. Sayeed.

  • ISLM ST 151 – Islamic Thought (Tentative)

    Instructor: Luke Yarbrough

    Lecture, 90 minutes; discussion, 90 minutes. Recommended requisite: course M110. Based on original writings of major Islamic thinkers in English translation, provides balanced picture of enormous ideological variety found in contemporary Muslim world. Examination of representative writings from wide spectrum of modern Islamic intellectuals and writers. Letter grading.

  • ISLM ST 201 – Arabo-Islamic Sciences (Tentative)

    Instructor: Luke Yarbrough

    Seminar, three hours. Preparation: good reading knowledge of Arabic, English, and one other Western language. Comprehensive coverage of Arabo-Islamic sciences that formed matrix of Islamic education. Survey of most recent developments in following disciplines: Arabic language and literature, Qur’anic sciences, traditions, jurisprudence, theology, and Sufism. Letter grading.

  • ME STD M111/ ISLM ST M111 / ART HIS M119C: Introduction to Islamic Archaeology

    Instructor: Katherine S. Burke

    From the earliest monuments of Islam in Arabia and Jerusalem to the humble remains of a small Egyptian port, this course focuses broadly on archaeological remains in the central Islamic lands (primarily Syria, Egypt, and Iraq), but also Iran, Turkey, North Africa, and Spain. This vast region experienced profound cultural transformations from the birth of Islam in the seventh century to the Ottoman period in the sixteenth to early twentieth centuries CE, which are traceable in the material record. The themes of the course will be identifying cultural transformation and stability over time, as well as identifying and interpreting the manifestations of religious practices in archaeological remains.