“This is strange,” exclaimed Dorothy. “What shall we do?” “The trees seem to have made up their minds to fight us, and stop our journey,” remarked the Lion. “I believe I will try it myself,” said the Woodman, and shouldering his axe, he marched up to the first tree that had handled the Scarecrow so roughly.
Seminar, three hours. Readings in Arabic texts from variety of periods and genres, along with appropriate secondary literature. Topics include pre-Islamic poetry and oratory, Qur’an, Umayyad and Abbasid poetry and literary prose, Hadith and Fiqh, historiography, biography, geography, medicine, mathematics, theology, asceticism, and mysticism. May be repeated for maximum of 24 units. S/U or letter grading.
This course is a survey of the background and circumstances of the rise of Islam, the creation of the Islamic empire, and the subsequent political, social, economic, and religious history of Islamic western Asia, with some attention to North Africa, until the end of the seventh century AH/thirteenth century CE.
This 1-point seminar examines the Middle East since the American invasion of Iraq and the Arab Uprisings.
This course examines the methods that historians have used since the 1970s to understand the history of the modern Middle East. Among the topics considered: Orientalism, the study of religion, social history, cultural history, gender, political economy, and the influence of Weber, Marx, Gramsci, Hobsbawm, E.P. Thompson, and others.
This course examines the broad scope of the history of the Middle East from the 7th century to the present.
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.
This course introduces the field of Islamic law. Islamic law is one of the oldest and most significant legal systems in the contemporary age, and this course is designed to give students a firm grounding in its principles, concepts, and doctrines. We will study the history, theory, and the role of Islamic law in the contemporary age. No previous familiarity with the field is necessary, and there are no course prerequisites. All readings are in English. Please note that the law school semester begins Monday, August 26th.
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisite: English Composition 3. Survey of modern Middle Eastern cultures through readings and films from Middle East and North Africa. Satisfies Writing II requirement. Letter grading.
Seminar, three hours. Readings in Arabic texts from variety of periods and genres, along with appropriate secondary literature. Topics include pre-Islamic poetry and oratory, Qur’an, Umayyad and Abbasid poetry and literary prose, Hadith and Fiqh, historiography, biography, geography, medicine, mathematics, theology, asceticism, and mysticism. May be repeated for maximum of 24 units. S/U or letter grading.
How Qur’an as scripture shapes Muslim doctrine, rituals, and culture, and how throughout history Muslims have determined interpretations and applications of Qur’anic doctrines and prescriptions. Critical evaluation and analysis of contemporary discourses on Islam. Letter grading.
The culture of Egypt transformed quite gradually after the Muslim conquest in the mid-7th century CE. According to material evidence such as ceramics, textiles, architectural forms, and building techniques, it is functionally impossible to separate pre-Islamic Christian Egypt from early Islamic Egypt. And, although the population may have become largely Muslim by the 10thcentury, Egypt remained “Coptic” in many senses even until the 14th century, and retains a sizeable Christian minority to the present. This course will survey the archaeological remains and standing architecture of Egypt from the 6th century to the 19th, charting changes and continuities in material culture, and issues of religious identity in archaeology.
Details TBA.
Seminar, three hours. Details TBA.
This is a course on early Islamic intellectual history that will focus on religious doctrine, law, conceptual issues, patterns of thought, and methods of argument.
While South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan) has the largest Muslim population in the world, dominant representations of Islam are usually based on Middle Eastern models. This introductory seminar examines these ‘multiple Islams’ to explore how Muslims have actually practised their religion, in past and present. This emphasis on practice rather than Sharia and scripture allows us to study such diverse expressions of Islamic religiosity as the use of music, saint veneration, pilgrimage, spirit possession, and dream interpretation. By focusing on South Asia and comparing it to other regions in the Middle East and Africa, the course explores the diversity of religious practice across the Islamic world through illustrated lectures, class discussions and the hands-on study of religious objects. In this way, students are introduced to the alternative forms of Islam that Salafis, Wahhabis and violent organizations such as ISIS are trying to prohibit.
This course examines different ways to study religion and the application of these methods to the early historical development of Islamic religious traditions with special attention to the doctrine of the nature of God, human responsibility, guidance, revelation and religious authority, the duties of believers, ritual, law, sectarian movements, mysticism, and popular religion.
Seminar, three hours. Limited to senior international and area studies majors. Organized on topics basis with readings, discussions, papers, and development of culminating project. May not be repeated for credit. Letter grading.
Lecture, three hours. Requisite: course 102C. Study of major Persian poets and prose writers: prose–Sohravardi, Hamadâni, Nasafi, Irâqi, and others; poetry–Hâfez, Sa’di, Rûmi, Bahâr, Dehkhoda, and others. May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, three hours. Requisites: courses 103A, 103B, 103C. Study of selected classical Persian texts. May be taken independently for credit.
Students gain familiarity with historical cases and modes of interaction between Muslims and non-Muslims in plural societies. Consideration of axis questions such as how does Qur’an reflect religious plurality; how does it situate Islam vis-à-vis its alternatives; what encounters did rapid expansion of Islam bring about in diverse societies; how did Islam and other religions change through debate, war, and exchange of ideas; what roles has political power played in conditioning interreligious interaction; how have conversion and hybridity affected what it means to be Muslim; what is different about interreligious interactions in secular states and societies; and how is past invoked to justify opinions and policies today. Investigation of these questions by conducting microstudies: close readings of sources through theoretical lens. P/NP or letter grading.
Seminar, three hours. Survey of major sub-fields and trends in historical Islamic thought and contemporary scholarship, using the case of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali as case study.
Seminar, three hours. Readings in Arabic texts from variety of periods and genres, along with appropriate secondary literature. Topics include pre-Islamic poetry and oratory, Qur’an, Umayyad and Abbasid poetry and literary prose, Hadith and Fiqh, historiography, biography, geography, medicine, mathematics, theology, asceticism, and mysticism. May be repeated for maximum of 24 units. S/U or letter grading.
Since its appearance in Europe in 1704, A Thousand and One Nights is the best-known work of Arabic literature in the west. This course examines the cycle of tales more commonly known as The Arabian Nights and includes the history of its translation, contemporary oral performances of the tales in the Arabic-speaking world, the literary emergence of the vernacular language in relation to Classical Arabic, and Western appropriations of the tales in music, film and the novel (Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov, Barth, Poe, and Walt Disney). Knowledge of Arabic is not required.
Seminar, three hours. Variable topics in Islamic art and architecture that reflect interests of individual regular and/or visiting faculty members. May be repeated twice for credit. Concurrently scheduled with course C220A. P/NP or letter grading.
This course will examine the origins and development of Islamic historical concepts and compositions. It will also examine the way that modern Western and Middle Eastern authors have treated the history of Islamic western Asia. Students will be required to report on the reading and to prepare an historiographical paper examining how the interpretation of some particular theme, event, or issue concerning Islamic history has developed, the differences among historians over it, and how their different interpretations were related to the intellectual issues of their own time.
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.
Lecture, three hours. Multifaceted introduction to Persian poetry, recognized as jewel of Persian culture, and to pictorial, architectural, performative, cinematographic, and photographic dimensions of artistic milieu spanning between Balkans, India, and Central Asia from 10th century CE to present. With consideration of centrality of discourses on identity, desire, and spirituality to core of Persian aesthetics, study of broad variety of socioanthropological, ethical, and historiographical issues stemming from both mainstream topics characterizing extensive field of Iranian studies and most controversial conversations on nature of sexuality, ethnicity, and religion. P/NP or letter grading.
Based on original writings of major Muslim thinkers in English translation, provides overview of enormous ideological variety found in contemporary and historical Muslim world. Examination of representative writings from wide spectrum of Muslim intellectuals and writers on a selected theme, which this year will be interpretations of the multivalent term “jihad.” Letter grading. Recommended requisite: course M110.
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 recent developments in following disciplines: Arabic language and literature, Qur’anic sciences, traditions, jurisprudence, theology, and Sufism. Letter grading.
Seminar, three hours. Selected topics on Islam. May be repeated for credit with topic change. S/U or letter grading.
Introduction to history of Islamic civilization and beliefs and practices of Muslims globally. Survey includes major topics such as Quran, Hadith, Prophet Muhammad, Islamic law, Shi’ism, and Sufism. Introduction to discourses in contemporary Muslim societies such as feminism, human rights, and political reform. Primary source in translation (excerpts from Quran, hadith, poetry, and chronicles). P/NP or letter grading.
From the earliest monuments of Islam in Arabia and Jerusalem to the humble remains of a small Egyptian port, instruction 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 early Ottoman period in the 16th and 17th centuries CE, which are traceable in the material record. The dominant theme of the course will be identifying and interpreting the manifestations of religious practices in archaeological remains.
