NEHC

This course explores the musical traditions of the peoples of Central Asia, both in terms of historical development and cultural significance. Topics include the music of the epic tradition, the use of music for healing, instrumental genres, and Central Asian folk and classical traditions. Basic field methods for ethnomusicology are also covered. Extensive use is made of recordings of musical performances and of live performances in the area.

This course is designed to acquaint students with the basic problems and concepts as well as the sources and methodology for the study of premodern Islamicate history. Sources will be read in English translation and the tools acquired will be applied to specific research projects to be submitted as term papers.

This course introduces students to the Hittite Empire of ancient Anatolia. In existence from roughly 1650-1200 BCE, and spanning across modern Turkey and beyond, the Hittite Empire is one of the oldest and largest kingdoms of the ancient world. We will be examining their history and their political and cultural accomplishments through analysis of their written records – composed in Hittite, the world’s first recorded Indo-European language – and their archaeological remains. In the process, we will also be examining the concept of “empire” itself: What is an empire, and how do anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians study this unique kind of political formation?

Who are the Armenians and where do they come from? What is the cultural contribution of Armenians to their neighbors and overall world heritage? This crash-course will try to answer these and many other similar questions while surveying Armenian history and elements of culture (mythology, religion, manuscript illumination, art, architecture, etc.). It also will discuss transformations of Armenian identity and symbols of 'Armenianness' through time, based on such elements of national identity as language, religion, art, or shared history. Due to the greatest artistic quality and the transcultural nature of its monuments and artifacts, Armenia has much to offer in the field of Art History, especially when we think about global transculturation and appropriation among cultures as a result of peoples' movements and contacts. The course is recommended for students with interest in Armenian Studies or related fields, in Area or Civilizations Studies, Art and Cultural Studies, etc.

This course offers a critical analysis of the use of concepts such as empire and imperialism in the historiography of ancient Mesopotamia to address political formations that developed (and vanished) from the Early to Late Bronze Ages (mid-3rd to late-2nd millennium BCE). Drawing from theoretical studies on imperialism and the imperial constructions that developed in the Iron Age and beyond (starting with the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires), this seminar will explore the nature of power, control, and resource management in these early formations, and how they qualify (or not) as imperial policies. Students will address a substantial part of Mesopotamian history (from the Sargonic down to the Middle Assyrian and Babylonian periods) and study in depth some key historiographical issues for the history of Early Antiquity. Primary documents will be read in translation and the course has no ancient language requirements. However, readings of secondary literature in common academic languages (especially French and German) are to be expected.
This course fulfills the requirements of a survey course in Mesopotamian civilization as defined by the Ancient PhD programs in NELC and MA program in the CMES.

The Ottomans ruled in Anatolia, the Middle East, South East Europe and North Africa for over six hundred years. The objective of this course is to understand the society and culture of this bygone Empire whose legacy continues, in one way or another, in some twenty-five contemporary successor states from the Balkans to the Arabian Peninsula. The course is designed as an introduction to the Ottoman World with a focus on the cultural history of the Ottoman society. It explores identities and mentalities, customs and rituals, status of minorities, mystical orders and religious establishments, literacy and the use of the public sphere.

This course is an exploration of conflict in the Arab world through literature, film and new media. In this course, we will discuss the influence of independence movements, wars, and revolts on Arabic literature: how do writers write about, or film, conflict? How does conflict affect language itself? How do these texts engage with issues of trauma and bearing witness? To answer these questions, we will look at a number of key moments of conflict in the Arab world, including the Arab-Israeli conflicts, the Algerian war of independence, the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the Lebanese and Iraq wars, and the ongoing war in Syria. Rather than follow a historical chronology of these events, we will read these texts thematically, beginning with texts that seek to present themselves as direct, sometimes eye-witness, accounts and then moving on to narratives that complicate the relationship between conflict and its narration.

What were the famous and funny, nice and naughty, sacred and profane, scholarly and popular, silly and profound books read in the pre-modern Muslim world? How did people understand their status in the cosmos, their place in the world, their role in society, their relation to other peoples?
This course provides an overview of the thought and literature of the Islamic world as it developed across a broad geographic area stretching across the central Islamic lands from Morocco and Iberia to the Maldives and India – even into the New World – during the “middle periods” (c. 950 – 1750 C.E.). We engage with a wide variety of primary texts in English translation, as well as various visual, aural and material artifacts, contextualizing them through lectures, secondary readings and discussion. We trace a range of ideas, institutions, and literary works, considering them both on their own merits, and how they evolved in response to changing historical, demographic and religious circumstances. We explore the interaction of culture, ethnicity, history, politics and religion in the creation of individual Muslim identities and a multi-faceted Islamicate civilization (consisting of its intellectual milieu; literary, artistic and musical production; social organization; scientific, philosophical and theological thought; religious, educational, governmental, commercial and social institutions; geographic, ethnic, confessional, gender, social and spatial constructs). In brief, how did noteworthy Muslims at various points and places think through questions of life & death, man & God, faith & belief, the sacred & the profane, law & ethics, tradition vs. innovation, power & politics, class & gender, self & other? How did they wage war; make love; shape the built environment; eat & drink; tell stories; educate their youth; preserve the past; imagine the future; perform piety, devotion and spirituality; construe the virtuous life and righteous community, etc.? How did these ideas change over time?

This course surveys Muslim history-writing in Arabic from its beginnings to the nineteenth century. Through reading the work of historians such as al-Baladhuri, al-Tabari, Miskawayh, Ibn ‘Asakir, Ibn Khaldun, and al-Jabarti, we investigate different genres of historical writing and examine the various methodologies employed by Muslim historians.

This course explores the Islamic tradition of doxography—the study of sectarian differences. We read works by al-Balkhi, (pseudo?)al-Jubba’i, al-Ash‘ari, al-Nawbakhti, al-Shahrastani, and Ibn Hazm to understand what the genre of doxography consisted of, which methods its authors deployed, and how they envisioned the Muslim community and sectarian identities within it.