2019-2020

This course examines responses to the Mongol destruction of the Abbasid caliphate in 1258 and the background to formation of regional Muslim empires. Topics include the opening of confessional boundaries; Ibn Arabi, Ibn Taymiyya, and Ibn Khaldun; the development of alternative spiritualities, mysticism, and messianism in the fifteenth century; and transconfessionalism, antinomianism, and the articulation of sacral sovereignties in the sixteenth century. All work in English. This course is offered in alternate years.

This 10-week crash-course surveys Armenian history and elements of culture (religion, mythology and music, manuscript illumination, art and architecture) as well as offer a mosaic of traditions and customs (festivals and feasts, birth and wedding rituals, funerary cult) of Armenia. It also discusses transformations of Armenian identity and symbols of ‘Armenianness’ through time (especially in Soviet and post-Soviet eras) based on such elements of national identity, as language, religion, art or shared history. Recommended for students with interest in Armenian Studies or related fields, in Area or Civilizations Studies, Art and Cultural Studies, etc.

This class explores works of Muslim intellectuals, who interpreted various aspects of Islamic philosophy, political theory and law in the modern age. We will look at diverse interpretations concerning the role of religion in a modern society, at secularized and historicized approaches to religion and at the critique of both religious establishments and nation states as articulated by Middle Eastern intellectuals. Consequently, we will contextualize concepts like “woman,” “nation,” “East” and “jihad” as we follow the meanings assigned to these conceptions by different intellectuals at different historical moments. The class likewise examines the ways in which Muslim reformers synthesized cultural trends to revive the Islamic faith in face of Western economic and political hegemony. Our debate will focus on the influence of the colonial settings on the formation of these new readings and on the ways in which Muslim thinkers both appropriated and critiqued Western notions of civilization and guidance. We will consider the impact of these new ideas on political theory, and in particular on the political systems which emerged in the modern Middle East. Finally, the class will scrutinize the ways in which Muslim writers manipulated new means of communication such as the print media in order to propagate their ideas regarding the nature of their state and society. Generally, we shall discuss secondary literature first and the primary sources later.

What are the major developments in thinking and in literature in the Islamic world of the “middle periods” (c. 950 – 1800 C.E.). 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? What are some of the famous, funny, naughty and nice books read in the pre-modern Muslim world?
We will survey a broad geographic area stretching from Morocco and Iberia to the Maldives and India – even into the New World – through lectures, secondary readings and discussion. You will engage with a variety of primary texts in English translation, as well as various visual, aural and material artifacts. How do the ideas, institutions, and literary works evolve in response to changing historical, demographic and religious circumstances? How do culture, ethnicity, gender, history, politics and religion interact to create individual Muslim identities and a multi-faceted intellectual milieu (consisting of the scientific, philosophical and theological production; the religious, educational, governmental, commercial and social institutions; the literary, artistic, musical, and constructs which together make up "Islamic Civilization).

This sequence explores the thought and literature of the Islamic world from the coming of Islam in the seventh century C.E. through the development and spread of its civilization in the medieval period and into the modern world. Including historical framework to establish chronology and geography, the course focuses on key aspects of Islamic intellectual history: scripture, law, theology, philosophy, literature, mysticism, political thought, historical writing, and archaeology. In addition to lectures and secondary background readings, students read and discuss samples of key primary texts, with a view to exploring Islamic civilization in the direct voices of the people who participated in creating it. All readings are in English translation. No prior background in the subject is required. This course sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies.

This course covers the period from ca. 1750 to the present, focusing on Western military, economic, and ideological encroachment; the impact of such ideas as nationalism and liberalism; efforts at reform in the Islamic states; the emergence of the "modern" Middle East after World War I; the struggle for liberation from Western colonial and imperial control; the Middle Eastern states in the cold war era; and local and regional conflicts.

This course is the continuation of Islamic History and Society 1 and presumes a familiarity of early Islamic history, 600-1100. This course covers the period from roughly 1000 to 1750 and deals with, among other topics, the coming of the steppe people (Turks and Mongols), the Mongol successor states, and the rise of the great early modern Islamic empires (Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals), the relation of Islamic political entities with Russia and China. Mid-term and final exam required for Undergraduates

This course covers the period from ca. 600 to 1100, including the rise and spread of Islam, the Islamic empire under the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, and the emergence of regional Islamic states from Afghanistan and eastern Iran to North Africa and Spain.

Have you ever wondered what men looked like, how they lived and loved in the pre-modern Middle East? In this class, we will encounter cuckolded husbands, muscular heroes, angry kings, mad lovers, and chivalrous bandits – all fictional. We will analyze how masculinities are constructed in selected passages of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literature in translation, and evaluate normative expectations, caricatures, and anxieties about masculinities in the cultural consciousness of the pre-modern Middle East.
In this course, you will become familiar with theoretical principles of the study of masculinities as well as acquire tools for literary analysis and close reading. Case studies will be drawn from a variety of literary sources, such as the Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla wa-layla), the Persian Book of Kings (Shāhnāmeh), the love story of Laylā and Majnūn, as well as other texts.

For most of the duration of the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC), the ancient Egyptians were able to establish a vast empire and becoming one of the key powers within the Near East. This course will investigate in detail the development of Egyptian foreign policies and military expansion which affected parts of the Near East and Nubia. We will examine and discuss topics such as ideology, imperial identity, political struggle and motivation for conquest and control of wider regions surrounding the Egyptian state as well as the relationship with other powers and their perspective on Egyptian rulers as for example described in the Amarna letters.