2023-2024

Food Culture in the Arab World

Arabic for Special Purposes: Arabic for Business

ARAB 20103 is the spring quarter continuation of the Intermediate Arabic sequence that began with ARAB 20101 last fall, and continued with ARAB 20102 in the winter. We will continue to work through the second half of Al-Kitaab Part 2. As in any language course, we address all four of the fundamental skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. A particular focus of this sequence, however, is ensuring that students have a solid, comprehensive understanding of the rules of Arabic syntax. In addition to readings and exercises from the textbook, we will increasingly make use of articles from Arabic-language news media.

This sequence concentrates on the acquisition of speaking, reading, and aural skills in modern formal Arabic.

This course introduces students to the epigraphic material from the city of Mari (Tell Hariri) in the 18th c. BCE, through the reading of recently published letters and documents pertaining to the early years of king Zimrī-Lîm (1775–1762 BCE). The documents are written in the Middle-Euphratean dialect of Old Babylonian and in standard Old Babylonian cursive script. Students are expected to read from originals in high-resolution photographs (no autographed copies of the texts will be provided). The Mari archives are one of the richest and most vivid corpora of the Akkadian language, and students will be introduced to various matters pertaining to political and institutional life, social and economic issues, and cultural traits of the Amorite period.

This course is the third quarter of the annual introductory sequence to the Babylonian language and the Cuneiform script. After covering the grammar in the first two quarters, students will further their mastering of the Classical and Late Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian and the associated monumental and cursive scripts by reading through a varieties of text genres: Letters, Royal Inscriptions, Legal Texts, and excerpts of Literature.

This course focuses on Hittite prayers. The texts are read in cuneiform and placed it in their social-historical context. The reading hones the student's philological skills. We will study the development of Hittite prayers from the 17th century to 13th century, incorporating recent insights on the rhetorical structure and power of prayers and the influence from Mesopotamia. We will read a selection of Old Hittite benedictions (the forerunners of prayers), the hymn to the Sungod, the desperate prayers of Arnuwanda and Asmunikal for delivery from their enemies, and a plague prayer of Mursili II.

TURK Reading/Research

A selection of Turkish printed texts in Arabic script from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is introduced in order of difficulty. Hakan Karateke's unpublished "Ottoman Reader" serves as a text book. The texts are drawn from historical textbooks, official documents, novels, and other genres.

Advanced Turkish students will develop their language skills in speaking, reading, translating, listening, and writing, while learning about Turkish society and culture at the same time. To address all of these aspects each class is divided into three sections which focuses on a specific skill.