Autumn

This course covers the rise and spread of Islam, the Islamic empire under the Umayyad and early Abbasid caliphs, and the emergence of regional Islamic states from Afghanistan and eastern Iran to North Africa and Spain. The main focus will be on political, economic and social history.

NOTE TO UNDERGRADS: This course does not fulfill Civilization Studies requirements in the College.

Introduction to the grammar of Akkadian, specifically to the Old Babylonian dialect. The class covers the first half of the Old Babylonian grammar, an introduction to the cuneiform script, and easy translation exercises.

This course is part of a sequence that is designed to take students to a solid Advanced proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic. It does this by clustering materials that serve all 4 language skills around three cultural themes. The class adheres to a 90% Arabic instruction. Students will move forward in their ability to listen to and understand spoken MSA, to read a variety of authentic texts (literary and other), and to speak and write more easily on topics of general and professional interest. By the end of the course, and surely, by the end of the academic year, students should be comfortable functioning at the Intermediate High-Advanced Low level of language proficiency. See the descriptions of the ACTFL standards and levels here: https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/public/ACTFLProficiencyG…

This course focuses on a particular genre of Hittite texts. The Hittite texts are read in cuneiform and placed it in their social-historical context and the reading hones the student's philological skills.

As part of a three quarter sequence, this course familiarizes the student with about 3/4 of Hittite grammar. The principles of the cuneiform writing system are taught and the student will learn some 100 signs of the basic syllabary and most important logograms. Also, a begin is made of introducing the student to the basic tools of the field.

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 gives an overview of the richness of Mesopotamian Literature (modern Iraq) written in the 3rd-1st millennium BC. We will read myths and epics written on clay tablets in the Sumerian and Akkadian language in English translation and discuss content and style, but also the religious, cultural and historic implications. Particular focus will be on the development of stories over time, the historical context of the literature and mythological figures. The texts treated cover not only the famous Epic of Gilgamesh, but also various legends of Sumerian and Akkadian kings, stories about Creation and World Order, and destruction. The topics covered range from the quest for immortality, epic heroes and monsters, sexuality and love.

This course provides a thorough introduction to the grammar of the Aramaic portions of the Hebrew Bible during the first few weeks. The remainder of the course is spent reading texts from the books of Daniel and Ezra.

The purpose of this three-quarter sequence is to enable the student to acquire a knowledge of the vocabulary and grammar of Classical Hebrew sufficient to read prose texts with the occasional assistance of a dictionary. The first quarter focuses on the inflection of nouns and adjectives and begins the inflection of verbs. It includes written translation to and from Hebrew, oral exercises, and grammatical analysis of forms.

This sequence deepens and expands the students' knowledge of modern Persian at all levels of reading, writing and speaking. Grammar will be taught at a higher level and a wider vocabulary will enable the students to read stories, articles and poetry and be introduced to examples of classical literature towards the end of the sequence. Introducing the Iranian culture will be continued. Class meets three hours a week with the instructor and (with enough students) two hours with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.