Autumn

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 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. 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.

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 surveys the political, social, and economic history of ancient Egypt from pre-dynastic times (ca. 3400 B.C.) until the advent of Islam in the seventh century of our era.

The class looks at images of, and narratives about, hell, from depictions of hell in the Quran to depictions of contemporary refugee camps as modern infernos. We will also study the construction of the image of Satan (Iblis) and of demons (jins) in various Islamic texts. The class will focus on reading of primary sources in translation (The Quran, Ibn 'Arabi, Abu al-'Ala al-Ma'ari, Nagib Mahfouz, Ghassan Kanfani) and the text book "Locating Hell in Islamic Traditions" , edited by Christian Lange (Brill, 2015, open online access)

This course is an exploration of the continuities of Egyptian culture from the Ptolemaic period down to modern times, a span of over 2000 years. The emphasis will be on the archaeology of Coptic and Islamic Egypt. The focus will be on the role of medieval archaeology in amplifying the history of economic and social systems. It is this connective quality of archaeology which contributes to an understanding of Pharaonic culture and fills the gap between ancient and modern Egypt

This course surveys (1) the wide range of methods used by archaeologists to recover and analyze evidence concerning the human past; and (2) the various theoretical paradigms archaeologists have employed to interpret their finds and reconstruct ancient societies and cultures.

This course takes place outside of Chicago and can only be taken by arrangement with the instructor well in advance of the quarter in which it is offered.

Review basic Classical Hebrew grammar, emphasis on morphology and basic syntax; review/acquire historical morphology; acquire facility in reading Biblical Hebrew prose