Graduate

This course examines the widely held view that changes in Ottoman commerce precipitated a decisive shift in the nature of the Ottoman state during the nineteenth century. Many narratives highlight the incorporation of Ottoman lands into the capitalist world-economy, government-led liberal economic reforms, the political ascent of merchants and bankers tied to foreign capital, and even an “imperialism of free trade.” Taking the Ottomans as its case study, the course invites broader reflection on the relationship between commerce and politics in the modern world. How and when does trade acquire political significance? Which forms of commercial activity and which regions are emphasized—or overlooked—in economic histories? When and what kinds of markets and merchants become identified with capitalism? Focusing mainly on the nineteenth century, we will explore these questions by bringing together four classic works on Ottoman trade and four recent studies that offer new perspectives on commerce and state in the Empire. With renewed attention to political economy and capitalism in Ottoman and Middle East studies, the course equips students to think across classic and recent literatures on these themes.

This advanced graduate seminar explores various genres within hadith literature, a vast corpus encompassing traditions about the speeches, and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad. Beyond examining different types of hadith collections, the course will trace the development of classical hadith scholarship and the critical methodologies employed by classical and medieval scholars in evaluating hadiths. In addition, the seminar will analyze key texts that discuss the role of hadith in law, theology, and Sufism, as well as its significance in the daily religious life of Muslims. The course will also introduce the intertextualities between Twelver Shi‘ite and Zaydi hadith traditions and the Sunni hadith corpus, offering a comparative perspective on hadith transmission and interpretation across different Islamic traditions.

This course, a continuation of Islamicate Civilization I, surveys intellectual, cultural, religious and political developments in the Islamic world from Andalusia to the South Asian sub-continent during the periods from ca. 950 to 1750. We trace the arrival and incorporation of the Steppe Peoples (Turks and Mongols) into the central Islamic lands; the splintering of the Abbasid Caliphate and the impact on political theory; the flowering of literature of Arabic, Turkic and Persian expression; the evolution of religious and legal scholarship and devotional life; transformations in the intellectual and philosophical traditions; the emergence of Shi`i states (Buyids and Fatimids); the Crusades and Mongol conquests; the Mamluks and Timurids, and the "gunpowder empires" of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Moghuls; the dynamics of gender and class relations; etc. This class partially fulfills the requirement for MA students in CMES, as well as for MES majors and PhD students.

This course uses the vantage point of Syria to survey the history of the Middle East, from the eighteenth century to today. The course will take us from the province of Damascus in the Ottoman Empire to the millions of Syrians in the West in the twenty-first century to understand the changing nature of where Syria is and what being a Syrian meant throughout these three centuries. As this course will reveal, the interlocutors of this question included rioting craftsmen and Janissaries, a local US vice-consul in Damascus, the nomads of the Syrian desert, émigré Syrian critics of the Ottoman Empire, agronomists invested in national economy, men of business as well as those of religion, and an authoritarian regime and a people who rose against it. As we unravel the social, political, economic, and intellectual processes that shaped the Syrian identity, we will cover milestone events such as the infamous interconfessional massacres of 1860, the end of the Ottoman Empire, the Baathist coup of 1963, and the Syrian Revolution in the context of the Arab Spring of the early 2010s. The course material will include scholarly texts as well as excerpts from Syrian texts, novels, and films in translation. 

This course surveys the archaeology and history of the Levant from the time of its earliest human habitation in the Stone Age to the end of the Bronze Age around 1100 BCE.

This course provides undergraduate and graduate students with an introduction to the use of animal bones in archaeological research. Students will gain hands-on experience analyzing faunal remains from an archaeological site in the Near East. The class will address theoretical and methodological issues involved in the use of animal bones as a source of information about prehistoric societies. The course consists of lectures, laboratory sessions, and original research projects using collections of animal bone from archaeological excavations in southeast Turkey. Topics covered include: 1) identifying, ageing and sexing animal bones; 2) zooarchaeological sampling, measurement, quantification, and problems of taphonomy; 3) analysis of animal bone data; 4) reconstructing prehistoric hunting and pastoral economies, especially: animal domestication, hunting strategies, herding systems, seasonality, and pastoral production in complex societies.

Students will supervise and direct work in one or more trenches, possibly (depending on suitability and project scale) an excavation area comprised of several trenches. This includes managing the local workforce and any junior students, and developing strategies together with the project leader. They should also be the lead on one type of material culture or data collected (e.g., surface survey, ceramics, glass), managing the team responsible for recording, measuring, sampling, etc., and interpreting and synthesizing preliminary results in the field. Assessment will be based on field notes, area summary, and contribution to any preliminary reports or articles.

This course is designed for students who possess a basic knowledge of modern‭ ‬and/or Biblical Hebrew‭ (‬either the first year course or the placement exam‭ ‬are prerequisites‭). ‬The main objective is to provide students with the‭ ‬skills necessary to approach Modern Hebrew prose‭, ‬both fiction and‭ ‬non-fiction‭. Students learn to use the dictionary‭, ‬and approach unfamiliar‭ ‬texts and vocabulary‭. Many syntactic structures are introduced‭, ‬including‭ ‬simple clauses‭, ‬coordinate and compound sentences‭. ‬Throughout the year‭, ‬students read‭, ‬write‭, ‬and speak extensively and are required to analyze the‭ ‬grammatical structures of assigned materials‭.

Continue acquisition of basic Biblical Hebrew; Continue acquisition of basic notions of historical grammar; Acquire the rudiments of analysis of Biblical Hebrew poetry.

This course involves reading and analysis of the inscriptions, primarily on stone and primarily from the Phoenician homeland, that belong to the early and middle first millennium BC.