Spring

The goal of this class is to get an overview of Hittite literature, as “defined” by the Hittites themselves, in the wider historical-cultural context of the Ancient Near East. Some of the most important questions we can ask ourselves in reading ancient texts are: why were they written down, why were they kept, for whom were they intended, and what do the answers to these questions (apart from the primary content of the texts themselves) tell us about — in our case — Hittite society? 
 

This course explores the musical traditions of the peoples of Central Asia, both in terms of historical development and cultural significance. Topics include the music of the epic tradition, the use of music for healing, instrumental genres, and Central Asian folk and classical traditions. Basic field methods for ethnomusicology are also covered. Extensive use is made of recordings of musical performances and of live performances in the area.
 

Colloquial Levantine Arabic is a proficiency-based course designed to develop the linguistic skills necessary for personal day-to-day life. The course focuses on spoken rather than Standard written Arabic and will therefore target primarily the oral/aural skills. Through the knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic and the introduction of colloquial vocabulary, expressions and grammar, the course will build the students' competence in spoken Arabic. Students will also be introduced to the Levantine culture of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine.
 

About a third of the Qur’an is presented in the form of stories. This course content-based language course that introduces students to selected Qur’anic stories (Qassas قَصَص) and examines their thematic, linguistic, and cultural contexts. Through close reading of Qur’anic passages alongside relevant secondary readings in Modern Standard Arabic, students will engage with Qur’anic Arabic while strengthening their proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic. The course emphasizes vocabulary development, grammatical and morphological analysis ( Assarf الصرف), and rhetorical and stylistic features (Al-Balaghah البلاغة), highlighting how language functions within Qur’anic storytelling. Students will become acquainted with key figures and events in the Qur’an while developing the four language skills reading, writing, listening, and speaking through a variety of in-class and at-home activities.

Prerequisites include two years of university-level Arabic, an Intermediate High score on the online Arabic placement test, or consent of the instructor.
 

This course compares the picture of ancient Israel and its history that is presented in the Bible to the results obtained from archaeological excavations and surveys, seen in the light of modern historical-critical analysis of the Hebrew Bible and the study of ancient non-biblical inscriptions. The focus will be on the biblical narratives from the books of Genesis through Kings concerning the Creation and Flood, the ancestors of the Israelites (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), Moses and the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan under Joshua, the “pre-monarchical” period of the Judges, and the actions of the rulers and prophets of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah until the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. Subsequent developments until the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE will be covered more briefly. No prior background in archaeology or biblical studies is required, although it will be useful for students to have previously taken BIBL 31000, “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible.”

Archaeology is the study of the material evidence of past human activity. This course, which is offered every year in the Autumn Quarter, explores the history of archaeology as a discipline and the methods used by archaeologists to obtain evidence about past human activity via excavations, surface surveys, and remote-sensing technologies such as satellite imagery and ground-penetrating radar, with emphasis on archaeological fieldwork in the Middle East. This course also surveys the latest methods used to date, classify, and analyze various kinds of evidence after it has been obtained. And since archaeological data is always collected and interpreted within an intellectual framework of theoretical conceptions concerning human society, culture, and history, this course provides a brief overview of “archaeological theory,” i.e., the uses made by archaeologists of a wide range of different social theories that may lead to quite different interpretations of the same data. This topic is explored in more depth in a companion course on “Social Theory and Ancient Studies” (NEHC 20010/30010), which is offered in alternate years in the Winter Quarter.

Persian short story writing began in the twentieth century with Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh’s collection Yek-ī būd yek-ī nabūd (1921). The 1920s through the 1940s is considered the formative period of Persian short-story writing, also known as the first period. The second period in the development of the modern Persian short story began with the coup of 28 Mordād 1332/19 August 1953 and ended with the 1979 revolution. The third period that started after the 1979 revolution has been called the period of diversity in that it brought forth a variety of literary movements.

In this course, we will review the three periods of Persian short story development mentioned above to give you historical background on this genre of Persian literature. However, the focus of readings in this course is the short stories written by Hedayat, Daneshvar, Pirzad, Golshiri, Esma’ili, and others who have employed elements of fantasy, surrealism, and the paranormal in their stories. The class meets twice per week, each time for an hour and a half. We will read the original stories in Persian and discuss them in class in Persian. We will use hypothesis as a social annotation tool to engage you more deeply with the readings through a collaborative discovery of the text. We will also do collaborate translations of selected sections of some stories in our course blog as well as composing commentaries on each story. At the end of the course, each student will write a critical paper about one of the short stories we read during the course and translate 4-5 pages of it. Try to implement the theories you learned in your other courses in your discussions of the story. 

This course introduces the grammar and writing system of the Lycian language of the first millennium BC (ca. 500 to 300). After reading a series of tomb inscriptions, we venture into the larger historical inscriptions that include the Lycian-Greek-Aramaic trilingual of Xanthos.