Spring

This Seminar for graduate students centers on the use of material and documentary sources for the study of early Islamic history (ca. 640-1000 CE), particularly looking at multiple religious groups, languages, and literary traditions. It will introduce the students to the study of documentary texts such as the Arabic papyri, the expansion of Arabic papyrology as a field, and the integration of literary and non-literary sources. Students will be encouraged and challenged to think of texts also as material objects. We will talk about sources and resources for the study of political, economic, social, and intellectual histories of the Islamicate world; in so doing, we will discuss also methods, problems, and perspectives.

Why did the Islamic Revolution take place? What were its causes? Iran was the site of two of the most important revolutions in the Middle East in the 20th century: the Constitutional (1905-1911) and Islamic Revolutions (1979). What was the historical relationship between them? This course is intended to answer these questions by exploring the history of Iran from late Qajar period until the early 1980s. We will examine the complex socio-economic and religio-political developments such as the Tobacco Protest, oil nationalization and student movements. We will emphasize long-term changes with a particular attention to the diverse actors and influences of the revolutions (tribes, landowners, foreign governments, merchants, religious scholars, political dissidents, urban poor, intellectuals). We will use a wide swath of primary sources including films, comic books, posters, footages and poems. No prior background in the subject is required.

Prior knowledge of the Middle East not required. This course aims to facilitate a general understanding of some key factors that have shaped life in this region, with primary emphasis on modern conditions and their background, and to provide exposure to some of the region's rich cultural diversity. This course can serve as a basis for the further study of the history, politics, and civilizations of the Middle East.

For most of the duration of the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC), the ancient Egyptians were able to establish a vast empire and becoming one of the key powers within the Near East. This course will investigate in detail the development of Egyptian foreign policies and military expansion which affected parts of the Near East and Nubia. We will examine and discuss topics such as ideology, imperial identity, political struggle and motivation for conquest and control of wider regions surrounding the Egyptian state as well as the relationship with other powers and their perspective on Egyptian rulers as for example described in the Amarna letters.

Building on the basics of grammar, vocabulary, and orthographic styles learned in EGPT 20210, this course focuses on the reading and analysis of Late Egyptian texts from the various genres.

This course provides an introduction to the hieroglyphic writing system, vocabulary and grammar of Old Egyptian, the phase of the Egyptian language used during the Old Kingdom (circa 2686-2181 BCE). It also provides an introduction to the culture and society of Egypt's 'Pyramid Age' through a close reading of monumental texts from private tombs, royal and private stelae, administrative decrees, economic documents, and Pyramid texts. Some attention is given to Old Egyptian texts written in cursive Hieratic.

This course continues an introduction to ancient Egyptian culture and society through a close reading of its 'classic' literature from the Middle Kingdom (circa 2025-1773 BCE) and beyond, until the disappearance of hieroglyphs over two thousand years later.

This course provides students with an opportunity to read authentic texts in Persian. Through various exercises, the students will be familiar with the news terminology as well as other complex expressions and proverbs used throughout the news articles that encompass different themes related to Iran’s politics, literature, culture, economy, etc. During this course, you will read a variety of news excerpts from the newspapers printed inside Iran (Ettelā’āt, Keyhān, Sharq, E’temād, Irān, and Mardomsālāri) and follow their current status as reflected in today’s media. Class meets three hours a week with the instructor and one hour with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

This sequence deepens and expands the students' knowledge of modern Persian. The goal is to enable the students to gain proficiency in all skills of language acquisition at a higher level. In this sequence, the students learn more complex grammatical structures and gain wider vocabulary through reading paragraph-length texts on a variety of topics related to Persian language, literature, and culture. Students will also be familiarized with Persian news and media terminology. Class meets four hours a week with the instructor and one hour with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

This sequence concentrates on all skills of language acquisition (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). The class begins with the Persian alphabet, and moves to words, phrases, short sentences, and finally short paragraphs. The goal is to enable the students towards the end of the sequence to read, understand, and translate simple texts in modern standard Persian and engage in short everyday conversations. All the basic grammatical structures are covered in this sequence. Introducing the Iranian culture through the texts is also a goal. The class meets four hours a week with the instructor and one hour with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.