Resources

Course Number: AAAS 186/HDS 3694

Course Title: Religion, Culture, and Society in Africa

Instructor: Jacob Olupona

Exploring the meaning of religion and its impact of on African culture and society broadly, this course will highlight both religious traditions and innovations. Instead of treating each of the religions of Africa, the triple heritage in the words of Ali Mazrui of indigenous African religions, Islam, and Christianity, as distinct and bounded entities, we will explore the hybridity, interaction, and integration between categories throughout Africa. Using case studies, a unique perspective on religious diversity on the African continent and diaspora will emerge.

Course Number: ISLAMCIV 145

Course Title: Introduction to Islamic Philosophy and Theology: The Classical and Medieval period

Instructor: Khaled El-Rouayheb

Islamic Civilizations 145 is an introduction to some of the key problems and figures in medieval Islamic theology and philosophy. The main topics covered will be: The rise of theological controversies in early Islam and the crystallization of theological factions; the rise of an Arabic tradition of Neo-Platonized Aristotelianism with such figures as Farabi (d. 950) and Avicenna (d.1037); the confrontation between the theological and Aristotelian traditions in such works as The Incoherence of the Philosophers by the theologian al-Ghazali (d.1111) and the response by Averroes (d.1198); the powerful influence of philosophy on later Islamic theology; the anti-Aristotelian, Platonist philosophy of “Illumination” of Suhrawardi (d.1191), and the mystical monism of Ibn Arabi (d.1240) and his followers.

Course Number: MODMDEST 102

Course Title: Shi’a Islam and Politics in the Middle East

Instructor: Mohammad Sagha

From the conflict in Yemen pitting the Shi’a Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition, to the civil war in Syria and the Shi’a majority militia-led fight against the remnants of ISIS in Iraq, dominant media narratives portray conflict in today’s Middle East as part of a proxy battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia rooted in an ancient dispute within the Muslim world between the Shi’a and Sunni sects of Islam. In this rendering, primordial hatreds are driving religious wars and civil conflict with Iran, at the heart of the so-called Shi’a crescent, and Saudi Arabia, the stalwart of true Sunni identity. However, such thinking masks over a more complex understanding of the changes occurring in today’s Middle East and prevents accurately differentiating between distinct yet overlapping factors such as actual substantive theological and intellectual differences between Shi’a and Sunni Islam, state competition (that is, between Iran and Saudi Arabia), and historical legacies of empire and state building in the Middle East. This course addresses such dominant narratives and challenges conventional understandings of the interplay between religion and politics in the Middle East and how sectarianism, Shi’a Islam, and geopolitical conflict can be more properly understood from a rigorous analytical perspective and focuses on the foundations and varieties of modern Shi’a political thought; religious clerical institutions; Shi’a political parties and militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen; and Iran’s Islamic revolution, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and the Basij paramilitary organization. The course assumes no prior knowledge of Islam or the Middle East.

Course Number: HAA 226V

Course Title: Visual, Material, Architectural Cultures btw East and West (Early Modern Ottoman Empire, 15-17th C)

Instructor: Gulru Necipoglu-Kafadar

Examines multimedia arts, monuments, gardens, and cities of the Ottoman Empire straddling Asia, Europe and Africa. The selective fusion of Ottoman-Islamic, Byzantine, and Italian Renaissance artistic traditions, and the earliest pictorial representations of the Islamic East by European artists working in the “Orientalist” mode are considered.

Course Number: MODMDEST 117

Course Title: Zawiyas, Harems and Coffee Shops: Everyday Life in the Pre-Modern Middle East

Instructor: TBA

This course discusses various themes of social and cultural history of the pre-modern Middle East. The rise of Islam, the expansion of the Arab-Muslim umma and the establishment of the Caliphates changed the Middle East. These developments also led to the rise of a new civilization whose classical forms developed from late antiquity to the early modern period. By focusing on the history of everyday life, this course aims to help students imagine the lives of people in previous periods and focus on wider segments of society than what traditional political history allows for. It is meant to look at these developments “from below.” The course discusses subjects and themes that include: piety, Sufism, literacy and education, private life, the rise of the harem, marriage, slavery, hisba, public morality, high culture and popular culture, entertainment, coffee-house culture and more. Students are introduced to different debates and arguments in the fields of social and cultural history of the Middle East and to different types of primary sources and ways of analyzing them.

Course Number: MODMDEST 108

Course Title: History of Modern Iran and Turkey

Instructor: Mohammad Sagha

As two of the most populous and important states in the Middle East comprising almost 40% of the population of the region, Iran and Turkey have shaped the foundations of core regional trends from the 19th century up to until the contemporary period. As non-Arab majority states that are often fundamental in setting larger political trendlines, Iran and Turkey’s transnational influences on the Middle East directly impact models of modernization, development, and nation-building for the broader Middle East and Muslim world. They also influence the balance of power in West Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and associated subregions of the Caucuses, Balkans, and the Persian Gulf. This course focuses on core themes interlinking Iran and Turkey in the modern Middle East, including: secular state-building and development, ethno-nationalism, Islamism, global geopolitics, and domestic political competition for power. The course will also cover key moments in national and regional histories that have left lasting impacts for contemporary Iran and Turkey including the post-WWI borders of the Middle East, the Cold War and influence of NATO in the region, and minority dynamics such as that of the Alevi and Kurdish communities, the Islamic Revolution of Iran, transnational Islamist politics and, the influence of Shi’a reformism in Iran and Sunni Islamism in Turkey in post-Cold War era, as well as the aftereffects of the Arab Spring, Iran-Turkish rivalries in Syria and Iraq, and beyond. The course assumes no prior knowledge of Islam or the Middle East.

Course Number: PERSIAN 108

Course Title: Persian Sufi Literature

Instructor: Nicolas Boylston

In this course we will explore the major genres of classical Persian Sufi poetry and prose. In addition to examining the formation of these genres and their contexts of composition, we will pursue a range of broader questions, including: What is Sufism, and how do we discern ‘Sufi’ from ‘non-Sufi’ literature? What have the purposes and functions of literature been in Persianate Islamic contexts? What is the relationship between language, realization and experience in Persian Sufi literature, and how do authors in the Sufi tradition deal with the problem of ineffability? What is the place of love in Persian Sufi literature and how is it conceptualized? And, how do Persian Sufi authors deal with the diversity inherent in human experience?Readings will include Baba Tahir, Umar Khayyam, Sana’i, Attar, Rumi, Ahmad and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Sa’di, Hafez, Fakhr al-Din Iraqi, Shabistari, and Jami. All readings will be in English translation, but there will be an extra section for students with advanced Persian to read texts in the original.

Course Number: PERSIAN 220

Course Title: Intellectual and Literary Foundations of Classical Persian Poetry

Instructor: Nicolas Boylston

This seminar examines the major intellectual and literary genres that shaped the formation of the classical Persian poetic tradition and the contexts in which this occurred from the 10th to 12th centuries CE. Reading classic and current scholarship as well as works of Persian literature in translation, we will take a multi-layered approach to uncovering the creative and intellectual process of classical Persian poetry of the late-formative period, with the goal of rethinking what it means to read this poetry effectively. Topic discussed include court poetry, metaphysical and anti-metaphysical literature, Sufi homiletics, and imaginative narratives. This is an advanced graduate seminar, presupposing background in Persian or other Islamicate literatures and the willingness to read broadly for each session. All readings are in English.

Course Number: HAA 126V

Course Title: Arts, Artifacts, Architecture: Ottoman Visual & Material Cultures between East and West

Instructor: Gulru Necipoglu-Kafadar

Examines multimedia arts, monuments, gardens, and cities of the Ottoman Empire straddling Asia, Europe and Africa. The selective fusion of Ottoman-Islamic, Byzantine, and Italian Renaissance artistic traditions, and the earliest pictorial representations of the Islamic East by European artists working in the “Orientalist” mode are considered.

Course Number: RELIGION 2810

Course Title: Islamic Institutions – Middle East & Beyond: Modern Transformations & Debates (19th-21st centuries)

Instructor: Malika Zeghal

This graduate seminar explores the transformation of Islamic institutions in the modern period, such as religious endowments (Awqaf), sharia courts, and Islamic education. We will engage with the historiography of these institutions and with primary sources in Arabic or in translation that will help us open new paths for research.

Course Number: HDS 3057

Course Title: Intro to Islam through Prophetic Traditions

Instructor: Yunus Kumek

This course will engage in a critical reading and analysis of well-known Muslim prophetic traditions and a study of the practices of the Prophet Muhammad. Through analysis of Muslim prophetic traditions, such as “Hadith Jibril,” we will develop an understanding of the Islamic value systems, Islamic manners/etiquette and Prophetic Character. The fundamental building blocks such as Islam (the physical surrender of the body), Iman (internal truth), and Ihsan (excellence and beauty) will be closely examined. We will focus on Muslim spiritual care through these building blocks during the semester. We will also develop a framework for understanding core Islamic sciences, such as: Jurisprudence, creed/theology, and spiritual purification. Throughout various modalities and exercises, we will study how this framework can enable a deeper understanding of the practical issues affecting the lives of Muslims. We will have expert guest speakers from different disciplines such as pastoral care/chaplaincy (ministry), poetry & literature, counseling, psychology, education, social work, and medicine throughout the semester. These specialists will give us perspectives and practical tips on how prophetic traditions are applied in a Muslim’s life. This course will provide a basic understanding of the Islamic religion through the eyes of Muslims, while providing an in-depth understanding of the various dimensions of Islamic practices. Students from different backgrounds, with or without prior experience with Islam, will find much enrichment in this course diving into the practice through the lenses of prophetic traditions.

Course Number: HDS 3338

Course Title: The Prophet Muhammad in History, Devotion, and Polemic

Instructor: Mohsen Goudarzi

In the early seventh century, a man named Muḥammad son of ʿAbdallah founded a movement that in time grew into a global religion, empire, and civilization. This course introduces students to three discourses that developed around the life and character of the Prophet Muhammad. First, we will survey some of the biographies that Muslim scholars, both ancient and modern, have written about the life of their prophet. Second, we will explore how the Prophet’s life, teachings and persona have served as subjects of Islamic devotion. Finally, the course examines some of the ways in which non-Muslims, again both ancient and modern, have perceived and portrayed Muhammad in polemic against Islam or dialogue with Muslims.

Course Number: MIT 21H .261

Course Title: Modern Iran: A Century of Revolution

Instructor: Pouya Alimagham

Provides an overview of Iran’s modern history from a social, cultural, and political perspective while also considering factors as they relate to gender and race. Covers the country’s long and complicated interaction with the “West.” Situates Iran in the wider region, thereby delineating how political trends in the Middle East influenced the country and how its history of revolution has in turn impacted the region. Unpacks the Sunni-Shi’ite divide as a modern phenomenon rooted more in inter-state rivalry than in a theological dispute, Western perceptions of the Iranian and the Middle Eastern “Other,” the Iranian Diaspora, political Islam, and post-Islamism.