University of Michigan Department of Near Eastern Studies
Prof. Eliav Spring 2014 Thayer Academic Bldg., room 4151 T/Th 1-4 Office: 647-4638; Cell: (734) 678-2510 Email: [email protected] Office hours: F 3:30-4:30 (or by appointment)
THE LAND OF ISRAEL / PALESTINE THROUGH THE AGES
The territory called by contemporaries either the Land of Israel or Palestine has played a unique role in both Western and Near Eastern civilizations. To this day it is a volatile region suffused with conflict and violence, which plays a pivotal role in American politics and global affairs. At the same time, it is the bedrock of some of the highest cultural and religious achievements in human history. This course aims to unpack this seemingly incomprehensible contradiction, to study the history of Israel/Palestine, and to explore the ancient roots of modern contentions. We will outline the historical process and analyze the various factors (political, economic, cultural etc.), which shaped it; we’ll get acquainted with both the nations that ruled the land and the people that inhabited its cities and villages. Sometimes we’ll be following the route of bloody battles. At others, we’ll be focusing our attention on individuals and groups who produced some of the great masterpieces of all time. This course also fulfills the Race & Ethnicity Distribution Requirement; and so, the precarious story of this land will here serve also as laboratory to examine the interrelation between race, ethnicity, and religion across three millennia.
The classroom of this course is designed as a modern, 21st century learning environment that will challenge your senses and mind from multiple directions. Slides, video-clips, museum visits, and other electronic resources will hopefully combine to a unique experience of modern people seeking to understand the past.
Learning Tools
Text book: There is no textbook for this class. Many of the discussions about this region packed with political bias and apologetics and therefore are inappropriate for our usage. The lack of textbook heightens the importance of lectures, which are the central channel to communicate the information and material for the course.
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Electronic Course Pack (available on line at - https://www.lrc.lsa.umich.edu/eliav/israel-palestine/): The course pack is a central piece of this class intellectual experience. It is a manifestation of my view that sees recorded history as the often one-sided written product of society’s “winners,” thus requiring the historian to present a more complete and complex picture than that offered by any particular resource, whether ancient or modern. To achieve this goal, the course pack encompasses a wide variety of ancient sources – archaeological, artistic, cartographic (maps), and epigraphic, in addition to the more traditional literary documents. The course pack also includes video clips from the region we are studying. This combination is meant to lay the groundwork for a highly challenging interdisciplinary learning opportunity which on one hand could be very rewarding but on the other requires careful and thorough preparation. Pay close attention to this feature of the course.
Slides (available on line at - https://www.lrc.lsa.umich.edu/eliav/image-database/): Every lecture will be accompanied by a series of slides. These visual items are not meant to just illustrate the lecture, but rather they are an integral part of the learning material, both the pictures themselves and the information associated with them. Every Tuesday there will be a short quiz on the slides from the previous week. All the slides taught in class could be accessed through the course slide database. Use this tool to help you prepare for quizzes and exams and to expand your knowledge.
The Kelsey Museum Experience (http://www.lrc.lsa.umich.edu/eliav/kelsey/ ) : This class also involves a unique way to study the past – through real objects that were created by ancient people. You will hold them in your own hands, examine and analyze them, and draw your own conclusions about what they can teach us about the individuals, societies, and cultures that produced them. This is as close as you will ever get to communicating with the long gone civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean.
Schedule and Readings
# course-pack
May 6 Introduction The Geographical Setting
May 8 The Historical Framework: Methods and Challenges
- Video #1 - # 1-4
History without Words: From the Pre-History of the Land to the Dawn of History
- #5-10 3
May 13 Conquering or Settling in Peacefully? – Archaeology, Bible, and Modern Scholarship
- #11-16
May 15 From Tribal Societies to Monarchies – The Philistines, the Israelites, and their Neighbors
- #17-21 - Video #3
Jerusalem of the First Temple Period
- Images of Session 6
May 20 In the Shadows of the Eastern Super-Powers (I): The Northern Israelite Kingdom
- #22-29
In the Shadows of the Eastern Super-Powers (II): The Southern Judaean Kingdom
- #30-34
May 22 The Persians Rule and the Judaean-Samaritan Conflict
- #35-41
Turning West – The Hellenistic Period
- AY: 109-125
May 27 The Rise and Fall of the Maccabean State
- #46-49
The Early Roman Period: from Herod to the Great Revolt
- #50-53 - Video #4
4
May 29 Jerusalem of the Second Temple Period
- Images of Session 13
Jesus and the Birth of Christianity
- Gospel of Mark (on C-Tools) - Images of Session 14
Monday, JUNE 2, 4-6 PM: Review & MID TERM
June 3 The Later Roman Period (I) - Political History
- #54-58
The Later Roman Period (II) – Social History
- #59-64
June 5 Byzantine Palestine
- #65-69
June 10 From Cross to Crescent – The Islamic Conquest
- #70-75 - Video #5
Jund Urdunn and Jund Filastin – The Land as Part of the Early Islamic Empires
- #76-78
June 12 The “Jerusalem Kingdom” of the Crusades
- #79-83 - Video #6
From Saladin to Baybars – Drawing the Crusades “back to the Ocean”
- #84-86
5
June 17 The Mamluks
- #87-90
The Ottomans
- #91-94
June 19 The British Mandate
- #95-100
1948-2013: Two Generations of Israeli-Palestinian Conflicts
- #101-105
Concluding Remarks: What’s in a Land?
Course Requirements
Consecutive, well-prepared attendance to lectures, as well as:
- Weekly Quizzes on slides (beginning of Tues. Class) - Weekly preparation of yellow questions - A midterm quiz (Monday, June 2) on (a) dates, names and places; (b) Slides; (c) one short essay-type question. - A final, take-home exam: Questions will be given in class during the last meeting and will be due electronically (submitted via email) by 5PM on June 28.
Grading will be based on: (1) Slide weekly quizzes (20%) (2) Quality of class preparation (yellow questions) and participation in discussions (10%) (3) Midterm exam (30%) (4) Final (40%)