Straughn - Islamic Civilizations ARCH-0650 ISLAMIC CIVILIZATIONS: THE FORMATIVE PERIODS Instructor: Ian Straughn Email: [email protected] TA: Email: Office: 309 in 70 Waterman Office Hours: Tues 9-11am TA Office hours: By appointment Course Times: MWF 2-2:50 Course Location: Smith-Buononno G12 Course Website/Wiki: http://proteus.brown.edu/islamiccivilizations/Home E-reserve password: khaldun COURSE DESCRIPTION: Islamic civilization is much talked about, but also much misunderstood. This course is designed to provide a basis for understanding the cultures, peoples, and traditions of the "Abode of Islam" (''Dar al-Islam'') in the early periods. Why is it that both Muslims and non-Muslims alike look to the classical Islamic past as both a resource and explanation of the present? To answer this question we will explore the collective impact of Islamic civilization on traditions of thought, religious and cultural practices, social institutions, and the course of history more generally as it emerged from its origins in seventh century Arabia through its rapid flourishing throughout the Mediterranean, Near East and beyond. In the process you will witness the inception and elaboration of a religious tradition, the rise and fall of dynasties, as well as the range of material and visual culture which they produced. Along with scholarly studies, we will read the literature of medieval travelers, the rhetoric of poets, and the accounts of caliphs, sultans and their administrators. Similarly we will consider the diversity of the people and places that have become part of the Muslim world and their lives as merchants, peasants, scholars and Sufis. The course concludes by setting the stage for the arrival of the Mongols whose sack of Baghdad put an end to the Abbasid caliphate in 1258 and laid the foundations for a new series of interactions and cultural forces that would further elaborate and change the civilization of the classical Islamic world. Finally we will be attuned to the contemporary relevance of this history, whether it has manifest in the sectarian differences between Sunni and Shia or the much talked about "clash of civilizations" thesis. - 1 - Straughn - Islamic Civilizations READINGS: The following will be available at the University Bookstore for Purchase: (They may be found used for much less elsewhere) Required: There is no one text book that can adequately comprise the multifaceted nature of Islamic civilization. However, there are several texts that will serve as invaluable resources, will be referenced throughout the course, and therefore may be worth purchasing. • Kennedy, H. 2004. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates : The Islamic Near East from the 6th to the 11th Century. 2nd ed. London: Longman • Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddima: An Introduction to History. Trans. Franz Rozenthal; Ed. N.J. Dawood. Princeton University Press • Amin Ma’aluf. 1998. Samarkand (a novel). Interlink Publishing Group • Grabar, Oleg. 1987. The formations of Islamic Art. Revised Ed. Yale University Press The following have been ordered and are worth purchasing and will be used as valuable resources, however, all required sections will be available through OCRA. • Hodgson, M. The Venture of Islam. Vol. I The Classical Age of Islam. University of Chicago Press. • Hourani, A. 1991. A History of the Arab Peoples. Belknap Press The following are important resources that you may want to consult throughout the semester: • The Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed. (there is an online version available via the library’s electronic resources) • The Research Archives of the Oriental Institute at The University of Chicago http://oilib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/opac/o_search.html • Kennedy, Hugh. ed. 2002. An Historical Atlas of Islam. Leiden: Brill • Nicolle, D. 2003. Historical Atlas of the Islamic World. Checkmark Books - 2 - Straughn - Islamic Civilizations PREREQUISITES: There are no prerequisites for this course. This is an “introduction” and my assumption is that students will come into this course with very different knowledge bases and skills. Some of you may have familiarity with the study of Islam, historical methods or social theory. Others may have backgrounds in the cultures, languages, history and politics of the Muslim world. All of these will be tremendously helpful as will those who might have training in art history, geography, literature or any number of other fields that will intersect with the materials of this course. It will be our collective task to share these interests and skills with each other in order to develop a dialogue that questions, challenges and complements the readings and each other, both inside and outside the classroom. COURSE GOALS: 1) Approaches to Muslim Societies One of the main objectives in this course is to develop a set of questions and methods for the study of the Muslim world through its textual and material record. While texts have often been the basis for the production of historical knowledge about those societies in which Islam has been a dominant social, political and spiritual force, our goal is to deal with them through varied lenses for how they should be read and represented. Simultaneously we will not ignore the material aspects of Islamic culture and civilization, its monuments, cities, territories and artifacts. Students will be asked to become interdisciplinary scholars who must learn to navigate the linkages between different ways of knowing and weigh the value of different kinds of data. Equally important, this course requires that students develop the conceptual tools and vocabulary for how to talk about Islam and Muslims. Our particular challenge will be to avoid their homogenization into a faceless block or conversely their fragmentation into an unrecognizable heterogeneity. The result of either of these extremes is that the terms Islam and Muslim have no meaning and fail to describe a particular religious tradition, historical civilization, cultural group or a set of individuals who identify with each other on any or all of these often shifting grounds. - 3 - Straughn - Islamic Civilizations 2) Knowledge Acquisition At its most fundamental level this course asks students to develop and master a diverse body of knowledge about the Muslim world. Additionally students will be exposed to many of the basics in the development of the Islamic tradition in terms of its historical trajectory, arguments over its doctrine and practice, as well as the key concepts in its interdisciplinary study. That said, this course, however, is not intended as a replacement for either an Introduction to Islam class or more detailed historical narratives of the Muslim world from its inception to the present. While much of the same ground may be covered here it is done in relation to the key institutions and socio-cultural developments that give Islam a sense of coherency while allowing for the diversity of Muslim social life. 3) Skill Sets This course will help to develop students’ abilities to synthesize large amounts of diverse information about a major world civilization. Throughout the course you should learn to recognize how different forms of evidence contradict and support arguments about the formation of political structures, cultural practices, social relations, and religious traditions. A crucial aspect of this course will be a focus developing articulate, well reasoned academic prose. One way to accomplish this is not only through the practice of writing, but by becoming careful readers. To this end you will be exposed to a variety of different kinds of writing (polemical, academic, theological, narrative, etc.) and different modes of analysis (literary criticism, source criticism, logic of argument, etc.). Additionally this course will take advantage of large numbers of images that will work to transform you into knowledgeable viewers and allow you to dissect the practices and rhetorics of representation. - 4 - Straughn - Islamic Civilizations COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Course Grading Preparation and engaged class participation (including wiki) – 10% Quizes – 10% (5% each) Book Review – 15% Mini-Project – 15% Take-home Midterm – 20% Final – 30% Class Participation: Class participation (10% of your final grade) will be assessed not simply on the volume of one’s participation in discussions but on the quality and thoughtfulness of a student’s contribution. This is invariably a subjective measure, but it is important for students to consider whether they have a particular question that they want to address and how that relates to the readings. What I particularly want to see is that students demonstrate close reading skills by drawing on the texts themselves and offering analysis of an author’s argument. This might be in the form of showing how the historical evidence does not support the substantive claims of an article, or to ask for clarification of technical terms or theoretical concepts. Included in the class participation grade are the various non-graded short assignments that will be part of the course which may a map assignment, short presentations, or course wiki postings. Attendance is absolutely mandatory. After the first two weeks of shopping period you will have two days of unexcused absences (use them wisely). Each additional unexcused absence will result in 1 point subtracted from your final total out of 100. Absences due to illness, personal/family emergency will be excused given sufficient verification. Excessive tardiness (10 minutes or more after the start of class) will result in ½ point subtracted from your final grade. It will be hard to learn much from this class if you don’t show up! - 5 - Straughn - Islamic Civilizations Assignments – General Overview 1) Map Assignment Understanding the physical geography of the Muslim world is absolutely essential to comprehending the socio-historical narrative that we will examine. Where it happened is often as important as what happened, how and by whom. To this end students will use the various resources of the library to complete a blank map of the Muslim world with its various topographic features.