University of Pennsylvania Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC) NELC 335/535, JWST 335

Muslim, Christian and Jewish Relations in the Middle East: Historical Perspectives Fall, 2009

Professor Heather J. Sharkey Class: Wednesdays, 2-5 pm Location: Fisher-Bennett Hall 141 (BENN 141) Office: 835 Williams Hall Office tel: 215-746-0176 Office hours: by appointment only on Tuesdays, 9:30-11 e-mail: [email protected]

DESCRIPTION

This seminar addresses several recurring questions about the history of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish relations in the Middle East and North Africa. Focusing on the modern period (circa 1800-present), it considers how cultures of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism influenced each other in the region historically. It also considers how patterns of religious sectarianism affected Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities internally. The seminar starts from two assumptions. First, Islamic civilization in the modern Middle East was an umbrella civilization under which diverse communities lived and interacted. Second, inter- and intra-communal relations were neither static nor universal, but changed according to conditions of time and place. Together we will broach several questions. What can we say about the quality of inter- and intra-communal relations – including the extent of harmony or strife – in different contexts? To what extent and under what circumstances did members of different religious communities convert, intermarry, form business alliances, or build friendships, and to what extent did they occupy common social and geographic spaces? Were there cultures that Muslims, Christians, and Jews shared; were there cultures that kept them apart? How did the emergence of the modern nation-state affect communal relations as well as the legal or social status of religious minorities in particular countries? How important has religion been as one variable in social identity (along with sect, ethnicity, class, gender, etc.), and to what extent has religious identity figured into regional conflicts and wars? Finally, how and using what kinds of sources can we construct histories for something as intangible and fluctuating as communal relations? A primary goal of this class is to encourage students to pursue independent and original research on some aspect of inter- or intra-communal relations in the modern Middle East and North Africa. The professor encourages students to consider revising their research, after the semester ends, for publication in undergraduate, graduate, or professional journals, or for presentation at conferences. NELC 335/535, JWST 335: Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Relations in the Middle East Fall 2009 1 STRUCTURE AND GRADES

This class is a reading- and discussion-intensive seminar though the professor will sometimes give short lectures to place assignments in historical context. Students are expected to participate actively and to prepare occasional presentations on selected readings. Writing assignments include two short essays that require synthesis of course readings (see details in the syllabus below), a final research paper on a topic of the student’s choice, and preliminary writings for the final paper (including a proposal and early draft). Undergraduate students (enrolled in NELC 335 or JWST 335) should write a final paper that is approximately 15-20 pages long; graduate students (enrolled in NELC 535) should write a final paper that is approximately 20-25 pages long. Undergraduates may not enroll in the graduate section. Students must follow the Chicago method of citation for bibliographies and footnotes; see The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, for guidelines. Students are also required to make an oral presentation about their final research project. Throughout the semester we will devote time to discussing practical techniques for planning oral presentations; structuring, writing, and revising essays; and conducting independent research. During the semester we will go on a field trip to the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies and will also meet with librarians in Van Pelt for a special session on research strategies. Note that final papers are due on December 14thth, i.e., five days after the last class, though students are welcome to submit the paper on the last day of class if they feel satisfied with its completion. Please submit the final paper in two forms: a paper copy to be placed in my department mailbox, and an electronic copy, in the form of a Word file, sent by email. When I receive your Word file, I will send an email message to confirm receipt. It is your responsibility to make sure that I receive the paper and that it is not lost in cyberspace.

Grades will be calculated as follows: • attendance, participation, and oral presentations: 20% • first short essay: 20% • second short essay: 25% • final paper: 35%

POLICIES • Failure to attend classes will result in deductions from the final course grade. • Late papers will be subject to daily five-point penalty deductions. • Extensions are seldom granted. • Students are free to eat or drink in class. • Students may not keep laptops open throughout class. (Listen to discussions attentively and participate; limit your note-taking since this is not, after all, a lecture class. Surf on the web or read email before class or during the break.) • Students must use Chicago-style citations, in footnotes (or endnotes) and bibliographies.

NELC 335/535, JWST 335: Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Relations in the Middle East Fall 2009 2 BOOKS AND READINGS

A coursepack of book excerpts and articles is available for purchase from Wharton Reprographics. All books, whether used in the class in whole or in part, are also in Van Pelt Library’s Rosengarten Reserve. Encyclopedias are located in Van Pelt library’s reference section on the first floor. In addition, the following texts are available for purchase at the Penn Book Center, 130 South 34th Street (34th & Sansom), Philadelphia:

• Joel Beinin, The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005). • Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984). • Yitzhak Nakash, Reaching for Power: The Shi’a in the Modern Arab World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006). • Eliz Sanasarian, Religious Minorities in Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Good News! One of our required books is available for download as a PDF file through the Franklin UPenn Library Catalogue: • Bruce Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World: The Roots of Sectarianism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001).

COURSE PLAN

Week 1, September 9th: Introduction: Muslim, Christian, & Jewish Relations in Historical Perspective Discussion: What is the history of modern Muslim, Christian, and Jewish relations?  Film screening, “Camondo Han,” dir. Peter Clasen, Turkey (2005), 35 minutes.

Week 2, September 16th: Key Concepts, Recurring Debates: Dhimma, Jizya, Pact of Umar Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), pp. 3-66. Bernard Lewis (Ed. & Trans.), “The Pact of Umar”, in Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople, vol. 2 (Religion & Society) (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), p p. 216-23. Cl. Cahen, “Dhimma”, in B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat & J. Schacht (Eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Vol. 2 (C-G) (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1983), pp. 227- 31. Cl. Cahen & Halil Inalcik, “Djizya” (Parts 1 and 2), in B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat & J. Schacht (Eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Vol. 2 (C-G) (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1983), pp. 559-66. Students should also read one of the three following articles: NELC 335/535, JWST 335: Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Relations in the Middle East Fall 2009 3 1) Mahmoud Ayoub, “Dhimmah in Qur’an and Hadith”, in Robert Hoyland (Ed.), Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004), pp. 25-35 [first published in 1983]; 2) Antoine Fattal, “How Dhimmis Were Judged in the Islamic World” in Hoyland (Ed.), Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society, pp. 83-102 [first published in 1951]; 3) S.D. Goitein, “Minority Self-rule and Government Control in Islam,” in Hoyland (Ed.), Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society, pp. 159-74 [first published in 1970]. Questions for Discussion: What did it mean for a state to be “Islamic” historically? What is a minority? Did it matter in practice to the status of non-Muslims that they sometimes constituted clear numerical majorities within Islamic state domains? How debilitating or positive, tolerant or intolerant, inclusive or exclusive were early Islamic policies towards non-Muslim communities? By the end of this class you should be able to explain the concept of the dhimmi.

Week 3, September 23rd: Christians, Jews & Muslims in the Ottoman Empire to c. 1800 Donald Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. xi-xiii, 1-12. Bruce Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World: The Roots of Sectarianism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 1-67. Lucette Valensi, “Inter-Communal Relations and Changes in Religious Affiliation in the Middle East (Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries),” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 39:2 (1997), pp. 251-69. Linda T. Darling, “Capitulations,” in John L. Esposito (Ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, Vol. 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 257-60. • Class Discussion: How to Write a Review Essay Questions for Discussion: What was the Ottoman Empire? What does “sectarianism” mean? What can we say about the quality of religious communal relations and the quality of life of non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire before 1800? What can we say about the diversity within the Muslim population, and about the social hierarchies among Muslims? How did (Christian) European powers begin to impinge on Ottoman imperial and communal affairs before 1800?

Week 4, September 30th: The Late Ottoman Empire and the Western Advance Bruce Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World, pp. 130-99. Moshe Ma’oz, “Changing Relations between Jews, Muslims, and Christians during the Nineteenth Century, with Special Reference to Ottoman Syria and Palestine,” in Avigdor Levy (Ed.), Jews, Turks, Ottomans: A Shared History, Fifteenth through the Twentieth Century (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2002), pp. 108-18. Benjamin Braude, “Foundation Myths of the Millet System,” in Benjamin Braude & Bernard Lewis (Eds.), Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The Functioning of a Plural Society, Vol. 1 (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1982), pp. 69-88. Questions for Discussion: What was the millet system all about? What social transformations affected Muslim, Christian, and Jewish relations in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire? What was the short- and long-term import of the Ottoman Tanzimat decrees of 1839 and 1856? What can we say about the

NELC 335/535, JWST 335: Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Relations in the Middle East Fall 2009 4 changing nature of Muslim-Jewish, Muslim-Christian, and Jewish-Christian relations in the nineteenth century and how important was European intervention to these processes?  First Short Essay Due: In a concise essay of four pages (approx. 1,000 words), discuss the status of Christian and Jewish communities in the Islamic Middle East by drawing upon and synthesizing ideas from the readings we have done so far.

Week 5, October 7th: Muslims and Jews: Social Changes, Political Upheavals, Economic Reversals Joel Beinin, The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 1- 59. Daniel J. Schroeter, “Royal Power and the Economy in Precolonial Morocco: Jews and the Legitimation of Foreign Trade,” in Rahma Bourquia & Susan Gilson Miller (Eds.), In the Shadow of the Sultan: Culture, Power, and Politics in Morocco (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), pp. 74-102. Susan Gilson Miller, “Dhimma Reconsidered: Jews, Taxes, and Royal Authority in Nineteenth-Century Tangier,” in Bourquia & Miller, In the Shadow of the Sultan, pp. 103-26. Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam, pp. 154-91. Skim historical overviews and sections on economic life and Zionism in Reeva Simon et al (Eds.), The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), pp. 3-51, 165-79. Questions for Discussion: How would you evaluate the social standing of the Jewish communities of Egypt as described by Beinin? To what extent were Egypt’s Jewish communities genuinely “Egyptian”, and how did conceptions of identity change (internally, among Jews, and externally, in the view of the Muslim majority) in tandem with developments in Zionist, Egyptian nationalist, and Islamist thought and activism? In Morocco, how did political and economic changes affect the Jews as dhimmis and jizya-payers, and how did Jews act as intermediaries between Moroccan Muslims and European Christians? In your view, to what extent was the jizya payment (as reflected in the articles by Schroeter and Gilson) a form of humiliation or a source of internal Jewish communal empowerment?  In-class: Choosing a Final Paper Topic and Planning Your Research

Week 6, October 14th: Intra-Communal Relations and Cultures of Sectarianism Yitzhak Nakash, Reaching for Power: The Shi’a in the Modern Arab World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006). Ahmad Nizar Hamzeh, In the Path of Hizbullah (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2004), pp. 1-26. Ussama Makdisi, Artillery of Heaven: American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007), pp. 1-18.

Questions for Discussion: What are the major points of difference between Sunni and Shi’i Islam? How would you characterize relations between Sunni and Shi’i Muslims in different places and periods, as characterized in Nakash’s book? Why was the experience of the Shi’a community in Kuwait so different from the experience in Saudi Arabia? How were Shi’i Arabs incorporated into, or marginalized within, structures of Muslim economic and political power? Do you see any parallels between the Shi’a experience on the one hand and the experiences of Jews and Christians on the other? How has Hizbullah figured as a force in the complex multisectarian landscape of Lebanon? Who are the Maronites? Why,

NELC 335/535, JWST 335: Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Relations in the Middle East Fall 2009 5 according to Makdisi, did Maronite authorities find the Protestant or evangelical “conversion” of As’ad Shidyaq so threatening?

FALL BREAK

Week 7, October 21st: Religious Minorities and the Nation-State Eliz Sanasarian, Religious Minorities in Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. xi-xix, 1-57, 73-105, 114-23, 154-63. Daniel Tsadik, Between Foreigners and Shi’is: Nineteenth-Century Iran and Its Jewish Minority (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), pp. 1-32. Laurence Louër, To Be an Arab in Israel, Trans. John King (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), pp. 1-29.  Possible film screening: “The Jews of Iran,” DVD, Dir. Ramin Farahni, 52 minutes (Middle East Center). Questions for Discussion: How did the Shi’ia culture of Iran affect Muslim-Jewish and Muslim- Christian relations in the country? To what extent did the Shi’i ulama dictate the terms of intercommunal relations, in the nineteenth century and later? Discuss the fate of Iran’s minority religious communities in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79. What changed for these minority groups? Did certain groups experience more restrictions than others? The Islamic government did not classify the Baha’is as a “Recognized Religious Minority”: why not, and what were the implications of their exclusion? What factors do you think have prompted some members of Iranian religious minorities to emigrate, even while others have doggedly remained? What has it meant to be an Arab in Israel? Have Muslim Arabs and Christian Arabs fared – or have they been treated – differently?

 Second Review Essay Due: In an interpretive review essay of 4-5 pages that reflects on our readings to date, discuss the status of Jewish communities in the Middle East in the century before the emergence of Israel (1948). It is clear from our readings that historians hotly contest the social condition and historical representation of Jewish minorities in the region (e.g., were they an increasingly vulnerable community subject to widespread discrimination as the modern age progressed, or were they integral parts of Islamic societies who identified culturally with their Muslim and Christian neighbors before the politics of Zionism and the Arab-Israeli conflict uprooted and dispersed them?). What is your assessment?

Week 8, October 28th: Language and Culture as Windows into Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Relations • Benjamin H. Hary, Multiglossia in Judeo-Arabic (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992), pp. 3-28, 72-114. • Jeffrey Heath, Jewish and Muslim Dialects of Moroccan Arabic (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002), pp. 1-34. • Yasir Suleiman, A War of Words: Language and Conflict in the Middle East (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 1-26.  Film screening: “Forget Baghdad,” DVD, Dir. Samir. (Van Pelt)

Questions for Discussion: How can language offer windows into inter-communal relations? The works by Hary, Heath, and even Suleiman strongly reflect the approach and terminology of linguistics and are NELC 335/535, JWST 335: Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Relations in the Middle East Fall 2009 6 somewhat specialized in that regard. Nevertheless, what kind of social information can historians glean from their linguistic analyses? What does it mean for a language to be “Muslim”, “Jewish” or “Christian”? Has language served as a cultural glue for Muslims, Christians, and Jews in various regions of the Middle East and North Africa? Was Judeo-Arabic in North Africa a vehicle for Jewish assimilation into the majority culture, or a means for asserting communal distinction? What does it mean for language to be political?

 Final Paper Proposal Due: This proposal has two parts. (1) Submit a one-page abstract of your final paper topic, describing what you intend to study and what preliminary hypotheses you have. (2) Submit a bibliography listing at least six relevant published books or academic articles -- not internet sources.

Week 9, November 4th: The Clash of Civilizations and Christian-Muslim Violence • Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?,” Foreign Affairs, 72:3 (1993), pp. 22-49. • Emran Qureshi & Michael Sells (Eds.), The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), pp. 1-47. • Marnia Lazreg, Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008), “Introduction”, pp. 1-11; “The Christian Church and Antisubversive War,” pp. 191-212; “Repetitions: From Algiers to Baghdad,” pp. 253-69. Questions for Discussion: In your view, how compelling or distasteful, insightful or intellectually blinkered, are Huntingon’s theories about the clash of civilizations, particularly as they pertain to the Middle East or the Muslim world? Was the Catholic Church complicit in French policies of torture during the Algerian war of 1954-62? If so, how and to what extent was it complicit? Can you speculate on the long-term consequences of French-Algerian violence for Muslim-Christian relations in Algeria and France?

Week 10, November 11th: Confronting the Worst: An Armenian Genocide? • Donald E. Miller and Lorna Touryan Miller, Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), pp. 1-31. • Torben Jørgensen, “Turkey, the US, and the Armenian Genocide,” in Genocide: Cases, Comparisons, and Contemporary Debates, ed. Steven L.B. Jensen (Copenhagen: The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 2003), pp. 193-223. • Mehmet Ümit Necef, “The Turkish Media Debate on the Armenian Massacre,” in Genocide: Cases, Comparisons, and Contemporary Debates, ed. Steven L.B. Jensen (Copenhagen: The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 2003), pp. 225- 62. • Türkayya Ataöv, The ‘Armenian Question’: Conflict, Trauma, Objectivity (Ankara: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1997), pp. 1-23.  Film screening: The Armenian Genocide, DVD, Two Cats Productions, 2006 (60 minutes). • In Class: Choosing Countries for Next Week’s Short Presentations (Note: Students can find the most recent religious freedom reports issued by the U.S. Department of State at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/index.htm)

NELC 335/535, JWST 335: Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Relations in the Middle East Fall 2009 7 Questions for Discussion: How can we summarize the history of Ottoman Turkish-Armenian (and perhaps too, Kurdish-Armenian) relations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? What happened and how should we interpret events in light of a deeper past? What is genocide and was there an Armenian genocide? If we regard the book by Türkayya Ataöv as an expression of the Turkish government’s position, then how would you summarize the Turkish government’s version of this history?

Week 11, November 18th: Debates on Religious Freedom and Human Rights, Globally and in the Middle East U.S. Congress, International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, available at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/c2132.htm U.S. Department of State, Fact Sheets on the “History of the Office of International Religious Freedom” and “Religious Freedom: An International Responsibility,” available at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/fs/ Ann Elizabeth Mayer, Islam and Human Rights, 4th edition (Boulder: Westview Press, 2007), Ch. 7, “Islamic Human Rights Schemes and Non-Muslims,” pp. 147-65. Questions for Discussion: In your view, are there basic universal human rights? If so, what are these, and to what extent do they involve religion? Should the ability to convert into or out any religion, or the ability to practice or choose not to practice traditional religious dictates (e.g., observing the Sabbath, fasting during Ramadan) be regarded as a human right? How much power should religious authorities have in setting social policies and influencing or administering the practice of law? In your opinion, is the U.S. government’s policy on religious freedom, as enshrined in law in 1998, a legitimate focus for foreign policy and does it represent constructive or self-interested intervention on the part of American Christian lobbying groups? To what extent can or should policies of secularism accommodate religious practice? Short Presentations in Class: Having read one of the Middle East country reports published by the U.S. State Department in 2008 (the selections of which were made last week), each student will give a five-minute presentation summarizing the status of religious freedoms and communal relations as presented in the report.

Week 12, November 25th: Class cancelled. (Middle East Studies Association Conference, Boston, November 21-24; Thanksgiving)

Week 13, December 2nd: Final Presentations  Preliminary Draft of Final Paper Due: Submit the introductory section of your paper (approx. two pages). This introduction should provide an overview of your topic, explain the structure of your paper, and point to your general thesis or argument. The introduction is often the most difficult part of a paper to write, so it is critical that you give yourself the opportunity to get early feedback before revision.

Week 14, December 9th: Final Presentations & Wrapping Up

Final Paper due Monday, December 14th!

NELC 335/535, JWST 335: Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Relations in the Middle East Fall 2009 8