History 145A: The Middle East 600 – 1000 Time: T, R 11:00-12:15 Place: Arts 1353 Instructor: Professor Adam Sabra E-mail: [email protected] Office: HSSB 4224 Office Hours: T, R 10:00-11:00 Description: This course provides an introduction to the history of the Middle East from the rise of Islam in the seventh century of the Common Era until the Turkish invasions of the eleventh century. It focuses on the theme “Empires and Identities.” We begin by examining the rise of Islam and the formation of the first Islamic empire under the Prophet Muhammad’s successors, the caliphs. The early empire has been described as an “Arab Kingdom,” but it proved to be short-lived. We will then look at the more cosmopolitan Abbasid Empire, during whose reign medieval Islamic culture flourished. The second half of the course examines the formation of various types of identity under these empires. These include ethnic (Arab, Persian), religious (Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian), and sectarian (Sunni, Shi`i) identities. Finally, we will examine cities as sites of governance, and rural areas as sources of taxation. Subjects like freedom, slavery, and gender are dealt with as they come up. Course Books Fred Donner, Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. Vernon Egger, A History of the Muslim World to 1405. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2004. Ibn Fadlan, Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North. London: Penguin, 2012. Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions: An Early Biography of Muhammad = Kitāb al-maghāzī. New York: New York University Press, 2014 Reader available via SBPrinter. Assignments and Grading: Attendance and participation in class discussion (10%) Two interpretative papers, 5-7 pages in length (30% each) Final exam (30%) Course Policies Late work will be graded down. There will be no extensions. All work should be your own. You are welcome to discuss paper topics and the like, but you are the sole author of your written work. Cases of plagiarism will be dealt with in accordance with UCSB policies. Lectures and Readings: The Middle East in the Seventh Century January 5: Course introduction, Physical and Human Geography 1 January 7: Arabia between Persia and Byzantium Donner, ch. 1 Egger, pp. 4-20 The Origins of Islam and the Conquests January 12: The Origins of Islam Donner ch. 2, Appendix A Egger, pp. 20-31 January 14: The First Wave of Conquests Donner ch. 3 Egger, pp. 33-44 The Umayyad Caliphate January 19: The First and Second Civil Wars Donner ch. 4 Egger, pp. 44-60, 62-69 January 21: When Did Islam Emerge? Donner ch. 5, Appendix B The Abbasid Caliphate January 26: The Abbasid Revolution and Its Consequences Egger, pp. 69-72, 86-94 January 28: paper on Ma‘mar ibn Rashid due. Competitors to the West and Challengers to the East February 2: Egger, pp. 94-104, 142-170 Sectarian Identities February 4: Sunnis Muhammad Qasim Zaman, ‘The Caliphs, the ʿUlamāʾ and the Law: Defining the Role and Function of the Caliph in the Early ʿAbbasid Period’, Islamic Law and Society 4 (1997), pp. 1–36. February 9: Shia Wilferd Madelung, Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran, pp. 77-92. W. Madelung, ‘Authority in Twelver Shiism in the Absence of the Imam’, La notion d’authorité au Moyen Age: Islam, Byzance, Occident. Colloques interantionaux de la Napoule 1978 (Paris, 1982), pp. 163–73. Non-Muslims and the Islamic State February 11: Legal and Social Status Milka Levy-Rubin, Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire: From Surrender to Coexistence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 113-163, 171-176. February 16: Zoroastrians 2 Jamsheed K. Choksy, Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, pp, 13-47, 110-137. February 18: Christians Sidney Griffith, The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008, pp. 129-155. Stephen Humphreys, ‘Christian Communities in Early Islamic Syria and Northern Jazira: The Dynamics of Adaptation’, in John Haldon, Money, Power and Politics in Early Islamic Syria: A Review of Current Debates. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010, pp. 45–65. Imperial Culture February 23: The Creation of a Cosmopolitan Culture Egger, pp. 114-137 Mathieu Tillier, “Legal Knowledge and Local Practices under the Early Abbasids,” in Philip Wood (ed.), History and Identity in the Late Antique Near East. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 187-204. Ethnic Identities February 25: The Conquerors Suliman Bashear, Arabs and Others in Early Islam. Princeton: Darwin Press, 1997, pp. 67-93. March 1: The Conquered Reemerge Roy Mottahedeh. "The Shu'ubiyah Controversy and the Social History of Early Islamic Iran", International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 7, No. 2. (April, 1976), pp. 161–182. Hussein Omar, “’The Crinkly-Haired People of the Black Earth’: Examining Egyptian Identities in Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam’s Futuh,” in Philip Wood (ed.), History and Identity in the Late Antique Near East. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 149-167. March 3: Paper due on Ibn Fadlan The Country and the City March 8: Urban Growth and Transformation Egger, pp. 104-111 Hugh Kennedy, “From Polis to Madina: Urban Change in Late Antique and Early Islamic Syria,” Past and Present 106 (1985), pp. 3–27. March 10: Governing and Taxing the Countryside Jairus Banaji, “Late Antique Legacies and Muslim Economic Expansion,” in John Haldon (ed.), Money, Power and Politics in Early Islamic Syria: A Review of Current Debates. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010, pp. 165– 80. Hugh Kennedy, “The Feeding of the Five Hundred Thousand: Cities and Agriculture in Early Islamic Mesopotamia,” Iraq LXXIII (2011), pp. 177–99. Petra M. Sijpesteijn, “Landholding Patterns in Early Islamic Egypt,” Journal of Agrarian Change 9 (2009), pp. 120–33. Final Exam: Wednesday, March 16, 12-3pm. 3 .