Histories and Cultures of the Middle East
Spring
2000
Course Description:
This
course offers a basic orientation to the foundational myths, key concepts,
and diverse linguistic, ethnic, religious, and intellectual traditions of
the Middle East. It investigates the competing creation stories and reflects
on the similarities between the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious traditions
and their world historical imaginations. Familiarized with the basic methods
of historical analysis, students study race, slavery, gender, and modernity
in Middle Eastern and Islamic history and evaluate Islam’s contribution
to the world history and civilization. This course enables students to reflect
critically on the popular view of Islam and the Middle East as static monoliths
and as exotic others of the West.
Course Requirements:
The
final course grade will be determined on the basis of Class Attendance and
Discussions (20%), Position Papers and Responses (30%), Global Review and
Seminar Series (10%), Final Synopsis (20%), Course Summary and Evaluation
(0.0%).
1. Class Attendance: You
are expected to attend all the lectures and discussions. Lectures will frequently
include materials not covered in the assigned readings and for which you are
responsible. Every student enrolled in the course must prepare carefully for
class and participate in on-line and class discussions. All required and recommended
readings are listed in the attached course outline and are available in the
Reserve Room of the Milner Library. You are urged to complete the assigned
reading prior to the class session at which they will be introduced. During
each class session we participate in an in-depth discussion of the issues
and problems raised in lectures, readings, and on-line debates. Students
who miss more than four class sessions may not pass this course.
2. Thought Questions/Position
Papers: To facilitate discussion, and to allow me to gauge students’
participation regardless of her/his personal assertiveness, you are required
to write a total of 10 one-page, single-spaced position papers. Your
thought papers should be made available to other students via hist126@scribe.cmp.ilstu.edu
24 hours prior to the class meetings. Your position papers should identify
important events and arguments and raise significant question concerning the
readings, lectures, or critical events in the Middle East.
In addition you are required
to respond to at least 10 position papers written by your peers. Your
correspondence should be spaced evenly over the course of the semester. On-line
discussions must be cordial, informative, and reflective.
3. Global Review and Seminar
Series: Because one of the goals of this course is to expand students
understanding of the Middle East in a world historical context, each student
will be asked to attend at least four class related public events.
There are two Middle East related weekly lecture series on campus. Global
Review meets every Thursday, 7:00 p.m. The meetings of South and South West-Asian
Studies Seminar series will be announced later. Please send me a brief summary/analysis
of the lectures you attend.
4. Course Evaluation:
You will be required to write a critique the course, the instructor, the teaching
assistant, and the way the course has been carried out. I would sincerely
appreciate your specific comments, both positive and negative, as well as
your recommendations for improvement. Although I will not read the evaluations
until after I’ve calculated the grades, these evaluations are a requirement
of the course and are due no later than December 7.
5. Final Synopsis: Each
student is required to write one 15-page computer generated synopsis
of central points covered in lectures and in the assigned readings (including
historical figures, institutions, concepts, and dates). Most lectures will
be accompanied by a handout outlining main points in the lectures and a list
of important names and terms. These lists provide a convenient outline for
writing your report. You are instructed to use personal computers for all
assignments. If you are not familiar with personal computers, you are encouraged
to attend a computer training workshop. Synopsis is due on April 27.
Late papers will not be accepted!
6. Self-Evaluation: You
are required to turn in a statement evaluating your work along with
the grade that you think is appropriate. Your self-evaluation must be submitted
no later than December 6. This type-written statement should include the following:
- the goals you set for yourself
in the course;
- the criteria by which you
are judging your work;
- a description of the way in
which you have achieved your goals;
- the grade you think appropriately
rates your performance.
7. Writing Portfolio:
Every student is required to submit a portfolio which includes all class assignments
and on-line discussions, synopsis, position papers, self-evaluation, course
evaluation, extra credit works, and your rewrites. The portfolio is due
no later than December 6.
Required Readings:
Richard Eaton, Islamic History
a Global History (Washington, D.C., American Historical Association,
1990).
Judith Tucker, Gender and Islamic
History (Washington, D.C., American Historical Association, 1993).
The Course Packet (readings marked
by *).
Lecture and Reading Schedule for History 126
Week 1: Re-Orient-ation
Jan. 20
(Maps of the Middle East)
(Maps of Asia)
(Encyclopedia of the Middle East)
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/...
http://www.usc.edu/dept/...
Week 2: Origins
Jan 27
Marshal G.S. Hodgson,
"In the Center of the Map: Nations See Themselves as the Hub
of History," in Rethinking World History, ed. Edmund Burke
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 29-34 [001-004].
Ira Lapidius, "The
Origins of Islamic Civilization: The Middle East From c. 600 to c. 1200,"
in A History of Islamic Societies (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1988), 3-20 [045-054].
The
Arab Net
http://www.mesa.arizona.edu/98plenary.htm
Week 3: Muhammad and the Qur’an
Feb. 3
Annemarie Schimmel,
"The Koran and Its Teachings," in Islam: An Introduction
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), 29-50 [072-083].
Ira Lapidius, "The
Origins of Islamic Civilization," 21-36 [054-062].
"The Exordium,"
"The Night Journey," "The Poets," The Pen,"
and "The Blood Clots," in The Koran [005-019].
"Abraham," Mary,"
"The Prophets," "The Story," "Noah," and
"Those that Are Sent Forth," in The Koran [084-103].
*Ibn Hisham, "The
Night Journey and the Ascent to Heaven," in The Life of Muhammad,
181-187 [040-043].
http://www.persian.com/islam/
http://www.usc.edu/
http://www.neda.net/nida.net/cover.html
Week 4: The Muslim Community in
History
Feb. 10
Lapidius, "The
Caliphate," in A History of Islamic Societies, 54-80
[104-117]. Esposito, Islam:
The Straight Path, 34-68. http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/... http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/map1.jpg http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/mexpan.jpg http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/map1.jpg
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/meast.jpg
Week 5: Islamicate Persia
Feb. 17
David Morgan, Medieval
Persia, 1040-1797 (New York: Longman, 1988), 8-100 [118-164]. http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/map4.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5246/timur.jpg
Week 6: The Ottoman, The Safavids,
and the Monghuls
Feb. 24
Albert Hourani,
"The Ottoman Age," in A History of the Arab People
(Cambridge:Harvard University Press, 1991), 207-248 [166-187]. Ira Lapidus, "The
Indian Subcontinent" in A History of Islamic Societies,
437-466 [226-239]. Morgan, Medieval
Persia, 101-151 [188-213].
http://www.students.cs.ruu.nl/... http://www.friesian.com/turkia.htm http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/ottoma.jpg http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/ottosul.jpg
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/timurid.jpg http://www.students.cs.ruu.nl/...
(Album of Arabic and Ottoman Art)
Week 7: Islamic History as
Global History
Mar 2
Muslims in
Spain (38 min., color, #Wn173) Richard Eaton, Islamic
History as Global History (Washington, D.C.: American Historical
Association, 1990), 1-end. Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah,
trans. Franz Rosenthal (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1969),
123-175 [255-283]. David Ayalon, "Ibn
Khaldun’s Views of the Mamluk Phenomenon," in Outsiders
in the Lands of Islam: Mamluks, Mongols and Eunuchs (London:Variorum Reprints, 1988), 340-349 [284-288].
(Map of the Muslim World c.A.D. 1300) (Map of the Muslim World c.A.D. 1500)
Week 8: Women and Islam
Mar. 9 "Women
and Islam" (30 min., color, #VY5172). "March 8,
1779 Women’s Demonstration" Judith Tucker, Gender
and Islamic History (Washington, D.C.: American Historical Association,
1993), v-37.
http://www.submission.org/women/
Week 9 Spring Break
Week 10: The Others
Mar. 23
Farid al-Dian Attar,
"The Story of Sheikh Sam’an," in The Conference of
the Birds, trans. Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis (New York:
Penguin, 1984) 57-74 [305-314].
Al-Mas‘udi, "Neighbors
in the North," in Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture
of Constantinople, ed. and trans. Bernard Lewis (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1987) 122 [316].
Al-Qazwini, "Neighbors
in the West," in Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture
of Constantinople, ed. and trans. Bernard Lewis (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1987) 122 [316].
Bernard Lewis,
"Slavery," 3-15 [289-295]. http://www.fordham.edu/...
"The Man of al-Yaman
and His Six Slave-Girls," in Alf Laylah va Laylah, 245-260
[296-303].
Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi,
"Imagining Western Women: Occidentalism and Euro- Eroticism,"
Radical America, 24:3 (1992) 73-87 [317-331].
(Oriental Paintings)
Week 11: Colonialism and Nationalism
Mar. 30
Carl Brown, International
Politics and the Middle East (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1984), 1-63.
Week 13: Refashioning the Middle
East
Apr. 6 Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi,
"Refashioning Iran: Language and Culture During the Constitutional
Revolution" Iranian Studies 23: 1-4 (1990), 77-101 [370-382].
Berkes, "Historical
Background of Turkish Secularism," in Islam and the West, ed. Richard
Frye (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1956), 41-68.
Week 14: Mother-Nation
Apr. 13
Mohamad Tavakoli,
"Matriotic Nationalism," in Vernacular Modernity, 250-297. Afsaneh Najmabadi, "Veiled
Discourse--Unveiled Bodies" Feminist Studies 19:3 (Fall
1993), 487-518 [383-518].
http://Persia.ORG/...
Week 15: The Question of Palestine
Apr. 20
"In the shadow
of the West" (film) Ian Bickerton and Carla
Klauser, A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Englewood
Cliffs: Prentice Hall, ?), 14-35, 86-113, 182-187, 244-266 [415- 425]. Edward Said, The Question
of Palestine, [428-461].
http://www.arab.net/palestine/...
Week 15: Islam and Revolution
Apr. 27
The Islamic Revolution Dale Eickelman and James
Piscatori, "The Invention of Tradition in Muslim Politics,"
in Muslim Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 199?),
22-45 [342-353]. (Iran Story)
Course summary, self-evaluation,
and portfolio due.
Week 16: Re-Visionings
May 4
Knowledge and Power Course summary, self-evaluation,
and portfolio due.
