Sufism and the Healing Arts
UNC Reli 171/Duke
Rel. 152B, joint seminar, Spring 2002
Instructors:
Duke: Bruce
Lawrence
UNC:
Carl
Ernst
Course Description:This
course will explore the relationship of body, mind, and spirit as
refracted
through the tradition of Islamic mysticism, generally known as Sufism.
Topics will include concepts of the body in Greek and Arabic medicine,
Islamic doctrines of resurrection, spiritual/physical practices such as
fasting and breath control, healing and miracles, and related issues,
including
the practice of yoga in Sufi circles. The course will include extensive
use of multimedia and Internet sources and live videoconferences with
offsite
contributors.This seminar will be taught jointly at UNC and Duke,
meeting
alternately at each campus on Monday evenings, 7:30-10 p.m.
For dates and locations see the Schedule
page.
Note: first meeting will be Wed., Jan. 9, 7:30 pm, at Duke, 220 Gray, just to the right of Duke Chapel on the West Campus on Campus Drive; click here for a Duke campus map and driving directions. The second meeting, at UNC, will be Monday, Jan. 14, 7:30 p.m., Gardner 308; with Jan. 21 a holiday (MLK day), third meeting will be Jan. 28 at UNC. Click here for a UNC map [this is a PDF file; zoom in at 200% to see print; from Morehead Planetarium bus stop, head to the Old Well, cross Cameron, and Gardner is between Hanes and Dey Halls] and parking). Transportation between the two campuses will be facilitated by the Duke/UNC express bus service sponsored by the Robertson Scholars program; click here for schedule.
Prerequisites/Permission: No prerequisites for advanced undergraduates or M.A. students. UNC Doctoral students may register through an independent reading course (UNC RELI 299) with permission of instructor. UNC medical students may participate in connection with elective courses (e.g., SOCM 403, 404, 416) precepted by Medical School faculty, and similar arrangements may be made by Duke medical students. Please contact the instructors with questions.
Exams/Papers: One research paper, on a topic chosen in consultation with instructors.Students will also present preliminary versions of papers in short oral class presentations.
Texts:
The
Book of Sufi Healing, by
Shaykh Hakim Moinuddin Chishti
Health
and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition : Change and Identity,
by Fazlur Rahman
The
Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife,
by Al-Ghazali, trans. T. J. Winter
The
Pool of Nectar: Muslim Interpreters of Yoga,
by Carl W. Ernst (unpublished manuscript)
Ibn
'Arabî's "Divine Comedy": An Introduction to Islamic Eschatology,
by James W. Morris (unpublished manuscript)
The
Dagger of Love: Chishti Sufism In South Asia and Beyond,
by Bruce B. Lawrence and Carl W. Ernst (forthcoming book)
East
meets West: The Practice of Unani (Greek) Medicine in India, c.
1850-1950,
by Claudia Liebeskind (unpublished book)