Upcoming lectures, exhibits, and performances relating to the Middle East and Muslim civilizations Notes:
Parallel public events and performances are in green
Deadlines and important dates are in red
* = Instructor out of town

I. Introduction to the Study of Islam

1.  Aug. 21    The Study of Islamic Civilization Today
Reading: Ernst, Following Muhammad, Preface and Chapter 1, "Islam in the Eyes of the West." Notes

2.  Aug. 23    Religion and Islamic Civilization
Reading: Ernst, Following Muhammad, chapter 2, "Approaching Islam in Terms of Religion." Notes.
Study question: changing meaning of "religion" and "religions" from antiquity to the colonial era

Recitations, Aug. 24: Website: Read the first article about the UNC Qur'an controversy and scan the other items. Why was this such a big deal? Why did this become a national issue?

3.  Aug. 28    Islamic Civilization and History.
Reading:  Jonathan Berkey, The Formation of Islam, pp. 11-53 (E-Book restricted to UNC servers, requires downloading software for use with Internet Explorer) Notes
Maps of Religion and Empire: The History of Religion; Who conquered the Middle East?
images and links: Islam and the World of Muhammad
al-Khazina ("the Treasury"): Princeton web site on Islamic studies
Historical maps

II. Sources of Islamic Tradition

4. Aug. 30. The Prophet Muhammad.
Reading: Ernst, Following Muhammad, pp. 71-93, 108-119;  Notes

1. Jihad Watch, where you can search for angry comments on UNC professors Carl Ernst and Omid Safi. See also my "Notes on the Ideological Patrons of an Islamophobe, Robert Spencer". Similar material is available at Front Page magazine and Campus Watch, which has special comments on UNC. One can consider these sites as critical not only of Islam, but also of Islamic studies as an academic discipline.
   See further the comments by Prof. Daniel Varisco and journalist Jim Lobe on Horowitz's "Islamo-Fascism Week".
   
   
2. Jack Chick cartoon conversion tract archived at http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0042/0042_01.asp. Note that he regards Islam as not only false but also a Catholic plot.

Questions that can be addressed include: 

• how should advocacy/attack religious websites be evaluated?How does one determine the point of view of a religious website? How does one distinguish between neutral information and advocacy/denigration?

• What drives the extreme rejection of Islam in these cases?

5.  Sept. 4     Interpreting the Qur'an
Reading: Following Muhammad, pp. 93-105;  Notes
The Sura of the Cave (Qur. 18), trans. W. N. Crest  (you will need your UNC onyen and password); See "Questions to Consider" in the prefatory remarks to this reading, for suggested study questions on "You" verses and "Say" verses

III. Gender and Textual Authority in Early Islam 

6.  Sept. 6    Texts as the basis of authority
Reading: Mernissi, The Veil, pp. vi-ix, 1-48  Notes
Study questions: why would feminist Mernissi find it necessary to go into biographical criticism of hadith regarding the political role of women? for what purposes can sacred texts like the hadith be used? what are the issues that govern the estimation of hadith as authentic or fabricated?

7.  Sept. 11    Questions on Misogyny 
Reading: Mernissi, The Veil, pp. 49-101.  Notes
Study questions: misogyny and different religions; different meanings of "veil"
Gender and Scripture in Islam: Some Thorny Issues (online PowerPoint presentation) 
Muslim Women Lawyers Association, Karama

Recommended: "Towards Gender Equality in The Arab/Middle East Region: Islam, Culture, and Feminist Activism," by Valentine M. Moghadam (UN report, 2004)

*8.  Sept. 13  Film: "Islam: Empire of Faith", part 1
Reading: Berkey, pp. 70-83 (E-Book restricted to UNC servers, requires downloading software for use with Internet Explorer)
       This week only: instead of bring a journal entry to class based on the reading, wait until you watch the film, and bring a journal to recitation on Friday making a connection between the Berkey reading and the film.

9.  Sept. 18    Rethinking women in early Islamic society 
Reading: Mernissi, The Veil, pp. 102-152  Notes
Study question: the role of the Prophet Muhammad's wives
Web site: THE VEIL DEBATE IN FRANCE

10. Sept. 20    Islamic Arts, especially calligraphy
Reading: Following Muhammad, pp. 182-197 (notes); Ernst, "The Spirit of Islamic Calligraphy: Baba Shah Isfahani's Adab al-Mashq" (requires a UNC address; alternate site)
Web Site on "The Art of Arabic Calligraphy"
"The Hilya, or the Adornment of the Prophet" from the web site of calligrapher Rasheed Butt
Also recommended: The Grove Dictionary of Art Online, "Islamic Art," I. Introduction, esp. sections 1 (Definition) and 8 (Subject-matter) (requires a UNC address)
Film: ART AND THE ISLAMIC WORLD 1993 (V-4475)
Study Question:  The art of calligraphy  and the avoidance of images in Islamic art

Recitations, Sept. 21:  Museum Tour. Recitation sections will meet in the Ackland Art Museum (click here for a map) at normal times to tour examples of Islamic art in the permanent Asian exhibit, plus a visit to the print room to see selected examples from the collection.
Note: A journal entry may be written on the Museum tour, which must connect items seen in the collection with some other discussion, either in the readings, the film, or lecture; this can be turned in next Tuesday.

11.  Sept. 25   Women and politics
Reading: Mernissi, The Veil, pp. 153-195  Notes
Study question: gender and politics

IV. The Dome of the Rock and the imperial politics of the Caliphate

12.  Sept. 27. The Rock, part 1 
Reading: Makiya, The Rock, pp. 3-67 (notes)

13.  Oct. 2.   The Rock, part 2
Reading: Makiya, The Rock, pp. 69-142 (notes)
Web site: The Noble Sanctuary (Islamic site on Jerusalem, known as "al-Quds" or "the Sacred" in Arabic)

*14. Oct. 4  Shi`ism. Guest speaker: Prof. Omid Safi
Reading: Following Muhammad, pp. 168-174; Notes
O. Safi, Memories of Muhammad, chapter on Karbala. 
Study question: spiritual mediators as connections to God  
Web sites on Shi`ism

Photos of tombs of the Imams in Medina -- why would the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia have destroyed all these tombs in 1925?
Photos of shrines relating to Ali
Photos of shrines relating to the martyrdom of Husayn
Photos of shrines relating to the 10th, 11th, and 12th Imams
Tears for Kerbala, a children's book on the martyrdom of Husayn
Chart of the 14 Infallibles, Chart of Shi`i Groups

14.  Oct. 9   The Rock, part 3
Reading: Makiya, The Rock, pp. 142-204 (notes)
Web sites: BiblePlaces.com (Christian site); ArchNet.com (photos of the Dome of the Rock from an academic site on Islamic architecture at MIT); TempleMountFaithful.com (Zionist site for rebuilding Solomonic temple)
Images from power point presentation available at ArtStor (register, log on, select folder "Early Islamic Architecture," select group "Artwork")

15.  Oct. 11  The Rock, part 4
Reading: Makiya, The Rock, pp. 205-275 (notes)

Recitations, Oct. 12. Exercise: Visiting the Dome of the Rock. Examine the Qur'anic inscriptions in the Dome of the Rock as summarized by Bruce Lawrence (here; UNC onyen and password necessary). Why were these verses chosen? What would be the impact of reading them as one circumambulates the shrine?

V. Religion, Society,  and Culture in Early Islamic Civilization

16.  Oct. 16   Overview of the early Caliphate
Reading: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddima, pp. 123-170, 180-183 Notes
Recommended: pp. vii-xxv (Bruce Lawrence, Introduction to 2005 edition)
Study question: the religious characterization of the caliphate (pages 154-160) versus its transformation into royal authority (pages 160-166)
Web sites: Exhibit on Ibn Khaldun in Seville and its catalog
Map: breakup of the Caliphate
Midterm essays due

Fall break, Oct. 18-19

17.  Oct. 23  Ibn Khaldun's view of the world
Reading: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddima, pp. 45-90 Notes
Study questions: ancient concepts of cosmos and ecology; philosophical explanations of prophecy and the supernatural

18.  Oct. 25  Religious and civil institutions of the caliphate
Reading: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddima, pp. 170-230   Notes
Study questions: Ibn Khaldun's understanding of Christianity; his understanding of war; symbols of royal power; manners of the ideal secretary according to `Abd al-Hamid (pp. 203-6)

19.  Oct. 30     Nomads and cities
Reading: Ibn Khaldun, 91-122, 263-95    Notes
Study question: the character of nomadic ("Bedouin") society and its interaction with sedentary civilization; the nature of "group feeling"

20.  Nov. 1    Science and philosophy
Reading: Following Muhammad, pp. 119-126; Ibn Khaldun, pp. 259-61, 333-354, 371-98   Notes
Classification of the sciences according to al-Farabi and Ibn Khaldun
Study question: the difference between al-Farabi's and Ibn Khaldun's understandings of the relation of the sciences to religion

*21.  Nov. 6    Sufism. Guest speaker: Prof.Omid Safi
Reading: Following Muhammad, pp. 164-168, 174-182; Ibn Khaldun, pp. 358-367
Study question: institutional forms of spirituality in Sufism
 
22.  Nov. 8    Islamic religious scholars (`ulama')
Reading: Ibn Khaldun, 354-358 (interpretations of the Qur'an), 398-405 (critique of philosophy), 411-426 (education)   Notes
Study questions: Ibn Khaldun's recommendations for education in North Africa

23.  Nov. 13   Arabic Literature
Reading:
Ibn Khaldun, pp. 443-59. Notes
Read a couple of the following excerpts, and be prepared to discuss one of them on Friday in recitation:

• Pre-Islamic Arabia: The Hanged Poems, before 622 CE: read The Pre-Islamic poem of Imru-Ul-Qais

• Abul Hasan Ali Al-Masu'di (Masoudi) (ca. 895?-957 CE): The Book of Golden Meadows, c. 940 CE; read "The Caliphate of al-Mansur" (founder of Baghdad)

• Yakut: Baghdad Under the Abbasids, c. 1000 CE

• Story from the Thousand and One Nights [caution: very rude!].

• Usamah Ibn Munqidh (1095-1188): Autobiography: Excerpts on the Franks, c.1175 CE. (about the Crusaders)

• The Role of Women in Arabic Literature

Web sites:

Princeton online Arabic project
Arabic literature: introduction (al-Bab.com)
1001 Nights (Burton translation)

 
24.  Nov. 15   Persian Literature
Reading: Notes

• "Persian Literature" (from a 1965 Iranian Ministry of Culture publication, reproduced in Iranianonline)

• Description of the Shahnama (brief note on Firdawsi's Book of Kings, ca. 1020), from The Shahnama Project (Cambridge University), with links to database of miniature illustrations

• Sa`di's Gulistan (1258): read the first 3 stories in both chapter 1 ("The Manners of Kings") and chapter 2 ("The Morals of Dervishes"). (vocabulary: padshah = king; muhtasib = inspector of morals; arif = mystic)
  

• Poems of Rumi (d. 1273): read sections on "The Popularization of Rumi," "The Difference Between Versions and Translations," and "Examples of Distorted Versions and Translations From Versions By Coleman Barks" (Ibrahim Gamard's Dar-al-Masnavi website)

• Poems by Hafiz (d. 1391): read poems number 1, 2, and 4 (vocabulary: rend = a rogue who may misbehave but is sincere)
  

Study questions: Persian poetry and politics; Persian poetry and Sufism
Web sites:

• Persian language and literature (Iran Chamber Society)

• The Packard Humanities Institute: Persian Texts in Translation

• Persian Literature (Columbia University libraries)

• UNESCO celebration of Rumi's 800th birthday in 2007
  

Recitations, Nov. 16.   Sa`di's elegy on the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols. How do you reconcile this lament with the fact that his patron assisted the Mongols?

*25.  Nov. 20    Film: "Al-Ghazali: the alchemist of happiness"
Website devoted to  Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (450-505 AH/1058-1111 AD)
To do a journal entry on this film, you will need to relate something in the film to the text of al-Ghazali's autobiography.

Thanksgiving

26.  Nov. 27    Later Political philosophy -- the Relationship between Religion and Empire
Reading: Davani's Jalalian Ethics (written in 15th-century Persia by the philosopher Davani, as a "mirror for princes" for the Aq-Qoyunlu king, Uzun Hasan, who ruled 1457-1478). Notes
Study questions: significance of Davani's lists (2 kinds of government, 7 qualities of emperors, 4 classes of people, 5 divisions of humanity, 10 pillars of justice, 3 qualities of army); punishment and forgiveness; the character of kings (and their praise). 

27.  Nov. 29  Islamic society in Muslim Spain
Reading: The Routes of al-Andalus: spiritual convergence and intercultural dialogue (UNESCO publication)
Study Question: multiple religious traditions in the society of al-Andalus
Recommended: ISLAMIC AND CHRISTIAN SPAIN IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES: Comparative Perspectives on
Social and Cultural Formation, by Thomas F. Glick, chapter 9, "CULTURAL PROCESS IN MEDIEVAL SPAIN"
Convivencia and the Aesthetics of Architecture in al-Andalus (PowerPoint presentation)
Andalusian Legacy (Spanish cultural tourism site)
UN "Alliance of Civilizations" meeting in Istanbul, Nov. 13, 2006; Press release

28.  Dec. 4    Conclusions
Reading: Charles Tilly, "Europe of Columbus and Bayazid"; Following Muhammad, pp. 200-213; Ibn Khaldun, pp. 242-256
Notes

 

Final Exam Essay Due Thu., Dec. 13, 3:00 pm

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