Upcoming lectures, exhibits, and performances relating to the Middle East and Muslim civilizations
Web sites from Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World

Notes:
Parallel public events and performances are in green
Deadlines and important dates are in red
* = Instructor out of town

1.  Jan. 8    The Study of Islamic Civilization: what does it mean to study Islam today?
Website:news articles on Islam from 2003
Reading: Following Muhammad, preface (available online here)
For Friday recitation sections, choose one of the above news articles and write a one-page response to it; bring it to the recitation prepared to discuss it.

*2.  Jan. 13    The Study of Islamic Civilization: Clash of Civilizations?
Reading: Ernst, Following Muhammad, chapter 1, "Islam in the Eyes of the West."
Film: "Islam: Empire of Faith"
Study question topic: the nature of anti-Islamic prejudice 

3.  Jan. 15    Religion as a category
Reading: Ernst, Following Muhammad, chapter 2
Study question topics: the Protestant Christian concept of religion; how to define Islam, and who is qualified to do so
Notes

4.  Jan. 20    Muhammad and the Qur'an
Reading: Ernst, Following Muhammad, chapter 3
Notes
Islam and the World of Muhammad
al-Khazina ("the Treasury"): Princeton web site on Islamic studies
    --> historical maps
The Hilya or "Adornment of the Prophet"
Study question topics: the Muhammad of faith and the Muhammad of authority; interpretation of the Qur'an by non-Muslims

5.  Jan. 22 Early Islamic Civilization to 1500 
Reading: Reading: Marilyn Waldman, "Islamic World," Encyclopaedia Britannica (electronic reserve)
Notes
Succession to Muhammad

6.  Jan. 27  The world of Leo Africanus
Reading: Maalouf, Leo Africanus, 1-92
Notes
Islamic civilization to 1500
Question: If the unity of Islamic civilization is not to be found in empire, where would it be?

7.  Jan. 29    Leo Africanus 2
Reading: Maalouf, Leo Africanus, 93-181
The path of Leo Africanus
Convivencia and the Aesthetics of Architecture in al-Andalus (power point) 

8.  Feb. 3    Leo Africanus 3
Reading: Maalouf, Leo Africanus, 181-243
Notes

9.  Feb. 5 Europe in Africa/African Muslims in the Americas
Reading: Maalouf, Leo Africanus, 243-360
Omar ibn Sayyid's autobiography; more information about him
European imperialism in Africa

10.  Feb. 10  Islamic ethics, from the premodern to the postcolonial
Reading: Following Muhammad, chapter 4
Notes
Web sites on Islamic law, and on Islamic ethics and politics
Imperialism

11.  Feb. 12 Shi`ism and Sufism
Reading: Following Muhammad, chapter 5
Notes
Web sites on Shi`ism and Sufism

12.  Feb. 17  Main Currents of Shi`ism in Arabia and Iran
Reading: Cole, Sacred Space, pp. 31-77
Notes
Another web site on Shi`ism

13.  Feb. 19  Iraqi shrines and Indian patrons
Reading: Cole, Sacred Space, pp. 78-122
Notes
maps of Iraq

14.  Feb. 24  Shi`ism in India
Reading: Cole, Sacred Space, pp. 123-160
Notes
maps of India in 1760, 1785, 1804, 1857

15.  Feb. 26  Contemporary Shi`is in Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran
Reading: Cole, Sacred Space, pp. 173-211
Notes
web site on Muslims, Islam, and Iraq
The Iraqi Shiites: On the history of America’s would-be allies, by Juan Cole
Keeping the Shi'ites Straight, by Roy Parviz Mottahedeh (Religion News, volume 6, No. 2, Summer 2003).

16.  Mar. 2 
Reading: Khalifeh, Wild Thorns, pp. 5-47; "Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict," from Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), pp. 1-6
Notes: Promises of the colonial age
Notes on Wild Thorns (part 1)
web site: Question of Palestine (United Nations site) 

Midterm essays due

spring break

18.  Mar. 16 
Reading: Khalifeh, Wild Thorns, pp. 48-102
Notes: dimensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict

19.  Mar. 18 
Reading: Khalifeh, Wild Thorns, pp. 103-155
Film: "Children of Fire," directed by Mai Masri (1991).
"CHILDREN OF FIRE views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of children in Nablus, a town in the occupied West Bank. Here the children’s life experience has been completely shaped by the Intifada, the Palestinian uprising; they are street fighters by the age of six. Superbly photographed, this is a strong staccato statement pertinent to all world areas of war."
Notes: more recent developments since 1967

20.  Mar. 23 
Reading: Khalifeh, Wild Thorns, pp. 156-202; "Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict," from Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), pp. 7-14
Notes on Wild Thorns (part 2)
web sites:

Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement
chronology of suicide bombers and Israeli government actions
articles on non-violence, alternative news sources

*21.  Mar. 25    Feminist Questions 
Study questions: the role of misogyny in various civilizations 
Films: 1. "Covered: The Veil in Cairo" (26 min.); 
(This examination in depth of the diverse reasons - religious, social and economic - for the increase of veiling in Cairo is based on
intimate interviews.)
2. "Nawal el Saadawi: Unveiling the Mind" (22 min.)
(Interview of the leading Egyptian feminist by Dr. Miriam Cooke of Duke University. Appealing and informative autobiographical
survey.)
Web sites: THE VEIL DEBATE IN FRANCE
Reading: Cooke, Women Claim Islam, Introduction, ch. 1

22.  Mar. 30 
Reading: Cooke, Women Claim Islam, pp. 29-69; Gender and Scripture in Islam: Some Thorny Issues (online PowerPoint presentation) 

23.  Apr. 1 
Reading: Cooke, Women Claim Islam, pp. 70-106

*24.  Apr. 6  Guest speaker: Prof. miriam cooke (Duke University)
Reading: Cooke, Women Claim Islam, pp. 107-150

*25.  Apr. 8 Afghanistan from anti-Soviet Jihad to the Taliban 
Reading: Rashid, Taliban, pp. vii-xix, 1-54
Films: 1. "Afghanistan 8: Words and Deeds" 
(Excellent update for the years 1986 and 1987 of the war in Afghanistan. Although already outdated, this film does show the major
leaders of the conflict. The Soviet policy of de-population is stressed: 7 million Afghans have lost homes - one-half of the 14 million population; 3 million are refugees in Pakistan, another million in Iran.); 
2. "Afghanistan: exporting the Taliban Revolution" (24 min.)
(A report on current conditions in Afghanistan. The program focuses on the havoc created by the Taliban regime, which has resulted in two million Afghans fleeing the country.) 

26.  Apr. 13  Backgrounds of South Asian Islamic culture
Reading: Rashid, Taliban, pp. 55-104
Notes on South Asia, from the Mughals to Independence

27.  Apr. 15  The Taliban
Reading: Rashid, Taliban , pp. 105-156 
Question: Why did the Pakistanis support the Taliban?
Taliban Ladies Auxiliary in Pakistan
Question: why would the Taliban destroy the Bamiyan Buddhas?
Hazara (Afghan Shi`i tribe) web site on the Taliban

28.  Apr. 20  The Taliban, continued
Reading: Rashid, Taliban, pp. 157-216; bin laden and other thoroughly modern muslims, by charles kurzman
Question: What is modern about the Taliban? about Osama bin Laden?
Notes

29.  Apr. 22    Conclusions
Reading: Following Muhammad, chapter 6

Final Exam Essay Due Tues., Apr. 27, 4 pm in TA mailboxes, Howell 204