DGLnotes—Academic course syllabi

As the ‘cradle of civilisation’ located at the juncture of three continents, the Middle East is home to a wide range of cultures, religions, and ethnicities that make the region so interesting, yet so complex. This survey course will introduce students to the modern Middle East, beginning with the important changes of the Nineteenth Century and continuing through the period of European dominance into the age of independence and the contemporary Middle East. Throughout the course, we will examine various themes, especially the important and recurring force of religion. Some of the topics that we will cover include the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Iranian Revolution, the Persian Gulf Wars, and radicalism, while placing them within the broader framework of the modern Middle East. We will conclude by addressing recent developments in the region and its outlook for the future. [Introductory/survey-level course]

An introduction to the religious and cultural trends of Islam—the faith and the tradition—from the birth of the religion to the present day.

A survey of the history of Iran/Persia from the ancient Achæmenids to Aḥmadī-nezhād (Ahmadinejad), with emphasis on the Arab-Muslim conquest, the rise of Muslim Iranian dynasties in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, the Ṣafavid and Qājār Empires, and the two major revolutions of the Twentieth Century.

A survey of the history of Zionism and the modern State of Israel from the mid-Nineteenth Century to the present.

A survey of the history of the Ottomans from their beginnings in the late Thirteenth Century to their collapse following the First World War.

Despite the fact that Islam is the religion of well over one billion adherents, many in the West still express ignorance or confusion about its basic facts, precepts, and historical developments. Nevertheless, Muslims are growing throughout the world and in places such as Europe and North America. At the same time, a number of countries, including the United States, find themselves increasingly in conflict with Muslim nations and groups. These demographic and political factors are but two reasons why the study and understanding of Islam, the faith and the civilisation, are becoming more and more important in the contemporary world. In this course, we will examine the birth and development of Islamic civilisation, a rich tradition spanning nearly fourteen hundred years that has seen the flourishing of diverse religious, political, cultural, and social currents, and which continues today. With a greater focus on historical developments, this is a companion course to Introduction to Islam, which emphasises religious and cultural trends. By the end of this class, students should have a keen appreciation for the genesis of Islam and early Islamic civilisation, the complex and varied composition of the ‘Islamic world’, and the still-ongoing processes resulting from the exchange of Islam and modernity, including political expression, radical Islam, and gender issues.

This course surveys the course of human civilisations across the globe from the dawn of history to the start of the Sixteenth Century. Given the breadth of its content, we will focus on general themes and trends that characterise human societies, pointing to commonalities that underscore the shared origins of mankind. Occasionally, we will explore significant developments in religion and political theory that shaped the course of human history. By the end of the course, we will understand better the world on the eve of modernity, which will lay the foundations for a better appreciation of the subsequent centuries of gradual globalisation.

Critical to understanding the modern Middle East is an appreciation of the rôle that religion has played in the societies of the region since Antiquity. In this course, we will examine the way that religion has functioned in Middle Eastern societies, beginning with ancient Near Eastern cultures, including ancient Israel, the Christian Roman Empire, and the Zoroastrian Sāsānian Empire of Iran. We will study the rise of Islam and its own patchwork of religious traditions, as well as the various Islamic societies that emerged—from the earliest Islamic empires to the Ottoman and Iranian Empires. The class will conclude with a thorough look at religion in the Middle Eastern landscape today, covering topics such as religion in Turkey, Iran, and Israel, minority identities, the challenge of nationalism, the Bahāʾī faith, radical Islam, and collective memory. Throughout the course, we will touch upon several recurring themes, including states’ use and abuse of religion, the nature of religion as a primary marker of identity, and varying patterns of religious expression in the region.

Fundamental to the understanding of contemporary Iran is a proper appreciation of the two Twentieth-Century revolutions that changed indelibly the nature of political rule in the country. Each of these events, the Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911) and the Islamic Revolution (1978–1979), reflected the culmination of several decades of interaction between traditional elements of Iranian society and forces of modernity and change; each of them also saw the coalescence of a familiar coalition of internal actors: the clerical establishment, the mercantile class, and the intelligentsia. In this class, we shall follow the internal developments of Iran as it went from Qājār autocracy in the Nineteenth Century to the Islamic Republic today. Specific topics of discussion include the Bābī revolt, the Tobacco Protest, the Constitutional Revolution, the attempted coup by Moḥammad Moṣāddeq, the 1955 anti-Bahāʾī pogrom, and the Islamic Revolution. Ultimately, we shall shed light on the red thread running throughout all of these events: the tension between the political and religious authorities in Iran.

The emergence and early rule of Islam greatly shaped the development of not only the Middle East, but of the entire world. This course surveys the birth of the Islamic world, including the genesis of Islam and Islamic civilisation, the profound changes of the Arab-Islamic conquests, and the rise and rule of the first Islamic empires, and continuing until the Mongol Conquest in 1258. We will examine culture, politics, and society in classical Islamic society, as well as the larger historical trends that defined the period. Specific topics of exploration include the rise of Iranian Islamic dynasties, the challenge of the Crusades, the development of Shīʿī and Sunnī Islam, the emergence of Ṣūfī mysticism, and the experience of non-Muslim minorities.

The Arab-Israeli conflict attracts a disproportionate amount of attention in the news media, international politics and law, and the socio-cultural sphere, despite the fact that numerous other inter-ethnic tensions have generated far higher casualties and involve more significant players on the global scene. This course examines the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict in an attempt to place it in its historical context, while tracing its developments from multiple angles in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex dynamic that constitutes ‘the conflict’. We will conclude the class by looking at several contemporary dimensions of the conflict, including the potent forces of radical and political Islam, the involvement of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the continued evolvement of Israeli and Palestinian identities.

Religion and politics have intertwined in Islam since the founding of the faith in the early Seventh Century. In this course, we will examine the modern phenomenon of political Islam within the historical context of the concept of political rule in Islam. We will begin by charting the course of the emergence of Islamic civilisation and the development of the caliphate and continue with discussions of mediæval political philosophy, separate Sunnī and Shīʿī elaborations of temporal rule, and religion and state in the pre-modern Islamic world. Thereafter, we will trace the Islamist response to modernity through its many forms—including the radical and the pluralistic ones—across the Islamic world, including South and Central Asia, West and East Africa, Palestine, Iran, and Turkey. We will conclude with a thorough look at technology and other tools used by contemporary Islamists, as well as an analysis of the future of political Islam. Throughout the course, we will observe and consider the dissonance between contemporary Islamist activity and classical political philosophy.

As the ‘cradle of civilisation’ located at the juncture of three continents, the Middle East is home to a wide range of cultures, religions, and ethnicities that make the region so interesting, yet so complex. This survey course will introduce students to the modern Middle East, beginning with the important changes of the Nineteenth Century and continuing through the period of European dominance into the age of independence and the contemporary Middle East. Throughout the course, we will examine various themes, especially the important and recurring force of religion. Some of the topics that we will cover include the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Iranian Revolution, the Persian Gulf Wars, and radicalism, while placing them within the broader framework of the modern Middle East. We will conclude by addressing recent developments in the region and its outlook for the future. [Intermediate-level course]

Despite the fact that the Zionist enterprise and its offspring, the State of Israel, have existed for only slightly more than a century, the long history of the Jewish people, the wide dispersion of its members, and the tensions and relations with other inhabitants of the region, have generated a society multifaceted and complex far beyond its short lifespan. In this course, we will chart and analyse the history and development of Israeli society, from its beginnings in the Zionist idea and the culture that existed in Ottoman Palestine during the late Nineteenth Century to the present day. Approaching the subject of Israeli society through the lens of history allows us to observe broad trends and to track changes, not only in its composition, but in its culture, maturity, and impact, as well as to make forecasts about the decades to come. Furthermore, by telling the history of Israel through its variegated, vibrant, and varying society and by studying the topic through a perspective different from most politics-centred approaches, we will obtain a better appreciation of how and why the country, its history, and its people have evolved as they did. Specific groups that we will study include early Zionist pioneers during Ottoman and British rule, Middle Eastern Jewish immigrants, Palestinian-Israelis, non-Jewish communities in Israel (Druze, Bedouin, Bahaʾis, and Circassians), recent Russian and Ethiopian immigrants, and foreign labourers and migrants. We will also examine thematic topics, such as religion and state, gender and sexuality, and contemporary popular culture.

A course focusing on the dynamic between state and minority, both historically and contemporarily, by looking first at the changing rôle of minorities in the last two thousand years and then examining the various minorities—religious, ethnic, cultural—that make up the diverse patchwork of the region.

A survey of the history of Shīʿī Islam, its theological precepts, political developments, and cultural achievements.

Within the space of less than a century, the Zionist enterprise achieved its ultimate goal of an independent Jewish country, the modern State of Israel. This class examines the important developments of this process, from the initial seeds of Zionism in Nineteenth-Century Europe to the painful birth pangs of the Jewish state amidst the challenges and dangers of the 1948 War, known to Israelis as the ‘War of Independence’. As this course focuses on the rebirth of Israel as a modern reincarnation of an ancient Jewish polity, we will avoid placing excessive attention on the Arab-Israeli conflict, although we will examine the Palestinian-Arab dimension as it relates to the emergence of the Israeli polity. Instead, we will study more carefully historical, political, economic, and social trends within the Zionist community both in the geographic land of Palestine and abroad. We will also touch upon the roots of several contemporary tensions, as well as the creation of the diverse and complex mosaïc of Israel society. By avoiding the ‘conflict prism’, we hope to arrive at a clearer perspective on the origins of the State of Israel, a better appreciation of the events and movements leading up to its establishment, and some ideas regarding Israel, its citizens, and its neighbours today.

Since its founding the early Seventh Century, Islam has maintained a complex relationship to the Jewish and Christian traditions that preceded it. On the one hand, religious figures and texts consciously built upon their monotheistic foundations, linking Muslims to Jews and Christians in worship of the same God, tracing Muḥammad’s genealogical ancestry to Abraham, and alluding in the Qurʾān to stories and messages from the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Gospels. On the other hand, as a successor religion, Islam differentiates itself from the prior traditions in order to provide its adherents with a unique and superseding message. This tension finds expression in the different and differing attitudes towards Jews and Christians—known as ‘Peoples of the Book’ and ‘protected minorities’—in Muslim society. Their experience has ranged widely, including periods of productive harmony, considerable toleration, and harsh persecution. Likewise, Jews and Christians adapted variously to their Islamic surroundings, contributing to their societies in the fields of philosophy, science, trade, culture, and more. In this course, we will survey the major themes of Jewish and Christian lives in the Islamic world from its origins to the present day, with a hope towards understanding better the challenges and realities of the contemporary Middle East.

A survey of the history of the Jewish population of the Ottoman Empire, their relations with the state, their cultural achievements, and their legacy, from the early Romaniotes of Istanbul through the great wave of immigrants following the Spanish Expulsion to the changing patterns of life during empire’s last century.

The Middle East is rarely out of the focus of press cameras from around the world. Daily reports on political violence and instability, with wider repercussions, attract widespread attention. But how do Middle Easterners see themselves and their societies? This course will provide a framework for answering this question by studying the modern Middle East—alongside the cinema that has emerged from the region. In addition to covering the history of individual countries, we will examine various themes, including the Arab-Israeli conflict, religious resurgence and political Islam, gender and sexuality, and Middle Eastern minorities. We will watch films from a variety of perspectives and in a number of languages, including Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Turkish, and Kurdish. We will conclude by addressing recent developments in the region and its outlook for the future.

Israeli society is marked by complex, competing, and overlapping identities, reflecting the diversity of the Jewish diaspora and resultant ‘ingathering of exiles’, the contribution of non-Jewish minorities and challenges of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and new global and transnational cultures and trends. Since the early years of Zionist activity in the Land of Israel, these dynamics have manifested themselves on the silver screen, revealing how Israelis view themselves, the world around them, and how they wish to be viewed. Israeli cinema has thus served as a forum for Zionist and Israeli dreams, as well as an outlet for criticism of existing realities. In this course, we will study Israeli society through the films it has produced—dramas, comedies, musicals, and documentaries—telling both the history and the present of the country through its cultural output. Specific themes that we will study include the founding of the society and the state, the absorption of Middle Eastern Jews and Holocaust survivors, tensions between the individual and the collective, attitudes towards Arab-Israeli citizens, Palestinians, and foreign Arabs, the rôle of religion in society, current challenges facing Israeli society. Throughout the semester, as we watch and discuss films, we will repeatedly ask and seek to answer how Israeli cinema represents the cultural memory of its society.

A survey of the history of the two most important Islamic ‘gun-powder empires’, examining their origins, their interactions, their relations with Western states, the relationship between state and religion, and their legacies.

An investigation into the dynamic world of Israeli politics, from the pre-state Yishuv to the present-day. The course concludes with a simulation, in which students represent various political parties and compete in a mock election.

Critical to understanding the background to the diverse and vibrant societies of contemporary India is an appreciation of the penetration of Islam to the region and the rise and peak of Mughal rule. In this course, we shall examine the course of South Asian history from the early Muslim invasions of the Eighth Century and the Central Asian conquests of the Tenth Centuries to the imperialisation of Islamic rule under the Tīmūrid Mughals, who combined Iranian, Central Asian, and Mongol-Tīmūrid influences with local Indian patterns. In addition to covering the political history of the period, we will study various aspects of social, economic, and cultural trends, paying attention to subaltern groups, marginal societies, and the growing European presence.

Within a couple generations following the death of Muḥammad, the Muslim community saw itself in control of a vast expanse of land, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Indian sub-continent in the east. Among its striking accomplishments, this coalition of tribal forces from the Arabian Peninsula defeated the two reigning superpowers of the era; the Arab-Muslim conquerors completely subjugated the Sāsānian Empire and they dealt a crippling blow to the Byzantine Empire, which survived, albeit in a very different form. In this course, we will examine these momentous events, which forever changed the world, as well as their background and their repercussions, which continue to be felt to this day. In order to conduct our study, we will read primary sources and conclude our class with an investigation into several historiographical issues pertaining to early Islam: the causes of the conquests, the perspective of non-Muslim peoples, apocalyptic views, and the development of the body of literature about the Arab-Muslim conquests known as the futūḥ.

A course examining the dynamic between nationalism and identity since the former’s inception in the region during the late Nineteenth Century. This includes a survey of the various forms of nationalism, from pan-Arabism to Persian nationalism to Zionism and an investigation of nationalist literature.

Recent scholarship has increasingly focused upon the importance of collective memory in the shaping of modern (and ancient) identities. This advanced seminar will investigate the function of history and memory in the modern Middle East, looking at its interaction with various tensions: religion/secularism (Turkey and Iran), Arab nationalism/particularism (Iraq, Egypt, and Lebanon), and diaspora/nationhood (Israel and the Palestinians). Students will develop a better understanding of how individuals and states have remembered, shaped, and fabricated memories and histories to promote various agendæ, while uncovering trends and similarities that underline their actions and their goals. This course concludes by analysing contemporary developments and discussing collective memory as it applies to the Middle East in the coming decades.

A course examining constitutional movements during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries both in the Middle East and, comparatively, throughout the world.

A course examining Israeli society through several issues and tensions that affect it, including the variegated Zionist ideologies, the challenge of religion and the state, the diversity of Jewish ethnicities, the problem of non-Jewish minorities, the Jewish/democratic question, and the legacy of collective memory.

Since the dawn of Islam, millenarian movements have arisen in anticipation of the ‘Hour’, the Day of Judgement, and the messianic age. This course examines the various traditions of millenarianism within Islam, their history, their development, and their patterns, from the Seventh Century down to the present day. Special attention is also devoted to the Shaykhī and Bābī movements of Nineteenth-Century Iran.