117 Duhring Wing
Tues-Thurs 10:30-12:00
Barbara R. von Schlegell
Office: 401 Duhring Wing
Phone: 898-5838
Office hours: Tues 12:00-1:00
Fri 12:00-1:00
There will be a Home Page for the course available during the second week of classes. Reading assignments from the required texts for the course for each week will be listed on the Home Page, as well as on-line copies of additional articles, slide illustrations, and dates for film showings in class.
The required texts for the class (on reserve in Rosengarten Reserve Room) are:
Yusuf 'Ali (trans.) The Holy Qur'an
F. Denny An Introduction to Islam (NY: Macmillan, 1994)
M. Lings Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (ITS: 1991)
F.E. Peters A Reader on Classical Islam (Princeton Univ. Pr.:1994)
A. Wadud-Muhsin Qur'an and Woman (Oxford Univ. Pr.: 1993)
Y. Haddad and J.I. Smith Muslim Communities in North America (SUNY:1994)
Week I Sept. 7 Introduction to Islam and the Modern Muslim World
Week II Sept. 12 Historical Background:
Pre-Islam; Conquest and conversion; Early state structures
Sept. 14 Sources of the Tradition
Part One: The Qur'an
Revelation and prophecy in Islam; Collection of the scripture; Major themes of the Qur'an; Commentaries
Week III Sept. 19 The Qur'an (continued)
Recitation of the Qur'an; Literary analysis of the Qur'an
Sept. 21 Sources of the Tradition
Part Two: Muhammad
Biography; Family of the Prophet; Wars and state
Week IV Sept. 26 Muhammad (continued)
Devotion to the Prophet in Muslim Culture
Sept. 28 Transmission of Knowledge and the Codification of Tradition
Religious Law (shari'ah); Islamic law schools; Hadith study; Religious professionals (scholars and judges)
Week V Oct. 3 Transmission of Knowledge (continued)
Oct. 5 Beliefs (aqa'id) and the Development of Orthodoxy
Theology; Ontology; Heaven and hell; Free-will and determinism
Week VI Oct. 10 Ritual Life in Islam
Practice of the Five Pillars; Festivals; A lifetime of pious transitions (conception-birth-puberty-marriage-children- community-death)
Oct. 12 Sacred Art and Architecture
Slide lecture and discussion of spiritual geography; Calligraphy; The Islamic book; Mosques, tombs, and zawiyahs. Take-home mid-term exam due.
Week VII Oct. 17 Fall Term Break (no class)
Oct. 19 Shi'i Islam
Sectarian developments; Religious and political authority in Sunni and Shi'i Islam; Shi'i beliefs and practices
Week VIII Oct. 24 Shi'i Islam (continued)
Oct. 26 Islam's Encounter with Other Religions
The Judeo-Christian-Islamic heritage; "Hagarism;" Jews and Christians under Muslim rule (Spain and the Arab world); Mary and Jesus in the Qur'an
Week IX Oct. 31 Mystical Islam - Sufism
Doctrine and practice; The Unity of God and the Unity of Being; Three Sufi leaders (Al-Ghazali, Ibn 'Arabi, Rumi)
Nov. 2 Mystical Islam - Sufism
"Drunk" and "Sober" Sufism; The crystallization of the Sufi orders and their role in Muslim societies
Week X Nov. 7 Muslim Women and the Islamic Understanding of Gender
Exemplary women in early Islamic history; Warriors and scholars; Sufi women; Islamic feminism and the revision of history; Law and custom in the lives of women
Nov. 9 Muslim Women (continued)
Week XI Nov. 14 Islam and the West, Islam in the West
Crusades; Orientalism; Missionary activity; Colonialism;
Muslims in Europe; "Occidentosis"
Nov. 16 The American Muslim Experience
African-American Muslims, conversion and the immigrant community
Week XII Nov. 21 Term paper prospectus due. Video and discussion.
Nov. 23 Thanksgiving Recess (no class)
Week XIII Nov. 28 Revivalist Islam
Concept of renewal and reform in Islam; A century of modernist currents; Revolution; Return from secularism
Nov. 30 Revivalist Islam (continued)
Week IV Dec. 5 Presentations of student research and conclusions for term papers I
Dec. 7 Presentations of student research for term papers II
Final Exam
The final exam will be in the form of essays answering three of six possible study questions handed out Dec. 5. The presentations Dec. 5 and 7 will be informal.
The grade for the course is determined as follows:
1. Class participation 20%
2. Midterm 20%
3. Term paper of 15-25 pages in length due the last day of class 30%. If you wish, you may turn in the paper up to two weeks before the last day of class and improve your paper grade by working with me and submitting a rewrite.
4. Final 30%