Global Arc

In 1370, a Central Asian Turk named Timur the Lame conquered territories from Anatolia & Russia to India & China. For the next five centuries, the style of Muslim kingship that emerged in Central Asia, Iran, and India was deeply rooted in his memory. In this course we explore the worlds of early modern Asia and trace the lingering influences of Timurid courtly culture in the Safavid (1501-1722) and Mughal (1526-1857) empires. The course will incorporate discussions of literature, the arts, and religious movements within their historical contexts. The reading of primary historical and literary sources in translation will be emphasized.

Islamic conquest of Spain in AD 711 brought about five hundred years of fruitful if uneasy coexistence between Muslims, Christians and Jews on western European soil, profoundly modifying European civilization itself when Caliphal Cordova was hailed as "Jewel of the World," until battlefield reverses broke Islamic domination. The subsequent spring course, "Granada: The Fall of Spanish Islam 1212-1614," addresses increasing repression which ended "The Spain of the Three Religions." Taught in English.

Thirteenth-century Christian "Reconquista" of almost all of Spain after 1212 - with the significant exception of the sultanate of Granada - subjected huge minorities of Muslims and Jews to Christian overlords and challenged the rising kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Portugal to cope with religious diversity. The course explores how the Christian kingdoms at first imitated and tried to implement Islamic precedents in tolerance but then how social strains spawned increasing sectarian intolerance, mass expulsions or forced conversions of Jews and Muslims, and finally creation of the religiously absolutist monarchies of Spain and Portugal.

An examination of changes currently affecting the Republic of Turkey, including internal and external problems precipitated by factors such as rapid urbanization, growing ethnic conscience, and regional instability. Two 90-minute classes.

This course explores how various forms of violence and urban conflict made the modern Middle East and offers an understanding of how violence is both a destructive and a constructive act. Students will explore different modes of violence as an individual and collective experience, an urban process, and a historical event. Through critical considerations of middle eastern spaces, the course focuses on the transformative powers of violence, its ability to draw the boundaries of urban life, to create and divide communities, and to affect the ruling strategies of governments, local elites, and transnational political players.

There is growing interest today in bioethics and how human beings form ethical subjectivities during embodied life-crisis events such as pregnancy, birth, illness and death. This course examines how various Muslim communities use their cultural and textual heritages to respond to the challenges of new technologies and biomedicine in questions related to the beginnings of life. We will consider how Muslims cultivate ethical subjectivities in increasingly global localities, and the gender politics of reproduction and fertility.

The Caucasus region has served as a contested borderland from time immemorial and has fascinated outsiders for nearly as long. It is today a tense and explosive region. This course surveys the history of both the north and south Caucasus. It begins with an overview of the region's geography, peoples, and religions, and then examines in more detail the history of the Caucasus from the Russian conquest to the present day. Topics covered include ethnic and religious conflict and coexistence, Sovietization, the formation of national identities, and pipeline politics.

An introduction to the vast number of Islam-inspired sociopolitical movements. An attempt is made to present the contemporary movements in the light of the Islamic tradition of rebellion and revolution. Islamic movements will be surveyed against the historical and social context in which they occurred, with emphasis on the Arab World and Iran. Questions will be raised about the ways in which these movements have been approached and interpreted. Two 90-minute classes.

The rise of revivalist and radical religious movements in Muslim societies understandably has spurred interest in the politics of Islam. Yet Muslims have also had extensive experience with secular politics. Central Asia and the Middle East in the 20th century saw secularization projects that fundamentally transformed Muslim societies and left legacies that will persist long into the 21st century. Drawing on the disciplines of history, religious studies, anthropology, and political science, this course explores how Central Asian and Middle Eastern Muslims embraced and rejected, assimilated and resisted, constructed and negotiated secularism.

A general introduction to Iran in the period from the establishment of the Qajar dynasty in the late 18th century to the present day. Particular emphasis will be given to the social and cultural development of Iran under the stimulus of its contacts with the West. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Offered in alternate years.