Nipissing University

HIST 3805 -- History of Islamic Civilization

2008-9

Version of March 22, 2009

The study sheet for the final exam is here.

Assignment sheet for the third paper.

Goals of the course

The first goal of the course is to acquaint the student with the past influence and present importance of Islamic civilization in world history as a whole.  This is not a course in Arab or Middle Eastern history.  Nor is it a history of Islam (the religion preached by Muhammed).  We will not study the religious documents of Islam in depth.  The course is an investigation of how Islam has shaped many different cultures in Asia, Europe and Africa over the last 1400 years.  Despite the title of this course, there may or may not be a single Islamic civilization; however, the religious, political and cultural values associated with the teachings of Muhammed have been extremely powerful historical forces.   The course will investigate what those forces have accomplished in the past, and especially what they mean for the world today.

The second goal of the course is to introduce the student to comparative history.  Comparative history is one method historians use to understand movements or events that affect people in large parts of the world.  It is a particularly useful discipline now, when global interconnections are so obvious in daily life.  In this course, we will often be comparing events in different parts of the world.  All Islamic culture whether in Iran, Indonesia, Morocco, Canada, or Britain, goes back to an Arabic prophet, and what he said and did in Mecca and Medina in the 7th century A.D.; on the other hand, the Islamic cultures of Teheran, Toronto, and Bradford, Yorkshire are not identical.  Comparative history will help us understand the variety of Islamic experience, just as it can potentially help us understand all the varieties of human experience.
 
 Contact Information:

Professor:      Steve Muhlberger
Office:           H 312
Office Phone: 474-3461 ext. 4458
Office Hour:   Tuesday, 2-3

Home Phone:  776-1247 (before 9 p.m.)
E-mail:            stevem {at}  nipissingu.ca

Academic Home Page:    http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/muhlberger/muhlberg.htm

Books:

 Required books:

·  James L. Gelvin, The Modern Middle East: a history, 2nd ed. 

·  Juan Cole, Napoleon's Egypt

·  Sattareh Farman Farmaian, Daughter of Persia

·  David B. Edwards, Before Taliban

 Suggested writing manual:

Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
 

Grading Scheme

1.  Study of an Islamic country

Worth 10% -- due Oct. 20   

Each student will research a country with an Islamic past or present.  The student will write a short report emphasizing the political and social issues facing that country, and the role (if any) of religion in regards to those issues.

A selection of students will be asked to make oral presentations to the class, based on their reports.

2.  Final examination

Worth 30% -- date TBA

The final examination will emphasize the material from the second term.

3.  First essay

Worth 20% -- due Dec. 3

Based on Juan Cole's Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East

4.   Second essay

Worth 20% -- due Feb. 11

Based on Sattareh Farman Farmaian's Daughter of Persia

5.  Third essay

Worth 20% -- due April 1

Based on David B. Edwards' Before Taliban:  Genealogies of the Afghan Jihad

A Brief Course Outline with Reading Assignments

Beneath most lecture titles in this outline are reading assignments.  Those marked G are taken from James Gelvin’s The Modern Middle East . Other source readings are to be found on the Web; on the Web version of this outline there are direct links to the source.

 I expect you to come to class having read the assignment and able to talk about it -- even if it is just to ask questions.   

FIRST TERM

Sept. 8    What do you know about Islam and Muslims? 

Sept. 10     The Middle Eastern Background

Sept. 15      Nomads and Citizens

•  The Poem of Antar

Sept. 17     Women and Men

•  Code of Hammurabi

Sept. 22     Judaism and the Covenant

Sept. 24     Christianity and the New Covenant

Sept. 29      Pre-Islamic Arabs

•     Ammianus Marcellinus on the Arabs (4th c. A.D.) 
•     Procopius on the Arabs (5th c. A.D.)

Oct. 1         Preaching of Muhammed  

•     The Battle of Badr

Oct. 6      Muhammed at Medina

Oct. 8     The Religion of Muhammed

Oct. 13-15 Thanksgiving and Study Week

Oct. 20     The Arab Conquests

 First assignment due

Oct. 22  The Arabs as Conquerors

•  Pact of Umar

Oct. 27     The Early Caliphate

• Rightly Guided Caliphs  (Muslim Student Association - USC site)

Oct. 29    Discussion of  Assignments

Nov. 3    Rise of the Abbasids -- Debates on Islamic Leadership

• Yakut: Baghdad under the Abbasids

Nov. 5     The Fall of the Abbasid Empire

Nov. 10      Post-Abbasid Politics

Nov. 12     Scholars and Sufis

• Sufi Poetry

Nov. 17   Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages

• Usmah Ibn Munqidh:  Autobiography 

Nov. 19   Nomad Empires in the Middle East

Nov. 24    Spread of Islam

•  Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa

Nov. 26     The Gunpowder Empires

• G 27-34
• Washington State University site on the Ottomans

Dec 1   The Men Who Would Be King

Dec. 3     Europe’s Advantage   

Essay on Cole book due

• Sir William Eton: A Survey of the Turkish Empire
• G 35-46

SECOND TERM

Jan.  5    Two Conquests:  Bengal and Egypt before 1800

•       G 47-59
•         One of the articles at Muhammed Ali 1805-2005

Jan. 7    The French Conquest and Colonization of Algeria     

·        G 88-99

Jan. 12    Dutch Colonization and Islam in Indonesia

Jan. 14    A Modernizing Regime:  Egypt

• The Earl of Cromer: Why Britain Acquired Egypt in 1882
• G 73-9

Jan. 19    A Modernizing Regime:  The Ottoman Empire

• G 79-82

Jan. 21    Iran :  Lead up to a Revolution

• G 82-7, 139-45

Jan. 26     The Young Turks

• The Young Turks: Proclamation for the Ottoman Empire
• G 132-8

Jan. 28     Africa:  Muslims and Europeans in Nigeria

Feb.  2   The First World War

• G 171-85

Feb. 4     The Turkish Secular Republic

·        G 186-96

Feb. 9     Islam and Indian Nationalism

• Gandhi on Home Rule,

Feb. 11     Europe and the Arab Countries between the Wars

Essay on Farmaian book due

·        G 197-205

Feb. 16, 18   STUDY WEEK     

Feb. 23     Palestine and Zionism between the Wars

•  British White Paper of June 1922
•  British White Paper of 1939
• G 206-12

Feb. 25     The Creation of Israel

• Law of Return
• G 212-6

Mar. 2     Anti-Colonialism and Nationalism, 1945-1962

• G 231-46, 271-5

Mar. 4     Muslim Women in the mid-20th century

Mar. 9   Arab Nationalism 1956-67

•  Tahâ Hussein: The Future of Culture in Egypt
•  Nasser: Denouncement of the Proposal for a Canal Users' Association

Mar. 11     From the Six-Day War to the Egyptian-Israeli Peace

Mar. 16  Lebanon and the Gulf in the 1970s

·        G 247-56

Mar. 18     The Iranian Revolution

•  Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900-89): The Uprising of Khurdad 15, 1979
• G 282-90

Mar. 23    Immediate Consequences of the Iranian Revolution

• Hamas Covenant 1988
• G 290-303

Mar. 25  The Gulf War, 1991

Mar. 30   Israel and Palestine in the 1990s

•   G 278-81
• Oslo Accords of 1993

Apr.  1     Events since September 2000

Essay on Edwards book due

·        G 266-70