How to Teach Islam:

 

Historical and Pedagogic Issues in Islamic Civilizations

RLAR 738?

MESAS 570R-000

HIST 585

 

Gordon D. Newby

Spring, 2007:  Wednesday 1:00 - 4:00

 

This course is designed for graduate students who wish to learn about Islamic civilizations in their historical contexts as a basis for further study of Islam, for comparative purposes, and in particular to become prepared to offer undergraduate lectures on Islam or to offer an undergraduate survey course on the history of Islamic civilizations.  By the end of the course, each student will be familiar with the origins and development of Islam, its spread worldwide, and the major methodological and historiographic issues involved in studying Islam in a historical and geographic context.  For each topic and period, students will receive a general overview of the topic, read primary and secondary texts related to the period, and discuss the issues in a seminar setting. In addition, each student will have an opportunity to present an in-depth analysis of one or more topics during the course of the semester. Each presenter or team of presenters will prepare an oral presentation for the seminar discussion of an assigned topic (for examples of weekly assignments, see attached samples).  They will also prepare a final written version of their material in the form of a lesson plan to be distributed to all members of the seminar.  All students will also be involved in preparing an annotated bibliography that will be available to each seminar member.  At the end of the course, each student will have a file of lesson plans, an annotated bibliography, and will have read relevant primary and secondary texts on the major phases of Islamic civilizations.

 

No prior knowledge of Islam or Islamic languages is required.

 

Topics

 

  1. Introduction
    1. Methodology
    2. Teaching a Religious Tradition Not Your Own
    3. Ethnology & linguistics
    4. Geography
  2. The East Mediterranean Before Islam
    1. Religion and Big Power conflicts
    2. Arabia and the conflict of client states
    3. Trade, camels, & Bedouinization
  3. Muhammad and Earliest Islam
    1. Birth and Early Life
    2. First Revelation
    3. The Quran
    4. Makkan Islam
  4. The Medinan State
    1. Hijrah
    2. Conquest of Arabia
    3. MuhammadÕs Praxis
  5. Islam outside Arabia
    1. The Conquest
    2. The Early Caliphs
  6. Heterodoxy and Orthodoxy
    1. Shiism
    2. Kharijism
    3. The Sunni consensus and its Opposition
    4. Arab, Ajam and Dhimmi
  7. Abbasid Compromise
    1. Sharia
    2. Falsafa
    3. Adab, and the Arts
    4. Greek Science and the Islamicate Intellectual Tradition
  8. International Civilization
    1. Slave Soldiers and the Social Order
    2. Sufism
    3. ShuÕubiyyah
    4. Ulama
  9. Muslim Empires
    1. Ottoman, Safavids, & Timurids
    2. Taqlid & Ijtihad
    3. The case of the Wahhabis
  10. The Modern Challenge
    1. The Great Western Transmutation
    2. Women
    3. Family Life
    4. Islamic Modernism
    5. National and Pan-Islam
    6. Tajdid and Islamic ÒFundamentalismÓ
  11. Summary
    1. Review of Major Issues
    2. Review of Pedagogy

 

Sample Topic Assignments

 

Topic 3: MUHAMMAD AND EARLIEST ISLAM

 

  1. Birth and Early Life
  2. First Revelation
  3. The Quran
  4. Makkan Islam

 

Reading Assignment for all students:

 

All students will be expected to read and be prepared to discuss the following items:

 

Alfred Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1955. Pp.

3-218.

Marshall G.S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, vol. 1, Chicago: University of Chicago

Press, 1977, pp. 146-186.

W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Mecca. Oxford: Oxford U. Press, 1965.

Quran, Chapters 1, 2, 12, 96-114.

 

Assignment for Presenters:

 

In addition to the assignment for all students, presenters will be expected to prepare a discussion on the topic of the ÒoriginsÓ of Islam. This topic will include but not be limited to the theories of Jewish, Christian and Pre-Islamic pagan influence on Muhammad and the Quran.

 

Suggested readings:

 

Abraham Geiger, Judaism and Islam. New York: Ktav, 1970.

Richard Bell, The Origins of Islam in its Christian Environment. London: Cass

Reprints, 1968.

Patricia Crone & Michael Cook, Hagarism. Cambridge University Press, 1980.

 

Topic 4: The Medinan State

  1. The Hijrah
  2. The Conquest of Arabia
  3. MuhammadÕs Praxis

 

Reading assignment for all students:

 

All students will be expected to read and be prepared to discuss the following items:

 

            Alfred Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, Karachi: Oxford University Press,

1955. Pp. 220-690.

            Marshall G.S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, vol. 1, Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1977. Pp. 187-230.

            Muhammad B. Jarir at-Tabari, The Last Years of the Prophet: The Formation of

The State, Albany: Suny University Press, SUNY Series in Near Eastern

Studies, vol. 9, pp.

 

Assignment for Presenters:

 

In addition to the assignment for all students, presenters will be expected to prepare a discussion on the topics of the Hijrah, the formation of the political dimension of Islam in Medina, including the question of what was the ÒoriginalÓ Islamic state, and MuhammadÕs religious practice in the Medinan period.  One aspect of the Hijrah that should be included is a typological and structural analysis of the literary representation of the Hijrah.

 

Suggested readings:

 

            Zakaria Bashier, Hijra: Story and Significance. Leicester, U.K.: Islamic

Foundation, 1983.

            Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: Pantheon, 1949.

            W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Medina. Oxford U Press, 1972.

 

Selected Bibliography

 

The following bibliography lists the required textbooks and a sample of general books of interest to students in this course.

 

Textbook assigned for the course:  

       

*Ahmad Ibn Lulu Ibn Al-Naqib (Keller, Noah Ha Mim) Reliance of the Traveller: The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law. Amana Corporation; Revised edition (July 1, 1997). ISBN: 0-915-95772-8.

*Arkoun, Mohammed. Rethinking Islam. Westview Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8133-2294-4 (pbk.)

*Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam 3 volumes.  U. of Chicago Press, 1977.  ISBN vol. 1 0-226-34683-8 (pbk.); vol. 2 0-226-34684-6 (pbk.); vol. 3 0-226-34685-4 (pbk.)

*Humphreys, R. Stephen.  Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry.  Princeton University Press, 1991 (paper)  ISBN 0-691-00856-6 (pbk.)

*Ibn Ishaq (A. Guillaume, trans.) The Life of Muhammad. Oxford U. Press, 2002. ISBN 0-196-36033-1

*Newby, G. D. A Concise Encyclopedia of Islam. Oneworld Press, 2004. ISBN 1-85168-295-3 (pbk.)

*Pickthall, Mohammed M. The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. Plume (Reprint Edition), 1997. ISBN 0-452-01180-9 (pbk.)

*Rippin, A & J. Knappert. Textual Sources for the Study of Islam. U. of Chicago Press, 1990. ISBN 0-226-72063-2 (pbk.)

           

General Supplemental Reading: (This list is an incomplete sample bibliography. As noted above, one of the projects for the class will be to prepare an annotated bibliography for the history of Islam which will be available to members of the Emory community through the MESAS website).

 

Abu-Lughod, Janet, Before European Hegemony, Oxford: Oxford U Press, 1989.

Esposito, John L., Islam: The Straight Path, Oxford: Oxford U Press, 1988.

Goldziher, Ignaz, Muslim Studies, 2 vols., Chicago: Aldine, 1966.

Humphries, Stephen, Islamic History, Princeton, Princeton U. Press, 1991.

Martin, Richard, Islamic Studies: A History of Religions Approach, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; prentice Hall, 1995.

Mortimer, Edward, Faith and Power, New York: Vintage Books, 1982.

Newby, Gordon, A History of the Jews of Arabia, Columbia: U of South Carolina Press,

1989.

Newby, Gordon, The Making of the Last Prophet, Columbia: U of South Carolina Press,

1989.

Newby, Gordon, A Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, Oxford, Oneworld Press, 2002.

Rahman, Fazlur, Islam, Chicago U Press, 1979.

Renard, John, In the Footsteps of Muhammad, New York: Paulist Press, 1992.

Rippin, Andrew and Jan Knappert, Textual Sources for the Study of Islam, Chicago, U. of Chicago Press, 1990.

Rosenthal, Franz, A History of Muslim Historiography, Leiden: Brill, 1968.