Lecture Subjects and Reading Assignments
Wednesday, August 27-Friday, September 26
The Middle East in Perspective: In the shadow of three Gulf wars, the Arab Israeli Conflict, Arab Spring, the shadow of nuclear weapons, and the rise of al-Qa'ida.
Jerusalem/Al-Quds, One Hundred Years After
Defining the Middle East
The Problem of Transliteration and Pronunciation
Physical Features
A Region of Contrasts
The Peoples of the Middle East
The Problem of Demography
The Pre-Islamic Middle East and the Coming of Muhammad
The Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula during Jahiliya
The Prophet Muhammad
Islam
Al-Qur'an
Articles of Practice: Ibadat and the Articles of Belief: Iman
The Constitution of Medina: The Umma
Muhammad’s Death: The Constitutional Crisis
Orthodoxy vs. Heterodoxy in Islam: Shi’ism
Readings
Aslan, Preface, Prologue, and Chapters 1-3
Monday, September 29-Friday, October 31
The Caliphate (632-1258)
The Orthodox Caliphate
The Arab Conquests and Empire
The Umayyad and the Abbasid Dynasties
The Crusades and Islamic Jihad
The Mongol Invasions
The Mamluk Dynasty
Arab and Islamic Civilization
Baghdad, Damascus, Alexandria, and Cordoba and the World of the Arabian Nights
Islamic Law: the shari’a
Classical Islamic Political Thought
The Philosophical and Legal Debate
Readings
”Aslan, Chapters 4, 5, and 6
Monday, November 3-Friday, November 21
The Later Empires
The Ottoman Empire (and Dracula too)
-Ottoman Expansion
-Ottoman Government: The Sultanate
-The Pivot of History: Sulayman the Magnificent
¬Safavid Iran
-The Beginning of the Modern Iranian Nation and State
-A Modern Marriage of Religion, Nation and State
The Impact of the West
Napoleon and the Islamic East
European Imperialism
Early Reactions to the West
Readings
Aslan, Chapters 7 and 8
Monday, December 1-Friday, December 5
Contemporary Developments in The Middle East
World War I, the Collapse of the Ottoman Empire
Modern States and Governments
-Traditional Monarchies
-Secular Revolutionary Republics
-Islamic Revolutionary Republics
The Arab-Israeli Conflict...the fractured peace process.
Islamic Fundamentalism or Revivalism
Terrorism: Usama ibn Ladin and al-Qa’ida, and ISIS/Da'ish
The Three Gulf Wars and the Prospects for a Fourth
The Arab Spring and After: al-Qa'ida, ISIS/Da'ish, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, the Gaza crisis and the future of a two-state solution, and the issue of nuclear weapons and Iran
Epilog- Jerusalem/Al-Quds, One Hundred Years After
Conclusions
Readings
Aslan, Chapters 9 and 10
The Middle East, Chapters I, 3, 6, 7, 8.