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History 130
History of the Islamic Middle East, 600-1500
Rudi Matthee
Fall 2007
TTh 11:00-12:15 Kirkbride 004
223 Munroe Hall
Office Hrs: Tu Th: 1-2
matthee@udel.edu
Phone: 571-438-8505
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For printable syllabus in Word Format.
HIST 130-010
SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE NEAR
EAST
FROM THE RISE OF ISLAM TO
1500 CE
Web address: www.udel.edu/History/matthee
R. Matthee
T.A.: David Azartouz
Fall
2007
TTh
11:00-12:15 Office:
232 MUNROE
Office
Hrs TTh. 1:00-2:00 matthee@juno.com
This course is a survey of the background and circumstances
of the rise of Islam, the creation of the Islamic Empire, and the subsequent
political, social, economic, and religious history of Islamic western Asia and
North Africa until the rise of the so-called gunpowder
states, the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires in ca. 1500. Lectures,
discussion, reading. Take-home mid-term, term paper, and a final.
Required readings (at the UD bookstore):
Malise Ruthven, A Very
Short Introduction to Islam.
Oxford:
Oxford
University
Press, 2004.
Vernon
O. Egger, A History of the Muslim World
to 1405: The Making of a Civilization.
Upper Saddle River,
NJ:
Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004.
Ross E. Dunn, The Travels of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim
Traveler of the Fourteenth Century.
Berkeley:
University of
California Press, 2004.
Reserve readings: (at the library reserve desk and on-line).
Exams and Papers:
There will be take-home midterm
exams on Sept. 27--due on Oct. 2, and Oct. 4--due on Oct. 19, and a two-hour
in-class final exam as scheduled for this course (TBA). The final is not
cumulative, even though there is no harm in retaining what you've learned in
the first part of the course. A 10-12 page paper, based on a historical topic
of your choice, approved by Prof. Rudi Matthee, is due on Nov. 27. You should
have a one-page summary of the proposed topic, with bibliography, ready by Nov.
1 to present for approval.
All work must be done on time; no incompletes are
given except in cases of major disaster.
Grades in the course will be based on the following:
1.
Midterm examination 20%
2.
Final examination 30%
3.
Term paper 40%
4. Class attendance and
participation 10%
Research tools: (all in the reference section of the
library)
The Encyclopedia of Islam. Excellent resource on all
aspects of Islam and Middle Eastern history.
Encyclopaedia Iranica. Only up to the letter j.
The Encyclopedia of Religion.
Lecture and Reading Schedule:
Week One and Two: (Aug. 28-Sept. 6)
Lecture
topic: Introduction: The study of religion; Islam as an object of study;
Beginnings of Islam
Readings:
Vernon, pp. 1-32.
Week Three: (Sept. 11-13)
Lecture topic: The Prophet and his Message: Doctrine and
Ritual
Readings:
Ruthven.
Goitein, “Ramadan” (reserve)
Week Four: (Sept. 18-20)
Lecture
Topic: Lecture topic: Expansion and Succession: The Arab Conquests and the
Rightly-guided Caliphs
Readings:
Vernon, pp. 33-47.
Partner, “Islam and War” (reserve)
Week Five: (Sept. 25-27)
Lecture Topic: The Umayyad Caliphate
Readings:
Vernon, pp. 47-61.
Week Six: (Oct. 2-4)
Lecture Topic: Religious Trends and Divisions
Readings:
Vernon, pp. 62-84.
Crone: “Nine-Century Muslim Anarchists” (reserve).
Week Seven: (Oct. 9-11)
Lecture topic: Cosmopolitan Islam: The `Abbasid Caliphate
Readings:
Vernon, pp. 85-113.
Lapidus: “The Separation of State and Religion” (reserve).
Dunn, Adventures of Ibn Battuta, first
half.
Week Eight (Oct. 16-18)
Lecture Topic: The
Fatimid Caliphate and Islamic
Spain
Readings:
Vernon, pp. 94-113.
Week Nine: (Oct. 23-25)
Lecture topic: Social and Economic and Religious
Conditions and Change
Readings:
Vernon, pp. 114-125.
Kennedy: “From Polis to Madina” (reserve).
Dunn, Adventures of Ibn Battuta, second
half.
Week Ten (Oct.
30-Nov. 1)
Lecture Topic: The Post `Abbasid Middle Eastern State
System; the Seljuqs
Documentary: “The Glories of Islamic Art”
Readings:
Vernon, pp. 139-171.
Week Eleven: (Nov. 6-8)
Lecture Topic: Barbarians
at the Gate: Crusades, Mongols
Readings:
Vernon, pp. 172-198.
Barfield, “Tribe and State Relations” (reserve).
Week Twelve: (Nov. 13-15)
Lecture Topic: The
Personal Ethic: Sufism
Readings:
Vernon, pp. 199-228.
Week Thirteen and Fourteen: (Nov. 27-Dec. 5) (no class on
Nov. 20)
Lecture Topic: The
Muslim
Commonwealth
Readings:
Vernon,
pp. 229-289.