History 381 Islam and the West: Mutual Views Rudi Matthee Fall 2007 TTh 3:30-4:45 Purnell 236 223 Munroe Hall Office Hrs: Tu Th: 1-2 matthee@udel.edu Phone: 571-438-8505

For printable syllabus in Word Format.

HIST 381-010

Islam and the West: Mutual Views

Web address: www.udel.edu/History/matthee

R. Matthee

Fall 2007

TTh 3:30-4:15 Office: 232 MUNROE

Office Hrs TTh 1:00-2:00 matthee@juno.com

An admixture of fear, suspicion and fascination has long marked mutual views between the Western, mostly Christian, world and the world of Islam. This course examines the expression of these views, and traces their evolution over time in light of military aggression, commercial expansion, travel and discovery. We will see how “our” current anxieties about Muslim terrorism and “their” resentment of the West originated in medieval religious polemics, how they perpetuate the imagery of otherness created during the Crusades and the Ottoman conquest of southeastern Europe, and how in modern times they have been influenced by colonialism and Zionism. But we will also see how until the onset of modern times with its increasingly rigid ethnic and religious boundaries, the differences we now think are crucial mattered much less to people in the (Islamic) Middle East. We will learn how mutual fear and suspicion are intertwined with the lure of the other, how Westerners at various times have found themselves drawn to the “exotic” Orient as a form of escapism, while Muslims have long been ambivalent about the West and its symbols, seduced by its promise of modernity and (political) freedom, and repelled by the void created by that same freedom

Required readings (at the UD bookstore):

Bernard Lewis, The Muslim Discovery of Europe. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1982.

Alexander Lyon Macfie, Orientalism: A Reader. New York: New York University Press, 2000.

Robert Irwin, Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and its Discontents. Woodstock and New York: Overlook Press, 2006.

Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit, Occidentalism: A short History of Anti-Westernism. New York: Atlantic Books, 2005.

Reserve Reading List:

Aziz al-Azmeh, “Barbarians in Arab Eyes,” Past and Present 134 (1992): 3-18.

Richard Eaton, “(Re)Imag(in)ing Other²ness: A Postmortem for the Postmodern in

India,” Journal of World History 11 (2000): 57-77.

S. Amanda Eurich, “Secrets of the Seraglio: Harem Politics and the Rhetoric of

Imperialism in the Travels of Sir Jean Chardin,” in Glenn J. Ames and Ronald S. Love, eds., Distant Lands and Diverse Cultures: The French Experience in Asia, 1600-1700. Westport: Praeger, 2003, pp. 47-70.

Ulrich Haarmann, “The Mamluk System of Rule in the Eyes of Western Travellers,” Mamluk

Studies Review 5 (2001): 1-24.

Thierry Hentsch, Imagining the Middle East. Trans. From the French. Montreal: Black

Rose Books, 1992.

Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993): 22-49.

Ivan Davidson Kalmar, “Benjamin Disraeli, Romantic Orientalist,” Comparative Studies

In Society and History (2005): 348-371.

Lelyveldt, “All Suicide Bombers are not Alike.” New York Times Magazine Oct.28, 2001): 49-

53, 62, 78

Bernard Lewis, Muslims and Jews, chap. 5 of Semites & Anti-Semites (New York and London;

Norton, 1986), pp. 117-139.

John M. MacKenzie, “Orientalism in Art,” chap. 3 of John M. MacKenzie, Orientalism: History,

Theory and the Arts (Manchester University Press, 1995), pp. 43-70.

Muhsin Mahdi, “Orientalism and the Study of Islamic Philosophy,” Journal of Islamic Studies 1

(1990): 73-98.

Rudi Matthee, “Between Aloofness and Fascination: Safavid View of the West.” Iranian

Studies 31 (1998): 219-246.

Rudi Matthee, “Between Sympathy and Enmity: Nineteenth-Century Iranian Views of the British

and the Russians.” In Beate Eschment and Hans Harder, eds., Looking at the Coloniser: Cross-Cultural Perceptions in Central Asia and the Caucasus, Bengal, and Related Areas. Würzburg: Ergon, 2004, pp. 311-338.

Kamakshi Mutri, “Germany’s ‘Orient’: Discursive Alliances of the Philosopher, Historian, and

Fiction Writer.” In Balachandar Rajan and Elizabeth Sauer, eds., Imperialisms: Historical and Literary Investigations, 1500-1900. New York: Palgrave, 2004, pp. 219-235.

Nissim Rejwan, “Islam and Judaism: Cultural Relations and Interaction through the

Ages.” John Bunzl, Islam, Judaism and the Political role of Religions in the Middle East. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004, pp. 28-60.

Paul Stevens, “England in Moghul India: Historicizing Cultural Difference and Its Discontents.”

In Balachandar Rajan and Elizabeth Sauer, eds., Imperialisms: Historical and Literary Investigations, 1500-1900. New York: Palgrave, 2004, pp. 75-92.

Kathryn Tidrick, Heart Beguiling Araby: The English Romance with Arabia (London:

I.B. Tauris, 1981; 2^nd edn. 1989.

Lucette Valensi, Venice and the Sublime Porte: The Birth of the Despot. Trans. from the

Italian. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1993.

Andrew Wheatcroft, “Learning to Hate,” Ch. 10 of Andrew Wheatcroft, Infidels: A History of

the Conflict Between Christendom and Islam (New York: Random House, 2004), pp. 222-240.

Exams and Papers:

There will be take-home midterm exams 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 12-15 page paper, based on a historical topic of your choice, approved by Professor 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.

Attendance:

Two unexcused absences at the sections are allowed. After that, each unexcused absence will lower your grade one step, i.e. a B+ becomes a B, and B- becomes a C+ etc. Five or more unexcused absences will result in an F.

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 Encyclopaedia 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: Origins and Early Expansion of Islam

Readings: Irwin, Dangerous Knowledge, pp. 1-18

Week Three: (Sept. 11-13)

Lecture topic: The Medieval Interaction: Commerce and Crusades

Readings: Irwin, Dangerous Knowledge, pp. 19-53

Al-Azmeh, “Barbarians in Arab Eyes.”

Haarmann, “The Mamluk System of Rule.”

Week Four: (Sept. 18-20)

Lecture Topic: Lecture topic: Changing Perceptions: The Renaissance

Readings: Irwin, Dangerous Knowledge, pp. 54-81.

Hentsch, Imagining the Middle East, pp. 81-118 (Res.).

Valensi, Venice and the Sublime Porte, pp. 31-44; 89-96 (Res.).

Lewis, Muslim Discovery, pp. 1-57

Week Five: (Sept. 27) (no class on Sept. 24)

Lecture Topic: Islam’s View of Christianity and Judaism

Readings: Rejwan, “Islam and Judaism” (Res.)

Lewis, Muslim Discovery, pp. 59-133

Matthee: “Between Aloofness and Fascination” (Res.)

Lewis: “Muslims and Jews” pp. 134-277

Week Six: (Oct. 2-4)

Lecture Topic: Islam’s Views of Christianity and Judaism, cont’d

Readings: Matthee, “Between Sympathy and Enmity” (Res.).

Week Seven: (Oct. 11) (no class on Oct. 9)

Lecture topic: Orientalism, 17^th-19^th c.

Readings: Irwin, Dangerous Knowledge, pp. 82-140

Eurich, “Secrets of the Seraglio” (Res.)

Macfie, Orientalism, pp. 1-34

Stevens, “England in Moghul India” (Res.)

Wheatcroft, “Learning to Hate” (Res.)

Week Nine (Oct. 16-18)

Lecture topic: Orientalism cont’d

Readings: Macfie, Orientalism, pp. 47-85

Irwin, Dangerous Knowledge, pp. 141-188

MacKenzie, “Orientalism in Art.”

Kalmar, “Benjamin Disraeli.”

Week Ten: (Oct. 23-25)

Lecture Topic: Orientalism, 20^th c.

Readings: Macfie, Orientalism, pp. 89-119, 181-216

Irwin, Dangerous Knowledge, 189-276

Mutri, “Germany’s ‘Orient’ (Res.)

Tidrick, Heart-Beguiling Araby, epilogue (Res.)

Week Eleven: (Oct. 30-Nov. 1)

Lecture Topic: Orientalism, 20^th C., cont’d

Documentary: “Edward Said on Orientalism”

Readings: Macfie, Orientalism, pp. 123-177

Irwin, Dangerous Knowledge, pp. 277-309

Huntington, “Clash of Civilizations?” (Res.)

Week Twelve: (Nov. 6-8)

Lecture Topic: Orientalism, 20^th c., cont’d

Readings: Macfie, Orientalism, pp. 216-377

Eaton, “(Re)Imag(in)ing Other²ness.” (Res.)

Week Thirteen and Fourteen: (Nov. 13-Dec. 5) (no class on Nov. 20)

Lecture Topic: Current Muslim View of the West

Readings: Buruma and Margalit, Occidentalism

Hoffmann “Why They Don’t Like Us” (Res.)

Irwin, Dangerous Knowledge, pp. 310-330