RLGS 3500
Winter 2011
This course introduces students to the history, faith, practice, culture(s), and politics of Islam, starting
with the rich Judeo-Christian Near Eastern context in which it emerged and tracing its theological
development and geographic spread around the world. Proceeding thematically along a broad historical
frame, it ends with an examination of the numerous, often competing, trends in contemporary Muslim
communities.
The first section covers the origins and early growth of Islam, including the question of whether the
early success of the Medinan Muslim community established a paradigm of earthly success indicating
God’s favor. The next section addresses the institutionalization of Islam’s doctrines and practices in the
medieval period, including alternative approaches like Sufism, and considers the impact of Islam’s
emergence as a global religion starting in the early modern period. The third considers the
democratization of Islam – the attempt to locate religious authority in individual believers rather than
religious professionals, which started in the 1700s with Abd al-Wahhab (the founder of Wahhabism) and
introduced reform and revival efforts that continue today. The final section introduces students to
contemporary issues in the Muslim world: the challenges for Muslim-minority populations, radical trends,
American Muslim society, and recent approaches to personal expressions of piety.
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• Consider the various approaches to faith and practice that today’s Muslims take
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Reading Load:
• The reading load will vary somewhat from week to week. Some of it will be gripping; some of it
will not. Some of it will be easy to follow; some will be more challenging. All of it is important
for this course.
• Reading material is available online whenever possible.
• Your reading comprehension will be markedly improved by taking some kind of notes: anything
from a detailed accounting of the reading to a short list of key words, names, and phrases. You
will be expected to come to each class session with at least two questions or comments, which you
may be asked to provide.
• There will be several non-reading assignments throughout the semester, including films to watch
and websites to visit. These are also important assignments; you might consider taking notes for
them as well.
Grading
Undergraduate students will be graded according to their performance as follows:
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10% - Attendance
20% - Site visit
25% - Midterm exam
25% - Final exam
Attendance
This class meets at 12:00 PM sharp. Students are expected to arrive on time and to give a reasonable
impression of being awake and engaged. If this is your preferred afternoon naptime, please feel free to
bring coffee, tea, water, etc. If you need lunch, please feel free to bring a sandwich, etc.
Students are expected to attend all class sessions. In the unlikely event of a necessary absence, you must
email as soon as possible and preferably well in advance, which will indicate your commitment to the
course. Your email must also include a plan for making up the missed class.
More than two absences will leave you at risk of a reduced grade. Arriving late more than once will
also leave you at risk of a reduced grade.
Mobile phones are to be OFF or SILENT and put away. If you text, email, or chat online while in
class, you will be marked absent.
Laptops may only be used for note taking. No chatting or other Internet use is allowed, unless
authorized by the professor for small group work. You will be marked absent for each suspected
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instance of unauthorized use.
Site visit
As part of the requirements for completing this course, students will visit a mosque or other Muslim
religious space and/or attend a religious event (e.g., an iftar, a Qur’an memorization celebration, etc.).
After the visit, students will submit a two-page description of the site/event and assessment of their
experience. Students will be provided with a sheet outlining specific guidelines and potential avenues of
analysis in class.
The site visit report is due Wednesday, January 26, at the start of class.
Midterm exam
The midterm exam will be drawn half from assigned readings and half from lectures. It will consist of
shorter and longer essay questions that require students to synthesize course content (specific pieces of
information) and themes (broader ways of categorizing and making sense of information). There will be
no multiple-choice questions, no extra credit, and no make-up exams except as required by University
regulations.
The final exam will take place Tuesday, March 10, at 10:00 am, in Sturm 492.
Students will submit a one-page proposal of approximately 300 words on February 18, with one
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paragraph introducing their topic, one paragraph explaining what they hope to communicate, explain,
analyze, or argue, and one paragraph outlining their research process (where they will look for sources,
what kind of sources they will use, what limitations or challenges they anticipate, etc.).
The one-page proposal is due Friday, February 18, by 5:00 pm, by email.
Students will meet with the professor to discuss their proposals the week of February 28. Please sign
up for 15-minute sessions to be held during this week’s office hours or another mutually agreed
time.
The investigative paper is due Tuesday, March 10, at 10:00 am, by email or hard copy to Sturm
492, where the undergraduate exam will take place. Late papers will be marked down by 40%.
TEXTS USED
Required Text:
Jonathan Berkey, The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2003)
CLASS SCHEDULE
*** Note: Syllabus is subject to change. Students are expected to keep abreast of
additions/amendments to assigned readings and class session themes. ***
Michael Sells, “Commentary” (on the Fatiha), in Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations
(Ashland: White Cloud Press, 1999), 42
Sells, “Introduction”, “Sura 53”, and “Sura 96”, 1-5, 44-47, and 96-99
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Recitation of Sura 53: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q8NDkjI1n0
“Poems from the Jahiliya”, translated by Abdullah al-Udhari, in the Index on Censorship 27:2 (1998), 71-
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Week II (Jan 10): Revelation, Early Islam, and the figure of Muhammad
Wednesday: Muhammad
The Message (1976), directed by Moustapha Akkad, excerpts
*** One copy will be on reserve at the library; also available online
Schimmel, “The Celebration of the Prophet’s Birthday”, in And Muhammad is His Messenger, 144-158
II. INSTITUTIONALIZATION
Monday: The Growth of Islam: From the Arab World to South and Central Asia
Berkey, “The Emergence of Islam, 600-750”, 76-109
Esposito, “The Muslim Community in History”, in Islam: The Straight Path, 33-60
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Ira Lapidus, “Muslim Communities and Middle Eastern Societies”, in A History of Islamic Societies
(Cambridge University Press, 1988), 133-146
William Shepard, “The Prophet Muhammad: The Best of All Creation”, and “To Know God’s Will:
Islamic Law”, in Introducing Islam (New York: Routledge, 2009), 71-79 and 125-137
Graduate students: Mohammad Hashim Kamali, “Law and Society: The Interplay of Revelation and
Reason in the Shariah”, in The Oxford History of Islam, edited by John L. Esposito (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1999), 107-154
Farid al-Din Attar, “Habib al-Ajami” and “Rabe`a al-Adawiya”, in Muslim Saints and Mystics: Episodes
from the Tadhkirat al-Auliya’, translated by A.J. Arberry (Penguin, 1990) (Islamic Book Trust, 2009), 32-
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The Book of Sufi Chivalry: Lessons to a Son of the Moment, Muhammad Ibn al-Husayn al-Sulami,
translated by Tosun Bayrak (New York: Inner Traditions, 1983), Introduction, Isnad, Part I, Part II (16-
63)
Graduate students: Marina Tolmacheva, “Female Piety and Patronage in the Medieval Hajj”, in Women
in the Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Patronage, and Piety, edited by Gavin R.G.
Hambly (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998), 161-180
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Week V (Jan 31): Islam in culture and politics
“Islam and Science” (2009), BBC, Part 1 “The Language of Science”, http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=-3342750741448358648# or http://sciencereligionnews.blogspot.com/2009/01/science-and-islam-
part-1-language-of.html
Graduate students: “Two Iranian World Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca”, David
A. King, in Imago Mundi, Vol. 49 (1997), 62-82
Linda Darling, “‘Do Justice, Do Justice, For That is Paradise’: Middle Eastern Advice for Indian Muslim
Rulers”, in Comparative Studies of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, 2002 22 (1-2), 3-14
Shaun E. Marmon, “Domestic Slavery in the Mamluk Empire”, in Slavery in the Islamic Middle East
(Princeton: M. Wiener, 1999) 1-24
Graduate students: J.O. Hunwick, “Islamic Law and Polemics Over Race and Slavery in North and
West Africa” in Slavery in the Islamic Middle East, 43-68
Wednesday: MIDTERM
IV. DEMOCRATIZATION
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Week VII (Feb 14): Reform and Renewal, 1700s-1800s
Monday: Ahmad Dallal. "The Origins and Objectives of Islamic Revivalist Thought, 1750-1850."
Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993): 341-359
John O Voll, "Renewal and Reform in Islamic History: Tajdid and Islah", Voices of Resurgent Islam, ed.
John L Esposito. New York: Oxford UP, 1983: 32-47
Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad, Natana DeLong-Bas (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2004), “Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the Origins of Wahhabism: the Eighteenth-
Century Context”, 7-40
Suggested: Ibn Ali, “Why Am I a Moslem?” in The North American Review, Vol. 146, No. 377 (April
1888), 379-89
Graduate students: Rudolph Peters, "Idjtihad and Taqlid in 18th and 19th Century Islam", in Die Welt
des Islams, Vol. 20 (1980): 131-45
Charles Kurzman, “Introduction”, in Modernist Islam: A Sourcebook, edited by Charles Kurzman (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 3-27
Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, “Lecture on Teaching and Learning” and “Answer to Renan”, in
Modernist Islam, 103-110
Muhammad `Abduh, “Laws Should Change in Accordance with the Conditions of Nature” and “The
Theology of Unity”, in Modernist Islam, 50-60
Graduate students: one-page proposal due Friday, February 18 by 5:00 pm, by email
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Ronald Nettler “A Modern Islamic Confession of Faith and Conception of Religion: Sayyid Qutb’s
Introduction to the Tafsir, fi Zilal al-Qur’an”, in British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1
(1994), 102-114
Suggested: William E. Shepard, “Islam as a ‘System’ in the Later Writings of Sayyid Qutb”, in Middle
Eastern Studies Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan 1989), 31-50
Graduate students: Ira M. Lapidus, “Islamic Revival and Modernity: The Contemporary Movements
and the Historical Paradigms”, in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 40, No.
4 (199), 444-460
Ervand Abrahamian, “The Islamic Republic”, in A History of Modern Iran (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2008), 155-195
Ruhollah Khomeini, “Section 2: The Necessity for Islamic Government” through “Both reason and divine
law then …”, in Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist, translated by Hamid Algar,
http://www.al-islam.org/islamicgovernment/
“Five Mystical Ghazals by the Ayatollah Khomeini”, in Iranian Studies, Vol. 30, nos. 3-4 (Summer/Fall
1997), 273-276
Kristen Ghodsee, “Men, Mine, and Mosques: Gender and Islamic Revivalism on the Edge of Europe”
(Occasional Paper, Bowdoin College School of Social Science, 2007)
“Islam in the Land of the Rising Sun”, Road to Hajj, Al Jazeera International,
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/hajj/2009/11/2009111011825150196.html
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Henry Munson, “Islam, Nationalism, and Resentment of Foreign Domination,” in Middle East Policy,
Summer 2003, Vol. 10, No. 2, 40-53
Anwar al-Awlaki, “Allah is Preparing us for Victory”, transcribed by ‘Amatullah’ and edited by ‘Mujahid
fe Sabeelillah’, no date
Edward Grazda and Jerrilyn Dodds, New York Masjid (New York: Powerhouse Books, 2002), excerpts
Dilara, Imran, and Yasmine Hafiz, “How to Pray: A Step-by-Step Guide”, “Halal and Haram: Can I go to
McDonald’s?,” “Cultural Confusion: Examples of ‘Muslim’ Culture”, and “Peer Pressure: Don’t Worry, I
Feel it, too” in The American Muslim Teenager’s Handbook (Acacia Publishing, 2007), 27-36, 73-80,
101-110, and 115-122
Salwa Ismail, “Islamism, Re-Islamization and the Fashioning of Muslim Selves: Refiguring the Public
Sphere”, in Muslim World Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 4, issue 1 (2007), 1-21
Graduate students: Lindsay Wise, “Amr Khaled: Broadcasting the Nahda”, in Transnational
Broadcasting Studies, Vol. 13 (Fall 2004), available at:
http://www.tbsjournal.com/Archives/Fall04/wiseamrkhaled.html
Website: http://halalify.org/
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The final exam will take place Tuesday, March 10, at 10:00 am, in Sturm 492.
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