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Introduction to Islam

RLGS 3500
Winter 2011

Professor Andrea L. Stanton


Office: Sturm Hall 166 ~ Phone: 303.871.3503 ~ Email: andrea.stanton@du.edu
T.A.: Patrick Bowen ~ Email: patrick.bowen@du.edu

Sturm Hall 310 – MW 12:00-1:50


Office Hours: Monday 3:00-4:00 ~ Tuesday 3:00-4:00 ~ by appointment as needed

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.

This course will help students


• Understand the early history of Islam and its close connection with Judaism and Christianity
• Understand the basic theological principles and ritual practices of Sunni and Shi`a Islam
• Understand the internal diversity of Islam, including Sunni, Shi`a, and Sufi approaches, and
consider the impact that accepting rather than rejecting this diversity has had on Islam
• Understand the ways in which Islam as a singular, universal religion has connected to particular
cultures around the world, creating a set of ‘Islamic cultures’ with distinctive political and societal
practices and artistic and architectural expressions
• Understand the importance of the ‘Islam of every believer’ trend since the 18th century
• Understand the multiple meanings of ‘fundamentalism’ and the complexity of reform and revival
movements today
• Connect with American Muslims in the Denver community

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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.

Class Expectations: Assignments and Related Issues:


• Late assignments are not accepted. Extensions may be approved on a case-by-case basis if
requested in advance. Multiple extensions, either for the same assignment or for different
assignments, will not be given.
• You are expected to cite and attribute your sources on all formal written work (reading responses
may use parenthetic page citation), using the Chicago style. Plagiarism – using someone else’s
work, words, or ideas without attribution – of any kind is not accepted and is a violation of the
University honor code. If you are unsure about citation format or when to cite, please ask me. I
can refer you to the Writing Center or the Chicago Manual of Style, which is available online
through the Writing Center’s “Online Resources” page: http://www.du.edu/writing/resources.htm.

Class sessions: Discussion and Participation


• This course takes a scholarly, analytic perspective. Students are expected to treat one another
collegially and respectfully – even if disagreeing passionately. Students are also expected to treat
subject matter seriously and respectfully.
• Questions and comments are welcome - this is an active learning community. Please feel free to
contribute your responses to the readings, connections you see between course material and what
you may have learned or experienced elsewhere, and questions. You also contribute by actively
listening to your colleagues, and by responding to them in and outside of class.

Grading
Undergraduate students will be graded according to their performance as follows:

20% - Weekly learning log

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10% - Attendance
20% - Site visit
25% - Midterm exam
25% - Final exam

Graduate students will be graded according to their performance as follows:

20% - Weekly learning log


15% - Site visit
10% - Attendance
20% - Midterm exam
10% - Investigative paper proposal
25% - Investigative paper

Weekly learning log


Students are to contribute one entry per week to the “Weekly Learning Log” section of Blackboard, by
11:00 pm each Thursday. Each entry should be roughly one page (260-300 words) and should address the
following questions, with roughly one paragraph for each:
1) What was the most significant thing you learned this week (fact, idea, argument, concept, etc.)?
2) What activities helped you learn this week (reading, note-taking, discussing an idea or issue with a
friend, daydreaming on the treadmill, reading a blog post, listening to a song, etc.)?
3) What hindered your learning this week (tech issues in the classroom, unfamiliar terms in a
reading, last minute work, etc.)? * AND * What will you do to help address this issue for next
week?

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 midterm will take place in class on Wednesday, February 9.

Final Exam (undergraduate students only)


The final 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 bring together 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. This will be a closed book exam, although we will create a collaborative online study guide in
the weeks before the exam.

The final exam will take place Tuesday, March 10, at 10:00 am, in Sturm 492.

Investigative paper (graduate students only)


Graduate students will not take the final exam, but will instead write a 10-12-page paper that investigates
some aspect of Islam and/or the Muslim world, past or present. Students may choose a topic that interests
them – which might range from a consideration of medieval Muslim philosophy to a study of one
particular Sufi group, or from an examination of the social geography of Mecca to comparative notions of
ritual puity in Islam and the other Abrahamic faiths, or from a close analysis of one particular sura to a
study of contemporary issues in Denver’s Muslim communities. The options are many – but students
must receive written approval from the professor for their chosen topic.

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. ***

I. ORIGINS & EARLY GROWTH

Week I (Jan 3): Welcome & Pre-Islamic Near East

Monday: Welcome and course overview


Review syllabus

Handouts: al-Fatiha (Arabic / English)

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

Recitation of Sura 96: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elIV1SKktH0

Wednesday: The Late Antique Near East


Jonathan Berkey, “The Near East Before Islam”, in The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the
Near East (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003) 10-53

“Poems from the Jahiliya”, translated by Abdullah al-Udhari, in the Index on Censorship 27:2 (1998), 71-
76

Week II (Jan 10): Revelation, Early Islam, and the figure of Muhammad

Monday: The Origins of Islam


John Esposito, “Muhammad and the Qur’an: Messenger and Message”, in Islam: The Straight Path, 1-32

Berkey, “The Emergence of Islam, 600-750”, 57-75

Graduate Students: Annemarie Schimmel, “Biographical and Hagiographical Notes”, in And


Muhammad is His Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety (University of North
Carolina Press, 1985), 9-23

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

Week III (Jan 17):

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

Wednesday: Qur’an, Hadith, and Law: Scholarship and Interpretation

Schimmel, “The Qur’an and Its Teachings”, 29-50

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

Week IV (Jan 24): Lived Islam

Monday: Islam in Practice: Sufism


Berkey, “Sufism”, 231-248

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-
51

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)

Wednesday: Islam in Practice: Hajj


Ibn Battuta, “Mecca”, in The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century,
translated by Ross E. Dunn (University of California Press, 1989), 65-80

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

“Inside Mecca” (2003), National Geographic, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFQHgdmJqjo (50


minutes)

Site visit report due at the start of class, in hard copy

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Week V (Jan 31): Islam in culture and politics

Monday: Islam in Culture: Art, Architecture, and Science


Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom, “Art and Architecture: Themes and Variations”, in The Oxford
History of Islam, 215-268

“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

Wednesday: Islam in Politics: Governance and Justice


Lapidus, “The Collective Ideal”, 147-155

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

Week VI (Feb 7): Islamo-Christian Civilization and Midterm

Monday: A new paradigm?


Richard W. Bulliet, The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization (Columbia University Press, 2004), 1-46

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

Wednesday: Modernism: Al-Afghani, Abduh, Khan

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

Sayyid Ahmad Khan, “Lecture on Islam”, in Modernist Islam, 291-303

Graduate students: one-page proposal due Friday, February 18 by 5:00 pm, by email

Week VIII (Feb 21): 20th century movers and shakers

Monday: Sayyid Qutb and the Muslim Brotherhood


Gilles Kepel, “Signposts”, in Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and the Pharaoh (University of
California Press, 2003), 36-69

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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

Wednesday: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the Iranian Revolution

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

“I Knew Khomeini”, Al Jazeera International, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA22431spOk

V. GLOCALIZATION & TRANS-NATIONALISM

Week IX (Feb 28): Challenges: Muslims as minority populations and radicalism

Monday: Muslim Minorities


Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, “The Return of Muslims to the West”, in The Oxford History of Islam, 601-640

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

Wednesday: Radicalism Today

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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

“The Mix Tapes of Osama bin Laden” (http://chronicle.com/article/Audio-The-Mix-Tapes-of-


Osama/63722/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en), Chronicle of Higher Education, 1.24.10

Anwar al-Awlaki, “Allah is Preparing us for Victory”, transcribed by ‘Amatullah’ and edited by ‘Mujahid
fe Sabeelillah’, no date

“Malaysia: Whose God?”, 101 East, Al Jazeera International


(http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/101east/2010/01/201011475248103442.html)

Week X (Mar 7):

Monday: American Muslims today


“Revealing Ramadan”, Speaking of Faith, 9.10.09,
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/ramadan/ (~1 hr listening time)

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

Wednesday: New Approaches to Personal Piety


Amina Wadud, “Introduction: How Perceptions of Women Influence Interpretation of the Qur’an” and
“In the Beginning, Man and Women Were Equal: Human Creation in the Qur’an”, in Qur’an and
Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective (New York: Oxford University Press,
1999), 1-28

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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