History 309: History of Islamic Societies, Origins to 1700

Catholic University of AmericaSpring 2019

Jonathan Parkes Allen

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Meeting Times: Wednesday/Friday 9:40-10:55 a.m.Class Location: Columbus School of Law Room 204

Instructor: Jonathan Parkes Allen Instructor Email: jallen22@umd.edu

Instructor Website: https://umcp.academia.edu/JonathanAllen Course Website: https://thicketandthorp.com/history-of-islamic-societies-history-309

Office Hours: Wednesday 11 a.m.—1:00 p.m. Office Location: Various—check with instructor

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Course Description: This course will survey a vast sweep of the history of Islam and of Islamic societies, starting with the life of Muhammad and ending around 1750. We will explore the nature of Islam as a religion, its formation and development and unfolding in diverse societies and places across a thousand years of history. We will also consider the histories and roles of non-Muslim peoples and societies both within and without what is popularly known as the ‘Islamic world,’ addressing the question of Islam’s cultural and social role and problematizing the description of this history as ‘Islamic.’ Alongside a broad chronological outline of the history of Islam and of Islamic societies, we will explore specific topics: rural life and economy, the creation of Islamic law and jurisprudence, the nature of slavery in Islamic societies, the development of Sufism and Islamic sainthood, forms of popular devotion, the intersection of religion and politics, and many more. Students will complete the course with a better understanding of Islam as a religion and of the dynamic histories of societies and cultures shaped by Islam, as well as the historiographic and political issues and questions that have shaped our study of this history. Visual and material culture will play an important role in lectures, while

students will be exposed to a wide range of primary and secondary literature in discussion sections and in their assigned projects.

Course Assigned Books and Readings: The following texts are required for this course, and can be purchased in either an e-book or physical format. The additional readings will be posted online or otherwise made available in class.

Antony Eastmond, Tamta’s World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Nuwayrī, Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Wahhāb, and Elias Muhanna. The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition: A Compendium of Knowledge from the Classical Islamic World. Penguin Classics; Penguin Classics. New York: Penguin Books, 2016.

Optional textbook: Vernon Egger, A History of the Muslim World to 1750: The Making of a Civilization, Second edition. (New York, NY: Routledge, 2018).

Grading:

In-Class Participation: Vocabulary Quiz: 5%Overall Participation: 5%

Written Assignments:Three Reading Responses: 20%Blog Post: 10%

Final Project:Proposal and Bibliography: 10%Online Components: 15%Final Paper: 35%

Class Participation: Students are required to attend each class and to come to class prepared. Because of the particular nature of this course, class attendance and active participation make up a primary grade component, and cannot be substituted. In case of emergencies or illness, students should contact the instructor immediately. In order to prepare for class, students should complete all readings and assignments, and be prepared to discuss them in class when prompted.

Written Assignments: Students will be given the choice of responding to three sets of weekly readings, briefly summarizing the readings and responding to particular questions about them, to be circulated each week. Students will also be required to write a blog post about a particular example of Islamic art, architecture, or other form of material culture, located using one of the following collections: https://archnet.org/, https://www.metmuseum.org/, https://art.thewalters.org/, https://www.khalilicollections.org/, and https://www.davidmus.dk/en/collections/islamic.

Final Assignment: The final assignment will be a biographical ‘study’ of a particular individual, to be selected from a list of possible subjects (with some potential sources) to be circulated by the instructor. On the model of our assigned text, Tamta’s World, students will not simply write a biography of a given person but will use that person’s life to construct an analysis of particular aspects of historical context, using primary sources, scholarly literature, and evidence from material culture. In addition to the final paper, students will create a digital module supplementing their paper, incorporating material culture, mapping programs, timelines, and other material. Students will also submit a paper proposal and bibliography before commencing work on their project.

Class Etiquette: In addition to coming to class prepared, students are expected to contribute to class discussion in a respectful manner. All students are encouraged to freely share their thoughts and opinions, in a manner respectful of others and of their ideas and thoughts, without monopolizing class discussion. Insulting and disruptive behavior will not be tolerated.

Students should feel free to take notes on laptops, tablets, and other electronic devices with a word processor (preferably a laptop or a tablet equipped with a keyboard). Please do not surf the internet, check Facebook, or live-tweet class, as tempting as the latter option no doubt is. Repeated infractions of this rule will result in the suspension of the use of electronic devices in class, something I’d really like to avoid. Please turn off your cell phones before class. If you have an emergency that requires your phone to be on, please inform me before class and have the phone on vibrate.

Academic Integrity and Honesty: Honest and ethical research is the cornerstone of historical scholarship. Anything that may cause readers to question the methods, sources, or honesty of a historian taints not only the project itself but the reputation of the historian and their future work. Throughout the semester, we will learn how to conduct appropriate research and how to properly cite and credit your sources so as to avoid any inadvertent dishonesty or plagiarism.

Any form of academic dishonesty is taken very seriously and will not be tolerated. Students are expected to produce their own work individually and plagiarism will be dealt with swiftly. Academic dishonesty is defined by the University of Maryland as follows: Any of the following acts, when committed by a student, shall constitute academic dishonesty:

a. Cheating: Intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise.b. Fabrication: Intentional or unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.c. Facilitating Academic Dishonesty: Intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to violate any provision of this Code.d. Plagiarism: Intentionally or knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own in any academic exercise.

Please consult the University of Maryland’s Student Honor Council website for more information: http://shc.umd.edu. If you ever have any questions about how to cite or credit

sources feel free to ask the instructor.

Religious Observance: University policy states that students “should not be penalized because of observances of their religious beliefs: students shall be given an opportunity, whenever feasible, to make up within a reasonable time any academic assignment that is missed due to individual participation in religious observances.”

Academic Support: Please inform the instructor by the third day of class at the latest if you require any special accommodations due to disability. Please make sure that you contact Disability Support Services and complete all required documentation.

Week 1, January 16 th /18 th : Background and the Birth of Islam

Wednesday: The Middle East at the birth of IslamByzantine and Sasanian Empires c. 600Forms of Eastern Christianity, Judaism, and other religionsSedentary and nomadic peoples

Readings: Walker, Joel Thomas. The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. 19-27, 33-42, 48-53.

Friday: Issues in reconstructing ‘the historical Muhammad’The traditional life of Muhammad as described in sīra literatureThe origins and content of the Qur’anThe importance and interpretation of the Qur’an in early Islam

Readings: Ibn Hishām, ʻAbd al-Malik, and Muḥammad ibn Isḥāḳ. The Life of Muhammad. Translated by Alfred Guillaume. London: Oxford University Press, 1955. 79-86, 370-375.

[Optional: Déroche, Francis. “Written transmission.” In Rippin, Andrew. The Blackwell Companion to the Qurʼān. Blackwell Companions to Religion; Blackwell Companions to Religion. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Pub., 2006.]

Excerpts from the Qur’an (to be assigned in class).

Week 2, January 23 rd /25 th : Expansion, Articulation, and Responses

Wednesday: Early Islamic warfare and conquestQuestions of leadership and community boundariesUmmayads and othersThe Dome of the Rock and the beginnings of an Islamic art and architecture

Readings: Rabbat, Nasser. “The Meaning of the Umayyad Dome of the Rock.” In Muqarnas VI: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture, edited by Oleg Grabar. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989.

Friday: Responses to Islam and Islamic response to non-Muslims

Early evaluations of Islam by others—apologetic, polemic, apocalypticThe concept and practice of the dhimmiConversion and counter-conversion—the pace of change?

Readings: Sahas, Daniel J. John of Damascus on Islam: The “Heresy of the Ishmaelites.” Leiden: Brill, 1972.

Week 3, January 30 th /February 1 st : From Umayyads to ‘Abbasids

Wednesday: Fragmentation within the Islamic community, alternative forms of organizationEmerging theological differences—proto-Shi’i and proto-SunniEthnic difference and IslamJihad and other forms of warfareThe ‘Abbasid revolution

Readings: Al-Ṭabarī, The ʻAbbāsid Revolution, translated by John Alden. Williams (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1985).

Friday: The formation of the hadith corpus and the beginnings of Islamic law and jurisprudenceMajor themes of hadith and their useThe ‘piety of the hadith folk’ and early Islamic devotionalism

Readings: Lucas, Scott C. “Major Topics of the Hadith.” Religion Compass 2, no. 2 (2008): 226–39.

The Forty Hadith collection of al-Nawawi: (www.iium.edu.my/deed/hadith/other/hadithnawawi.html)

Week 4, February 6 th / 8 th : Expansion West, Political Fragmentation, Economic and Social Dynamics

Wednesday: The decline of ‘Abbasid power and the rise of Turkic peoplesIslam in the Far West—North Africa and al-AndalusDeepening divides between Shi’i and Sunni, and further divisionsPolitical and economic dynamics

Readings: Walker, Paul Ernest. Orations of the Fatimid Caliphs: Festival Sermons of the Ismaili Imams: An Edition of the Arabic Texts and English Translation of Fatimid Khuṭbas. (London: I.B. Tauris, 2009).

Vocabulary quiz in class.

Friday: The experience of slavery in early medieval IslamThe revolt of the ZanjThe base of the economy—agriculture

Peasant life and Islam in rural areas, an overview

Readings: David Waines. The Revolt of the Zanj. Taʼrīkh Al-Rusul Wa’l-Mulūk; v. 36. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies; Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.

Texts from the Filaha Texts Project, to be assigned in class: (www.filaha.org)

Week 5, February 13 th / 15 th : The Development of Islamic Law and Religious Ritual

Wednesday: The formation of fiqh and other disciplinesScholarly lives, practices, and material cultureThe development and archicture of the madrasaThe social life of Islamic law and jurisprudence—questions of sexuality and gender

Readings: Ibn Jama‘ah, Tadhkirat al-Sami‘ wa al-Mutakallim fi Adab al-‘Alim wa al-Muta‘allim in Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought: A Compendium of Parallel English-Arabic Texts, edited by Bradley J. Cook and Fatḥī Ḥasan Malkāwī (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2010).

Friday: The content of Islamic ritual lifeCreating spaces of prayer—the medieval mosque The Hajj and the meaning of pilgrimageEveryday Islam in the medieval period

Readings: Moallm, Minoo. “Praying through the Senses: The Prayer Rug/Carpet and the Converging Territories of the Material and the Spiritual,” Center for the Study of Material and Visual Cultures of Religion, August 20, 2014.

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A first reading response is due by the end of this week.

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Week 6, February 20 th /22 nd : Science, Medicine, Philosophy, and Theology

Wednesday: The genealogy of history and philosophy in medieval IslamForms of knowledge and investigationMedicine and medical institutionsThe ‘occult’ sciences?

Reading: Nuwayrī, Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Wahhāb, and Elias Muhanna. The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition: A Compendium of Knowledge from the Classical Islamic World. Penguin Classics; Penguin Classics. New York: Penguin Books, 2016.

Friday: Theological questions and currents—kalam and its controversiesBefore Sufism—asceticism and pietismEarly Sufis, their doctrines and practices

Reading: Leoni, Francesca, Christiane Gruber, Venetia Porter, and Farouk Yahya. Power and Protection: Islamic Art and the Supernatural. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2016.

Week 7, February 27 th /March 1 st : Parameters of Urban Life, Women’s Lives, Sufism, and Popular Devotion

Wednesday: The ‘Islamic city’? Issues of definition and chronologyMosque, suq, hammam, quarter—typical urban lifeFutuwwa brotherhoods and neighborhood associations—political organizingWomen and children in Islamic social life

Readings: Antony Eastmond, Tamta’s World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 1-20, 124-171.

Friday: Sufism, from niche to universal Popular devotion Transformations in the role of Muhammad Everyday medieval Islam: a snapshot

Readings: Padwick, Constance E. Muslim Devotions; a Study of Prayer-Manuals in Common Use. London: SPCK, 1961.

Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn Sulamī and Rkia Elaroui. Cornell, Early Sufi Women: Dhikr an-Niswa Al-Mutaʻabbidāt Aṣ-Ṣūfiyyāt, Fons Vitae ed. (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 1999).

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Paper proposal and bibliography due at end of day on Friday.

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Week 8, March 6 th /8 th : Medieval Islamic Adab and Crusaders, Mamluks, and Mongols I

Wednesday: ‘Secular’ culture. Adab’s various meanings. Poetry, wine, and majlis. The social and political role of ‘culture.’

Readings: Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣbahānī, Patricia Crone, and Shmuel. Moreh, The Book of Strangers: Mediaeval Arabic Graffiti on the Theme of Nostalgia, Princeton Series on the Middle East (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2000).

Muḥammad ibn Khalaf Ibn al-Marzubān, G. R. Smith, and M. A. Abdel Haleem, The Book of the Superiority of Dogs over Many of Those Who Wear Clothes (Warminster, Eng.: Aris & Phillips, 1978).

Friday: Challenges from West and East Muslim expansion in Anatolia

The Crusades and Muslim responses

Readings: Usāmah ibn Munqidh, and Paul M. Cobb. The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades. London: Penguin, 2008.

Week 9, March 11 th -15th: Spring Break!

Week 10, 20 th /22 nd : Crusaders, Mamluks, and Mongols II

Wednesday: The Ayyubids and others.The rise of the Mongols and their eruption into the Islamic worldIlkhanids between Mongol and Islamic identity and practiceMonumental architecture, sainthood, and rulership

Readings: Antony Eastmond, Tamta’s World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 172-205, 342-367.

Friday: The rise of the MamluksMamluk military technology and warfare in the wider Muslim worldRelations of rulers, soldiers, and ruledIslamic political ethicsPoverty and charity

Readings: Dawson Books., Suleiman Ali., and Mourad. The Intensification and Reorientation of Sunni Jihad Ideology in the Crusader Period: Ibn ’Asakir of Damascus (1105-1176) and His Age, with an Edition and Translation of Ibn ’Asakir’s The Forty Hadiths for Inciting Jihad. Leiden: Brill, 2013.

David Nicolle, “The Reality of Mamluk Warfare: Weapons, Armour and Tactics,” Al-Masaq 7, no. 1 (1994): 77–110.

Week 11, March 27th/29 th : Late Medieval Developments: Saints, Frontiers, Warriors, and Travelers

Wednesday: The popularization and diversification of SufismDevelopments in ‘mystical theology’—Ibn ‘Arabi and others

The veneration of saints in medieval IslamCreating holy spaces and practices—shrines and pilgrimage

Readings: Waines, David. The Odyssey of Ibn Battuta: Uncommon Tales of a Medieval Adventurer. Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Karamustafa, Ahmet T. God’s Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in the Islamic Later Middle Period, 1200-1550. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1994.

Friday: Nomadic life and political formationsTravel for work and pleasureExpanding and contracting frontiers—Anatolia and al-Andalus in the later medieval periodSaints and warriors on the frontier

Readings: [The following will be divided up—half the class will read excerpts from the Ṣaltuḳ-nāme, while the other half will read from Digenis Akritas]:

Ebüʼl-Hayr-ı Rumî, and Fahir. İz. Ṣaltuḳ-nāme: the legend of Ṣarı Ṣaltuḳ. Sources of Oriental languages and literatures, 4. [Cambridge, Mass.]: [Printed at Harvard University Print. Off.] :, 1974.

Hull, Denison Bingham. Digenis Akritas; the Two-Blood Border Lord. The Grottaferrata Version. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1972.

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The second of the three reading responses should be turned in by the end of this week.

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Week 11, April 3 rd /5 th : Shi’ism, ‘Islamicish’ Movements, and Non-Muslims in the Later Medieval Period

Wednesday: The formation and diversification of Shi’ism Ismailis, Twelvers, and others between rulership and persecution. The Yazidis, Ahl-i Haqq, and other groups: ‘heterodoxy’ and sect?

Readings: Hermann Landolt et al., An Anthology of Ismaili Literature: A Shi’i Vision of Islam (London: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2008).

Friday: The persistence of non-Muslims

Overview of selected communities: Copts and martyrdom Armenians in and alongside Muslim polities Jews in the Islamic world through the lens of the Geniza

Readings: Antony Eastmond, Tamta’s World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 206-241.

[The following will be divided up—half the class will read excerpts from the Ahl-i Haqq texts, while the other half will read from The Life of Timothy Kākhushtā]:

Vladimir Ivanov, The Truth-Worshippers of Kurdistan; Ahl-i Haqq Texts Edited in the Original Persian and Analysed by V. Ivanow. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1953).

The Life of Timothy of Kākhushtā: Two Arabic Texts. (Leiden: Brepols, 2000).

Week 12, April 10 th /12 th : Late Medieval Islamic Art and Architecture, Islam in India and Central Asia, Origins

Wednesday: Three sites of analysis: Mamluks Seljuks of Rūm Ilkhanids

Friday: Routes of Islamization, Central Asia and India Timur and Post-Timurids in Central Asia and India

Islam in India before the Mughals—beginnings of conflict and coexistence

Readings: Antony. Eastmond, Tamta’s World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 282-321.

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A blog post is due by the end of the day on Friday!

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Week 13, April 17 th /[no class on the 19 th ]: Islam in India, Origins to Mughals:

Wednesday: The rise and consolidation of the Mughals Responses to Indian religions Saints and Sufism in Mughal India and beyond Women in the Mughal world Art and architecture under the Mughals—Persianate and vernacularization

Readings: Babur. The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor. Translated by W. M. Thackston. New York: Modern Library, 2002.

“The Tales of Mānik Pīr: Protector of Cows in Bengal,” translated by Tony K. Stewart, in Renard, John. Tales of God’s Friends: Islamic Hagiography in Translation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.

Week 14, April 24 th /26 th : The Rise of the Ottoman and Safavid Empires

Wednesday: Beyliks and the last of the Byzantines The origins and rise of the Ottomans Conquest and consolidation to the age of Süleyman Art and architecture in the ‘classical age’

Readings: Sinan Mimar, Sinan’s Autobiographies: Five Sixteenth-Century Texts (Leiden: Brill, 2006).

Friday: The Safavids from ṭarīqa to dynasty Building an empire Making the Safavid realms Shi’i—the transformation of the Iranian lands Trade and commerce before hegemonic globalization, the role of Armenians

Readings: Instructor’s translation of select passages from Ibn al-Bazzāz, Ṣafvat al-ṣafā: dar tarjumah-ʼi aḥvāl va aqvāl va karāmāt-i Shaykh Ṣafī al-Dīn Isḥaq Ardabīlī.

Devin Stewart, “The Humor of the Scholars: The Autobiography of Ni’mat Allāh al-Jazā’irī (d. 1112/1701),” Iranian Studies 22, no. 4 (January 1, 1989).

The last of the three reading responses should be turned in by the end of this week.

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Week 15, [No Class May 1 st ]/May 3 rd : Ottoman and Safavid Ascendancy and Transformations

Friday: Islam in the Ottoman Empire—scholar-bureaucrats, puritans, saints, everyday life Holy spaces, social spaces, early globalization, and conflict Unrest, decentralization, and the limits of empire

Readings: Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Qādir Rūmī. Against smoking: An Ottoman manifesto. Oxford; Markfield, Leicestershire: Interface Publications; Kube Publishing, 2010.

A selection of translated passages—by the instructor and by others—from Evliyâ Çelebî’s Seyahatname.

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Final paper and digital component due during Finals Week, specific date TBA.