HI 243 Islam in Historical Perspective

Arts and Letters History.
This course begins in the Arabia of the centuries
preceding the birth of the Prophet Muhammad in
571CE, and continues through the spread of the
faith first under the four Righteous Caliphs, then
far beyond Arabia, the Golden Age of Islam, and
the schools of jurisprudence that exist. We will
end our study with how understanding the history
of Islam, its sacred text, the Qur'an, the Hadith,
and the law, or Shari'a, might lead to a better
understanding of Islam in the contemporary era in
order to shed some light in the darkness. Over the
semester, the topics we will encounter include the
world of pre-Islamic Arabia, the influences of
polytheism, the other two monotheisms that share
Abraham as their religious ancestor - Judaism and
Christianity - the place of Islam's mystics, the
Sufi, the divide between Sunni and Shi'a, family
and society, art and architecture, political
Islam, the rise of groups such as al-Qaeda and
ISIS, reflections on gender, and what the future
might hold for all of us who seek to better
understand one another.

Credits

3

Distribution

HIS

Offered

Odd Year Spring Semester