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. Over the semester, the topics we will encounter include the world of pre-Islamic Arabia, the influences of polytheism, interactions with the two other 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

At the discretion of the department