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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
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Islamic Civilizations 2009
The following are a list of course themes that you should be prepared to discuss for the essay section of the final exam. The questions will each deal with one or several of these topics, but nothing outside of them. They are to be fair comprehensive of the course and I will be looking in your essay for specific examples that illustrate more general points. Additionally, I these topics will ask that you consider these issues comparatively across the temporal, geographic, political and social trajectories of this course. So I am not looking for you to be specialists but I am looking for you to be able to talk specifics.
Themes:
1. Transformations in the theory and organization of the state/polities of the Muslim world and the practice of politics. Some key words: caliphate, wazir, dar al-Islam, tribe and state, ‘asabiyya, palaces, mawali, armies, amsar…
2. Role of the city and other landscapes for the development of Islamic culture and social organization. Some key words: amsar, qusur, masjid, iqta, al-Muqaddasi, Ibn Battuta, Samarra, Fustat/Cairo, Merv vs Baghdad …
3. Interfaith relations and the development of Islamic thought and practice. Key words: Dome of the Rock, mawali, dhimmi, convivencia, Umayyad Mosque Damascus, crusades, fiqh, emergence of theology, conversion …
4. Assimilation vs appropriation – what are the processes and examples of adaptations to outside cultural and political influences. Key words: mawali, amsar, Byzantines, Sasanians, Ghassanids, Mongols, Mamluks, Islamic architecture, Umayyad coin reforms, crusades, ...
5. Ethnic diversity, its challenges and opportunities. In other words what happened to the Arabs and Arabia with the spread of Islam and its interactions with other groups. Key words: tribe and state, Ibn Khaldun, mawali, Seljuks, Mongols, Khurasan, Mamluks, Samarra, amsar, Andalusia, ...
6. Empire and its fragmentation--> what were the forces of territorial and cultural unity? How did they break down? What was the state of international relations? Key words: Byzantium, Andalusia/reconquista, Mamluks, Pirenne Thesis, trade networks, black death, dar al-Isalm/dar al-harb, Islamic institutions, Ibn Battuta, Ibn Khaldun ...
7. Sectarianism and the issue of Sunni orthodoxy. Key words: Shiite century, Fatimids, Umayyad Spain, Kharijites, Qarmatia, Shiism, Sufism, al-Ghazali, fiqh, madrasa, ...