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This course surveys the history of the Middle East from the end of Late Antiquity to the close of the Middle Ages. The course is divided into three units. In the first, on "the rise of Islam in late antiquity," we explore the emergence of the new religion which traces its origins to the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad in western Arabia in the early seventh century, and its development over the period of the "rightly-guided" caliphs and the "Arab kingdom" ruled by the Umayyads. The second unit, on "classical Islamic civilization," examines various political, religious, legal and cultural aspects of Islamic society during the first two centuries of the Abbasid caliphate. In the third section, on "the medieval challenge and synthesis," we consider the various ways in which medieval Islamic societies responded to the new challenges posed to them by Turks, Mongols and Crusaders. The class format is lecture mixed with discussion. Readings consist primarily of brief selections from a variety of primary sources.

History 176: "Islamic Civilization and the Middle East, 1500-Present"

This course completes the survey of the history of the Middle East (although it can be taken independently of History 175). We begin with the emergence of the Ottoman Empire as the dominant world power at the end of the Middle Ages, and explore the stunning achievements of Ottoman civilization. We consider the highly problematic question of "Ottoman decline" against the radically changed circumstances of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which saw the establishment of global political and cultural hegemony by the European powers. The last half of the course documents the emergence of and competition between nationalist ideologies and religious responses among the peoples -- Arabs, Iranians, Turks, Israelis -- of the Middle East. As in History 175, lectures are supplemented with discussions focusing on excerpts from various primary sources.

History 375: "Nationalism and Colonialism in the Modern Arab World"

This course examines the nature of European colonialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Arab experience of European hegemony, and the various reactions -- nationalist, Arabist, Islamist -- which that hegemony has spawned in the Middle East. The course covers much of the same ground as History 176, although in much greater detail. Readings are drawn from a variety of primary and secondary sources, and class discussion of those texts is emphasized. We also make use of a number of films, including the screen adaptation of E. M. Forster's A Passage to India, the epic film "Lawrence of Arabia," and the disturbing "Battle of Algiers."

Major Publications:

Books

The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 2003)

Popular Preaching and Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic Near East (University of Washington Press, 2001)

The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education (Princeton University Press, 1992)

Articles and chapters

"Elite Authority and Popular Power: Storytellers and Religious Knowledge in Medieval Egypt," Israel Oriental Studies (forthcoming)

“Al-Zarnudji,” Encyclopaedia of Islam (E. J. Brill, forthcoming)

“Egypt,” in Medieval Trade, Travel, and Exploration: An Encyclopedia, ed. John Friedman and Kristen Figg (Garland Publishing Co., 2000), 173-5

“Storytelling, Preaching, and Power in Mamluk Cairo,” Mamluk Studies Review 4 (1999), 1-21

“Women in Medieval Islamic Society,” in Women and Medieval Culture, ed. Linda E. Mitchell (Garland Publishing Co., 1999), 95-111

“Culture and Society in the Late Middle Ages,” Cambridge History of Egypt, vol. 1: Islamic Egypt, 640-1517, ed. Carl Petry (Cambridge University Press, 1998), 375-411

“Tadris,” Encyclopaedia of Islam (E. J. Brill, 1998) vol. IX, 80-2

“The Mamluks as Muslims: The Military Elite and the Construction of Islam in Medieval Egypt,” in The Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and Society, ed. Ulrich Haarmann and Thomas Philipp (Cambridge University Press, 1998), 161-73

“Circumcision Circumscribed: Female Excision and Cultural Accommodation in the Medieval Near East," International Journal of Middle East Studies 28 (1996), 19-38

“Tradition, Innovation and the Social Construction of Knowledge in the Medieval Islamic Near East,” Past and Present 146 (1995), 38-65

“Mamluks and the World of Higher Education in Medieval Cairo, 1250-1517,” in Modes de transmission de la culture réligieuse en Islam (Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale au Caire, 1993), 93-116

“Women and Education in the Mamluk Period,” in Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender, ed. Nikki Keddie and Beth Baron (Yale University Press, 1992), 143-57

“‘Silver Threads Among the Coal’: A Well-Educated Mamluk of the Ninth/Fifteenth Century,” Studia Islamica 73 (1991), 109-25

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This page created by Jonathan P. Berkey. For information, contact mailto:joberkey@davidson.edu