Near Eastern Studies

Historians of modern North Africa have frequently complained about the scarcity or absence of "local" sources for writing its history. Instead they have often relied on European colonial sources. This course explores this in the context of the voices and testimonies of the oppressed. We first discuss theoretical approaches that aim to recover the voices of such people during pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial times and then focus on specific North African cases, such as slaves, women, "queers", and victims of authoritarian postcolonial regimes.

This graduate seminar addresses issues of theory and method in the historical study of Zoroastrianism with comparison to other religious traditions in the Middle East and South Asia. Topics of the seminar are tailored to meet the students' interests and may include themes such as ritual studies; hermeneutics and textual exegesis; and postcolonial and diaspora studies. In addition to discussing contemporary scholarship, students engage in close reading of primary sources, available both in translation and in their original languages for those with sufficient linguistic background.

The study of the Middle East in World War I has advanced rapidly over the course of the past decade. This course surveys the burgeoning literature on WWI in the Middle East and addresses such questions as how Ottoman strategic performance impacted the war; the experience of "total war" in the Middle East and how it shaped governance; the relationship between war and imperial collapse; and the motives for demographic engineering and mass killing. No prerequisites.

A study of a number of central problems, historiographical issues, and primary sources relevant to the history of the Jewish minority under Islam in the Middle Ages.

An introduction to hands-on work with medieval Arabic documentary sources in their original manuscript form. Between 100,000 and 200,000 such documents have survived, making this an exciting new area of research with plenty of discoveries still to be made. Students learn how to handle the existing repertory of editions, documentary hands, Middle Arabic, transcription, digital resources and original manuscripts, including Geniza texts currently on loan to Firestone from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. The syllabus varies according to the interests of the students and the instructor.

Seminar is part of a multi-year collaborative project devoted to reading Arabic documents from the medieval Middle East in Hebrew and Arabic script. Students contribute to a corpus of diplomatic editions, translations and commentaries to be published in the project's collection of texts. We introduce the most common legal and administrative genres: letters, lists, deeds, contracts, decrees and petitions. Our goal is to make this material legible as historical sources by combining philology, diplomatics, attention to the material text, and institutional and social history. Prerequisite: good reading knowledge of classical Arabic.

Introduces advanced Persian students to Classical Persian prose from the appearance of literary New Persian in the 10th century to the time of the poet Sa'di Shirazi, whose Gulistan was regarded as the culmination of good literary style and a classic in ensuing centuries. Students gain familiarity with a variety of genres including history, geography, travelogues, ethical texts, and hagiography; develop archival skills through an introduction to Islamic codicology; acquire both linguistic competency in working with Classical Persian sources as well as an introduction to the scholarly debates surrounding the works in question.

This seminar focuses on Islamic thought and society during the 17th and the 18th centuries. Our key concerns are two: to understand what Islam, and Islamic thought, looked like in the late medieval and the early modern world; and to think about how we should try to approach the study of Islam in that world. A good deal of our focus is on South Asia, though we also read about other regions, including Iran and the Arab Middle East. The required readings are in English. For those interested, some weeks might have supplementary readings in Arabic as well.

This course examines the history, politics and society of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, perhaps the most important country in both the Arab and Islamic worlds today. Students will be exposed to the Kingdom's complex relationship with political Islam, the global oil market, other Arab and Muslim countries as well as the West. This course will give students a solid overview of the Kingdom's history, politics and society through a careful selection of published and unpublished studies. The aim of the course is to get students acquainted with the history of the Kingdom and the main factors that have played a role in its unfolding.

Readings of texts that are illustrative of various issues in Muslim religious thought. The texts are selected according to students' needs.

The end of dynastic imperial rule in Eurasia and the Middle East was a seminal event in the history of the twentieth century. This seminar starts by surveying a range of theories of nationalism drawn from varied disciplines. It then asks students to apply them to the historical record using cases drawn from Ottoman, Russian, and occasionally Austro-Hungarian history. The origins of nationalism and the nature of imperial rule are among the topics discussed. The final part of the course compares the nationalizing polices of several post-imperial regimes and revisits the question of whether nationalism is central or epiphenomenal.

Selected topics in Islamic law and jurisprudence. The topics vary from year to year, but the course normally includes the reading of fatwas and selected Islamic legal texts in Arabic.

Hands-on introduction to Arabic manuscripts and their material history via Princeton's Garrett Collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts, the largest such collection in North America. Covers the anatomy of the medieval Arabic book, including codicology, supports, scripts, ink, ownership notes, certificates of audition and other paratextual information; and the social history of the book, including reading and transmission, libraries, the modern book trade, and the ethics and legality of the transfer cultural patrimony. Good classical Arabic is a prerequisite; prior experience with manuscripts and paleography is neither expected nor assumed.

Selected topics in the history of the Arab East from the 18th century to the present.

Surveys the political, intellectual, social, and cultural transformations of the Near East and Eurasia from the late 17th through the 20th centuries by investigating the responses of the states and societies of those two broad regions to common geopolitical, economic, and intellectual challenges. Course seeks to understand those responses on their own terms, to relate them to each other, and thereby stimulate students to think outside the models and assumptions provided by European historiography.

This course examines the idea of the Arab, the Jew, and the Arab-Jew as represented in history, literature, and film. It revisits the interdisciplinary scholarship around "Jews and Arabs" since the 1990s in order to reassess past and current approaches and to assist students with their own research agendas. We consider the following analytical frames: memory studies and its politics; historiography, recovery and the archive; hybridity and cosmopolitanism; and passing and cross-identification. We also utilize the Katz Center (U Penn)'s 2018-19 program on Jews in modern Islamic contexts.

Introduces students to the major Arabic poets and poems from pre-Islamic times to the Mamluks. Goals: Increase the ease with which students read classical Arabic poetry, learn how to scan Arabic meters, and expand knowledge of styles, genres and development. Students prepare assigned poems and put together brief biographical sketch of poets. Advanced knowledge of Arabic required.

A study of a number of central problems, historiographical issues, and primary sources relevant to the history of the late Ottoman Empire. Topics vary from year to year.

How far reaching is the ¿fragmentation¿ of religious authority in modern Islam? How have traditional religious scholars sought to rearticulate their authority in conditions of radical change? On what basis do ¿new religious intellectuals¿ make their claims to authority? How has the state shaped structures of religious authority? What is peculiar to modern Islam so far as conceptions of and contestations over religious authority are concerned? These are among the questions this seminar seeks to examine.

Salafism and Salafi Muslims have irrupted on the global and Middle Eastern political scenes in the last decade, and are often described by pundits in the media as the enemies of the West and all that is modern. This course will interrogate such common, and mistaken, assumptions, looking more carefully at the medieval theology and law of the Salafi movement as well as the beliefs and actions of its modern and contemporary followers.

Introduction to Persian language and culture. By the end of the semester, students will have an overview of Persian grammar and will able to read and converse in Persian at a basic level. Class activities include group discussions, skits, short stories, oral presentations, and comprehension and grammar drills. Class instruction is supplemented with other media such as movies and online Persian news media. Five classes. No credit is given for PER 101 unless followed by PER 102.

Continuation of 101 with a greater emphasis on reading, writing, and comprehension. By the end of the semester, most instruction will be delivered in Persian, and students will be able to communicate comfortably using everyday language and read more elaborate prose. Class instruction is supplemented with other media such as movies and online Persian news media. Five classes.

An introduction to modern Persian prose and poetry. The course introduces advanced grammar while developing communication skills through the discussion of modern and classic novels, movies, and online Persian media (news, weblogs, etc). This class will be conducted mainly in Persian. Prerequisite: 102 or instructor's permission. Five classes.

Continuation of 105. Reading and discussion of selected works by major authors. This class will be conducted mainly in Persian. Five classes.

An introduction to the language of classical Persian literature. Intensive reading and discussion of texts by major poets and writers from Rudaki to Hafez. Texts will vary from year to year. Prerequisite: 107 or instructor's permission. Three classes.