Department of Middle Eastern Studies

AKKD 30350. Nuzi: Documents from a Late Bronze Age Town. 100 Units.

Neo-Babylonian Legal Texts

Instructor(s): Martha Roth     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): 2 years Akkadian or permission of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): AKKD 20352

AANL 30130. Advanced Hittite: Rituals and Festivals. 100 Units.

Festivals celebrating deities and therapeutic rituals using magic to heal both mental and physical problems in individuals and groups of people belong to the most prolific genres of Hittite literature. This class will give an introduction to the festival and ritual genres, and discuss their place in Hittite literature and society. Following this we will read a number of representative texts in the original language and script (cuneiform). Requirements: Elementary Hittite 1-3.

Instructor(s): Goedegebuure, Petra     Terms Offered: Winter

AANL 30225. Readings: Palaic. 100 Units.

Palaic is one of the sister languages of Hittite and may have been spoken until the mid-second millennium BC. It is only attested in a few, often fragmentary, religious compositions such as myths and recitations involving food offerings to deities. In this course we will read all texts in Palaic. Because of the limited corpus we will have to approach the texts from both a comparative linguistic perspective with the help of Hittite and Luwian, and from a comparative religious perspective. The goal of this course is to prepare the student for further independent study of Palaic and its function in Hittite society.

Instructor(s): Petra Goedegebuure     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): AANL 20225

AANL 30501. Lycian. 100 Units.

This course introduces the grammar and writing system of the Lycian language of the first millennium BC (ca. 500 to 300). After reading a series of tomb inscriptions, we venture into the larger historical inscriptions that include the Lycian-Greek-Aramaic trilingual of Xanthos.

Instructor(s): P. Goedegebuure     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Elementary Hittite or consent from instructor
Equivalent Course(s): AANL 20501, ANCM 30800

AANL 33524. Hittite Administrative Texts. 100 Units.

An important Hittite text genre without any clear parallels in other Ancient Near East literatures are the 'obligation and oath' texts. These texts describe the duties of professional classes in the Hittite imperial administration, sometimes in great detail. There are instructions for, for example, the commander of a border province, the mayor of Hattusa, temple personnel, military commanders, and the bodyguard of the king. We will read a few of the best-preserved texts from different time periods to gain insights in the functioning of the Hittite administration and society at large in each period, and how this changes over time.

Instructor(s): Petra Goedegebuure     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Instructor consent required

ARAB 30580. Portraying Palestine. 100 Units.

In this graduate level course, we explore the multiple valences and meanings that Palestine has come to hold in literature and film from the Arab world and in the Arabic-speaking diaspora. We will examine as well as interrogate the ways that Palestine is framed by Palestinians and other Arabs, and the concepts that have attached to its cultural forms and practices since the Nakba, such as (but not exclusively) ṣumūd, turāth, and muqāwama. We will attend especially to the dynamic cultural landscapes and intersections with politics of poetry, prose, and film since 1948 within Palestine and its diasporas, as well as surrounding critical and theoretical discourses.

Instructor(s): Ghenwa Hayek     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): 2 years of Arabic – High Intermediate completed at UChicago (or equivalent)

ARAB 40010. Introduction to Arabic and Islamic Studies. 100 Units.

This course is designed for graduate students who wish to learn about the tools, primary and secondary sources, references, journals, distinct subfields, and electronic resources available to researchers in Arabic and Islamic Studies. We will acquire first-hand knowledge and practice of basic skills that will help professionalize students in the field, and will discuss methodological and historiographical issues related to the study of Islamicate civilization in various historical, cultural, political, and religious frameworks.

Instructor(s): Mehmetcan Akpinar     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Basic ability to work with Classical Arabic is required.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20410, RLST 20410, ISLM 40010, ARAB 20410, NEHC 40010

ARAB 40201. Advanced Readings in Arabic II. 100 Units.

Advanced Readings in Arabic - 2nd quarter

Instructor(s): Hala Abdelmonem     Terms Offered: Spring

ARAB 40202. Advanced Readings in Arabic III. 100 Units.

Advanced Readings in Arabic - 3rd quarter

Terms Offered: Spring

ARAB 40356. The Modern Arabic Novel. 100 Units.

This is a graduate level survey course of the rise and development of the modern Arabic novel. It will cover texts from the nahḍa to the late twentieth century. We will read these texts with particular attention not only to the ways they engage the key social and political issues of their day, but also to the manner in which they probe central questions of form, genre, and language. By reading the novels alongside theoretical readings in English and Arabic that frame them, we will also interrogate the processes of the formation of the modern Arabic literary canon.

Instructor(s): Ghenwa Hayek     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): 3 years of Arabic at U of C or their equivalent.

ARME 49900. Reading and Research Course. 100 Units.

The course focuses on the improvement of reading skills in Armenian (mostly Western dialects as well as some Classical Armenian structures). The main objective is literary fluency and reading comprehension for research purposes. Reading assignments include a variety of texts concentrated around the research topic on Ottoman Armenian bureaucrats' and authors'/translators' views on constitutionalism and community affairs. Students practice the vocabulary (newly acquired in their readings) through discussions and critical analysis of texts in Armenian. The goal is to achieve an advanced level of reading proficiency and Comprehension in modern Western Armenian.

Instructor(s): Hripsime Haroutunian     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): instructor consent required
Note(s): Select section from faculty list

HEBR 33301. Advanced Level Modern Hebrew Reading Course. 100 Units.

The course concentrates on the written language and aims at enabling students to use Modern Hebrew for research purposes. The course is designed to enable students to read Hebrew freely. Major grammatical & syntactical aspects will be covered, and students will acquire substantial vocabulary with attention paid to lexical collocations and semantic fields. By the end of the course, students are expected not only to be able to successfully satisfy their departmental language requirements but also to have a great set of skills that would allow them to read any given text, written in Modern Hebrew. (The tern "Modern Hebrew" covers primarily literature from the mid 20th century to current time).

Instructor(s): Ari Almog     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Students should have at least two levels of Modern and/or Biblical Hebrew. Students should be able to read vocalized Hebrew texts as well as to be able to read and write in cursive.
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 38301

HEBR 33302. Reading Academic Hebrew. 100 Units.

This is a two-quarter seminar. The course concentrates on the written language and aims at enabling students to use Modern Hebrew for research purposes. The course is designed to prepares students to read and do research using scholarly texts. Students will build on their fundamental knowledge of Hebrew grammar and the most common vocabulary terms used in scholarly writing, while developing reading comprehension skills and working intensively with academic texts in their areas of research . By the end of the course, students are expected not only to be able to successfully satisfy their departmental language requirements but also to have a great set of skills that would allow them to read any given text, written in Modern Hebrew. (The tern "Modern Hebrew" covers primarily literature from the mid 20th century to current time)

Instructor(s): Ari Almog     Terms Offered: Winter

HEBR 33303. Reading Academic Hebrew III. 100 Units.

The course concentrates on the written language and aims to enable students to use Modern Hebrew for research purposes. The course is designed to enable students to read Hebrew freely. Major grammatical & syntactical aspects will be covered, and students will acquire substantial vocabulary with attention paid to lexical collocations and semantic fields. The instructor's consent is required. Note: this course is very important for graduate students in several fields.

Instructor(s): Ari Almog     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Instructor's consent

KAZK 49901. Independent Study: Intermediate Kazakh. 100 Units.

Independent Study: Intermediate Kazakh

Instructor(s): Kagan Arik     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter

NEAA 30002. Archaeology of the Ancient Near East II: Anatolia. 100 Units.

This course will survey the archaeological record of ancient Anatolia (modern Turkey) from the start of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (ca. 9500 BCE) to the end of the Iron Age (ca. 550 BCE). The material will cover a selection of significant archaeological sites designed to illustrate the diversity of cultures in Anatolia and to demonstrate broader regional patterns and themes. The presentation of sites will be accompanied by readings and discussions on the interpretation of archaeological data.

Instructor(s): James Osborne     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taking these courses in sequence is not required. This sequence does not meet the general education requirement in civilization studies. This course fulfills the requirements of a survey course in Anatolian civilization as defined by the Ancient PhD programs in NELC and the MA program in the CMES.
Equivalent Course(s): NEAA 20002

NEAA 30030. The Rise of the State in the Ancient Near East. 100 Units.

This course introduces the background and development of the first urbanized civilizations in the Near East in the period from 9000 to 2200 BC. In the first half of this course, we examine the archaeological evidence for the first domestication of plants and animals and the earliest village communities in the "fertile crescent" (i.e., the Levant, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia). The second half of this course focuses on the economic and social transformations that took place during the development from simple, village-based communities to the emergence of the urbanized civilizations of the Sumerians and their neighbors in the fourth and third millennia BC.

Instructor(s): G. Stein     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course fulfills the requirements of a survey course in Ancient Near Eastern civilizations as defined by the Ancient PhD programs in NELC and the MA program in the CMES.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 36715, NEAA 20030, ANTH 26715

NEAA 30061. Ancient Landscapes I. 100 Units.

This is a two-course sequence that introduces students to theory and method in landscape studies and the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to analyze archaeological, anthropological, historical, and environmental data. Course one covers the theoretical and methodological background necessary to understand spatial approaches to landscape and the fundamentals of using ESRI's ArcGIS software, and further guides students in developing a research proposal. Course two covers more advanced GIS-based analysis (using vector, raster, and satellite remote sensing data) and guides students in carrying out their own spatial research project. In both courses, techniques are introduced through the discussion of case studies (focused on the archaeology of the Middle East) and through demonstration of software skills. During supervised laboratory times, the various techniques and analyses covered will be applied to sample archaeological data and also to data from a region/topic chosen by the student.

Instructor(s): Mehrnoush Soroush     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 30061, ANTH 26710, GISC 20061, CEGU 20061, GISC 30061, NEAA 20061, ANTH 36710

NEAA 30062. Ancient Landscapes II. 100 Units.

This is a two-course sequence that introduces students to theory and method in landscape studies and the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to analyze archaeological, anthropological, historical, and environmental data. Course one covers the theoretical and methodological background necessary to understand spatial approaches to landscape and the fundamentals of using ESRI's ArcGIS software, and further guides students in developing a research proposal. Course two covers more advanced GIS-based analysis (using vector, raster, and satellite remote sensing data) and guides students in carrying out their own spatial research project. In both courses, techniques are introduced through the discussion of case studies (focused on the archaeology of the Middle East) and through demonstration of software skills. During supervised laboratory times, the various techniques and analyses covered will be applied to sample archaeological data and also to data from a region/topic chosen by the student.

Instructor(s): Mehrnoush Soroush     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): NEAA 20061
Equivalent Course(s): NEAA 20062, ANTH 26711, CEGU 30062, GISC 20062, ANTH 36711, CEGU 20062, GISC 30062

NEAA 30091. Field Archaeology I. 300 Units.

This course is for students that will be overseas participating in an Archaeological Field Project. Consent of instructor required.

Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 36640

NEAA 30092. Field Archeology II. 300 Units.

Students will supervise and direct work in one or more trenches, possibly (depending on suitability and project scale) an excavation area comprised of several trenches. This includes managing the local workforce and any junior students, and developing strategies together with the project leader. They should also be the lead on one type of material culture or data collected (e.g., surface survey, ceramics, glass), managing the team responsible for recording, measuring, sampling, etc., and interpreting and synthesizing preliminary results in the field. Assessment will be based on field notes, area summary, and contribution to any preliminary reports or articles.

Instructor(s): Augusta McMahon     Terms Offered: Winter

NEAA 30100. Introduction to Archaeology. 100 Units.

Archaeology is the study of the material evidence of past human activity. This course, which is offered every year in the Autumn Quarter, explores the history of archaeology as a discipline and the methods used by archaeologists to obtain evidence about past human activity via excavations, surface surveys, and remote-sensing technologies such as satellite imagery and ground-penetrating radar, with emphasis on archaeological fieldwork in the Middle East. This course also surveys the latest methods used to date, classify, and analyze various kinds of evidence after it has been obtained. And since archaeological data is always collected and interpreted within an intellectual framework of theoretical conceptions concerning human society, culture, and history, this course provides a brief overview of "archaeological theory," i.e., the uses made by archaeologists of a wide range of different social theories that may lead to quite different interpretations of the same data. This topic is explored in more depth in a companion course on "Social Theory and Ancient Studies" (NEHC 20010/30010), which is offered in alternate years in the Winter Quarter.

Instructor(s): David Schloen     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): NEAA 20100

NEAA 30122. Mesopotamian Archaeology II: States to Empires. 100 Units.

This course explores the archaeology of the states and empires of Mesopotamia during the early 2nd through mid-1st millennia BC. We begin with the Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian territorial states and end with the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian empire and the takeover of the Neo-Babylonian empire by the Persians in the mid 1st millennium BC, which marks the end of "Mesopotamian" culture. During these centuries, the region saw many political changes, developing from a network of expansive territorial states to massive hegemonic empires. But political developments also included retraction of states and two large-scale political collapses, in part driven by climate change. These millennia in Mesopotamia are also marked by internationalism in both archaeology and politics; trade, elite communication and conquest all affected the material culture of the sub-regions of the ancient Near East. Additional topics include the archaeological evidence (or lack of it) for ethnic groups known from textual sources, symbolism and hybridization in artworks, organic versus artificial settlements and landscapes, and the archaeological signatures of empire. The geographic focus encompasses northern and southern Mesopotamia (approximately the modern countries of Iraq and Syria); reference will also be made to southeast Anatolia (Türkiye) and the eastern Mediterranean.

Instructor(s): McMahon, Augusta     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): NEAA 20001
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 30122, NEAA 20122, ANTH 20122

NEAA 30162. Topics: Mesopotamian History II: Uruk Mesopotamia and Neighbor. 100 Units.

The Uruk period (4th millennium BC) saw the emergence of the earliest known state societies, urbanism, kingship, writing, and colonial network extending from Mesopotamia across the Jazira and into neighboring resource zones in the Taurus and Zagros mountains. This seminar examines Uruk Mesopotamia and neighboring regions from several perspectives â€" an examination of key sites in Mesopotamia and contemporaneous local late chalcolithic polities in Syria, southeast Anatolia and Iran. The seminar also considers the main theoretical issues involved in understanding inter-regional interaction in the social, economic, and political organization of this period.

Instructor(s): G. Stein     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Any introductory course in Near Eastern archaeology.
Equivalent Course(s): NEAA 20162

NEAA 30322. Ancient Levant-II: The Iron Age and Persian Period. 100 Units.

This course surveys the archaeology and history of the Levant from the end of the Bronze Age around 1100 BCE to the Roman conquest of the region in 64-63 BCE.

Instructor(s): Timothy Harrison     Terms Offered: Spring Winter
Note(s): This course fulfills the requirements of a survey course in Levant civilization as defined by the Ancient PhD programs in NELC and the MA program in the CMES.
Equivalent Course(s): NEAA 20322

NEAA 30428. Indian Ocean Trade: an overview from Late Antiquity to the 17th century. 100 Units.

This course will examine aspects of the archaeology of Indian Ocean trade from the Late Antique to the 17th century, focussing on the Western Indian Ocean in particular. The lectures will set out the broad scheme of trade, economic development and merchant activity and then focus on a number of case studies looking at specific sites, regions, shipwrecks, commodities, theories and academic debates. By the end of the course students will have a broad outline of the history of Indian Ocean trade. They will understand the significance of Indian Ocean trade to the Late Antique, early medieval, medieval and post-medieval worlds. They will have a knowledge of some of the key academic debates related to Indian Ocean trade, such as, for example, historiographical issues, the role of early Islamic merchants, the 'peddler trade', and the question of an Indian Ocean identity. Students will debated issues in close relation to archaeological evidence and will have increased their understanding of how archaeological evidence can be used to develop an understanding of trade and commerce.

Instructor(s): Derek Kennet     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): NEAA 20428

NEAA 30511. The Archaeology of Egypt I. 100 Units.

This course provides an overview of the archaeology of Egypt, focusing on data from the Paleolithic Period to the Second Intermediate Period, around 1,600 BCE. It introduces fundamental methods and approaches to the archaeological record, surveying significant sites, objects, art, and architecture to understand various aspects of culture, society, and history. While Egypt is well-known for its pyramids, temples and tombs, we will not only examine such constructions, but also explore how material culture can offer us insights on such themes as power and inequality, human-environment relations, urbanism, identity, cross-cultural interactions, collapse, and transformation. We will also consider the origins and legacies of Egyptology while engaging with diverse perspectives on the past, and how Egypt's rich cultural heritage continues to be valued, used, and contested.

Instructor(s): Anna-Latifa Mourad-Cizek      Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): NEAA 20511, ANTH 20511, ANTH 30511

NEAA 30540. The Gulf and Eastern Arabia from prehistory to Islam. 100 Units.

This course will explore the longue durée development of Eastern Arabia from the beginning of the Holocene until about the 15th century CE. It will examine themes such as the nature of life and settlement in a semi- to hyper-arid environment, marginality, nomadic and sedentary lifestyles, irrigation methods, and maritime trade and globalisation. Loosely based around a chronological narrative, the course will be organised through a series of case studies (supported by general background lectures) that will cover topics such as, for example, the Neolithic, the Bronze Age (Magan, Dilmun, the 4.2ky event), Iron Age, the late pre-Islamic period, the early Islamic period, and the Hormuzi period. The course will also examine the area's interaction with, amongst others, Mesopotamia, the Indus, Iran, the Graeco-Roman and Parthian worlds, and the Indian Ocean economy.

Instructor(s): Derk Kennet     Terms Offered: Autumn

NEAA 30833. Ancient Water Cultures. 100 Units.

Fresh water is scarce and unequally distributed, in past and present. This graduate seminar will examine water uses and water governance in ancient Egypt (the Land along the River) and Mesopotamia (the Land Between the Rivers). Water management in these regions varied in intensity and scale over time; it has been connected to the growth of cities, states and empires and strongly linked with power and politics. Water was also embedded in religious beliefs and vital for everyday practices, but access to water was a daily challenge for many of these regions' residents. Both regions experienced floods as well as droughts, and the problem of too much water was often a greater concern than too little. How people responded to challenges in water access had wide-ranging ramifications. By exploring water's ties to culture and society, we will consider the continued importance of this vital resource and its sustainable management.

Instructor(s): McMahon, Augusta     Terms Offered: Autumn

NEAA 43221. Israel and Judah under Empire: Archaeology and History of the Assyrian and Babylonian Periods. 100 Units.

In the late 8th century BCE Israel, Judah and the other polities of the southern Levant came under Assyrian hegemony, and then under the Babylonian and Persian empires. The seminar will review the demographic and economic situation in the region before the arrival of the first empire in the late 8th century BCE, and the subsequent changes during the 7th-6th centuries BCE in an attempt to use the unparalleled data available from this region to (1) reconstruct life in the provinces and client kingdoms and (2) use the detailed information to learn about imperial encounters at large, and the impact of imperial control on the life of the peoples under its yoke.

Instructor(s): Avraham Faust     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 43221, BIBL 33221

NEAA 49900. Reading and Research. 100 Units.

Independent study in Near Eastern Art and Archaeology.

Instructor(s): STAFF     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Note(s): Select section from faculty list

NEHC 30022. Documentary Cultures in Early Islamicate Societies. 100 Units.

This Seminar for graduate students centers on the use of material and documentary sources for the study of early Islamic history (ca. 640-1000 CE), particularly looking at multiple religious groups, languages, and literary traditions. It will introduce the students to the study of documentary texts such as the Arabic papyri, the expansion of Arabic papyrology as a field, and the integration of literary and non-literary sources. Students will be encouraged and challenged to think of texts also as material objects. We will talk about sources and resources for the study of political, economic, social, and intellectual histories of the Islamicate world; in so doing, we will discuss also methods, problems, and perspectives.

Instructor(s): CECILIA PALOMBO     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 30022, RLST 20122, MDVL 20022, HIST 46000, NEHC 20022

NEHC 30027. Sources of the Pentateuch. 100 Units.

Seminar for hands-on experience in identifying, "separating," and interpreting sources within the Pentateuch (and Joshua) through varied examples.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Biblical Hebrew and Greek
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 55110

NEHC 30030. Introduction to the Qur'an. 100 Units.

The Qur'an's historical setting, thematic and literary features, major biblical figures, and foundational narratives of the Quran. Explorations of medieval exegetical literature on the Quran and its reception in the early (8th-10th century CE) and medieval periods (11th - 15th century CE) will feature heavily in this course. Readings consist primarily of English translations of the Quran alongside a running commentary, as well as secondary articles.

Instructor(s): Yousef Casewit     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. This course counts as a Gateway course for RLST majors/minors.
Equivalent Course(s): MDVL 10030, RLST 11030, ISLM 30030

NEHC 30034. From the Harem to Helem: Gender and Sexuality in the Modern Middle East. 100 Units.

This course will provide a historical and theoretical survey of issues pertaining to gender and sexuality in the modern Middle East. First, we will outline the colonial legacies of gender politics and gendered discourses in modern Middle Eastern history. We will discuss orientalist constructions of the harem and the veil (Allouche, Laila Ahmed, Lila Abu-Loghod), and their contested afterlives across the Middle East. We will also explore colonial (homo)sexuality, and attendant critiques (Najmabadi, Massad). We will pay especial attention to local discourses about gender and sexuality, and trouble facile assumptions of "writing back" while attending to the various specificities of local discourses of everyday life across various sites of the Middle East. Eschewing reductive traps for more nuanced explorations of the specifics of life in Beirut, Cairo, Istanbul, or Tehran - as well as to rural areas - we will show how gender and sexuality are constructed and practiced in these locales. In addition to foundational scholarly texts in the field, we will also engage with an array of cultural texts (films, novels, poetry, comics) and - where possible - have conversations with activists who are working in these sites via Skype/teleconferencing.

Instructor(s): Stephanie Kraver     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20034, GNSE 30112, GNSE 20112

NEHC 30035. What is a Madrasa Education? 100 Units.

Although public education has almost completely eclipsed and replaced traditional educational systems throughout the Muslim world, madrasas continue to play a significant role in Muslim societies to this day. This course explores the complex, evolving, and often conflicting pedagogical models of learning in Islamic civilization from the medieval period up to the present. Three fundamental concerns guide our examination of the various modes of organization, acquisition, embodiment, and transference of knowledge in madrasa institutions: (1) Epistemology: What is knowledge (ʿilm)? And what is an ʿālim, or "traditional Muslim knower" expected know? (2) Pedagogy: How does an ʿālim acquire, organize, transmit, and publish his/her ʿilm? (3) Religious Authority: How is ʿilm verified, authenticated, institutionalized, certificated, and mainstreamed in madrasa institutions? The sheer enormity of the subject and the variety of competing pedagogical models in the Muslim world belie a comprehensive survey. Our approach will thus be grounded in multidisciplinary research (history, ethnography, sociology, religious studies) and anchored in case studies. The readings covered in class will address questions of philosophy of education; the politics of knowledge; core texts studied in madrasas; day-to-day lived experience of students and teachers; how classical texts are taught.

Instructor(s): Yousef Casewit     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Basic knowledge of Arabic or another Islamic language is highly recommended, though not a formal prerequisite for this course.
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 30035

NEHC 30040. Introduction to the Qur'an. 100 Units.

The primary goal of this course is to introduce students to the text and context of the Qurʾan. Emphasis is placed upon both the historical setting as well as the thematic and literary features, major biblical figures, and foundational narratives of the Qurʾan. Explorations of medieval exegetical literature on the Qurʾan and its reception in the early (8th - 10th century CE) and medieval periods (11th - 15th century CE) will feature in this course.

Instructor(s): Mehmetcan Akpinar     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. This course counts as a Gateway course for RLST majors/minors.
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 30040, MDVL 11040, RLST 11040, FNDL 11040, NEHC 11040

NEHC 30050. Introduction to Hadith Literature. 100 Units.

This course offers an introduction to hadith literature, which encompasses traditions about the life of the prophet Muhammad, his speeches and deeds. The aim is to familiarize students with the basic terminology, the different genres of hadith literature, the development of the classical hadith scholarship, the most important hadith collections, as well as studies on hadith criticism. We will examine the methods of collecting and transmitting the hadiths in Islamic history, their evaluation and assessment by Muslim scholars, the role of hadiths in law, theology and Sufism, and the modern academic debates on the authenticity of the hadiths. Additionally, the course will engage with the genesis of Twelve Shiite and Zaidi hadith.

Instructor(s): Mehmetcan Akpinar     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20050, RLST 11050, ISLM 30050

NEHC 30070. Imperial Ways of Knowing: Mughals and Ottomans. 100 Units.

This course explores the interplay between knowledge, history, and power by focusing on two non-Western empires: the Mughals and the Ottomans. The course will proceed thematically, and touch on a range of topics, such as, science, archives, religion, economy, food, textiles, and military affairs. How were knowledge and empire mutually dependent in the Middle East and South Asia? What did imperial powers want to know, what kinds of knowledges did they produce, and to what ends? How was knowledge transmitted, distributed, and received? As historical knowledge, how do we come to know what we know about these empires? We will also consider the divergent histories of each empire's interaction with European powers. Students will thereby critically reflect on our own ways of knowing and claims to knowledge about the past in historical imperial contexts. No prior knowledge of Middle Eastern or South Asian history is required for the course. This course meets the Knowledge Formation MAPSS certificate requirement.

Instructor(s): Murat Bozluolcay, S. Prashant Kumar     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 36055, NEHC 20070, HIST 35700

NEHC 30116. Modern Middle East: Three Centuries of Syrian History. 100 Units.

This course uses the vantage point of Syria to survey the history of the Middle East, from the eighteenth century to today. The course will take us from the province of Damascus in the Ottoman Empire to the millions of Syrians in the West in the twenty-first century to understand the changing nature of where Syria is and what being a Syrian meant throughout these three centuries. As this course will reveal, the interlocutors of this question included rioting craftsmen and Janissaries, a local US vice-consul in Damascus, the nomads of the Syrian desert, émigré Syrian critics of the Ottoman Empire, agronomists invested in national economy, men of business as well as those of religion, and an authoritarian regime and a people who rose against it. As we unravel the social, political, economic, and intellectual processes that shaped the Syrian identity, we will cover milestone events such as the infamous interconfessional massacres of 1860, the end of the Ottoman Empire, the Baathist coup of 1963, or the Syrian Revolution in the context of the Arab Spring of the early 2010s. The course material will include scholarly texts as well as excerpts from Syrian texts, novels, and films in translation.

Instructor(s): Murat Bozluolcay     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 36085, NEHC 20116

NEHC 30160. Central Asia Past and Present/From Alexander the Great to Al Qaeda. 100 Units.

Central Asia Past and Present serves as a multi-disciplinary course, spanning anthropology, history and political science. This course introduces students to the fluid, political-geographic concept of Central Asia as well as to the historical and cultural dimensions of this particular and oft-redefined world. My understanding of Central Asia comes from studies of ex-Soviet Central Asia, which includes five independent countries (since 1991) within central Eurasia--the former U.S.S.R. Thus the course encompasses Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in addition to parts of northern Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and western China (Xinjiang/Sinkiang). Students will familiarize themselves with universal and divergent factors among the Central Asian peoples based on phenomena such as human migrations, cross-cultural influences, historical events, and the economic organization of peoples based on local ecology and natural boundaries. Working together and as individuals, we will study maps and atlases to gain a fuller understanding of historical movements and settlements of the Central Asian peoples.

Instructor(s): R. Zanca
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20160, ANTH 23616, ANTH 32206

NEHC 30202. Islamicate Civilization II: 950-1750. 100 Units.

This course, a continuation of Islamicate Civilization I, surveys intellectual, cultural, religious and political developments in the Islamic world from Andalusia to the South Asian sub-continent during the periods from ca. 950 to 1750. We trace the arrival and incorporation of the Steppe Peoples (Turks and Mongols) into the central Islamic lands; the splintering of the Abbasid Caliphate and the impact on political theory; the flowering of literature of Arabic, Turkic and Persian expression; the evolution of religious and legal scholarship and devotional life; transformations in the intellectual and philosophical traditions; the emergence of Shi`i states (Buyids and Fatimids); the Crusades and Mongol conquests; the Mamluks and Timurids, and the "gunpowder empires" of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Moghuls; the dynamics of gender and class relations; etc. This class partially fulfills the requirement for MA students in CMES, as well as for NELC majors and PhD students.

Instructor(s): Mustafa Kaya     Terms Offered: Winter. This course will not be offered for the 2021-2022 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): Islamicate Civilization I (NEHC 20201) or Islamic Thought & Literature-1 (NEHC 20601), or the equivalent
Note(s): The Islamicate Civilization sequence does not fulfill the General Ed requirements
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20202, RLST 20202, ISLM 30202, HIST 15612, MDVL 20202, HIST 35622

NEHC 30203. Islamicate Civilization III: 1750-Present. 100 Units.

This course covers the period from ca. 1750 to the present, focusing on Western military, economic, and ideological encroachment; the impact of such ideas as nationalism and liberalism; efforts at reform in the Islamic states; the emergence of the "modern" Middle East after World War I; the struggle for liberation from Western colonial and imperial control; the Middle Eastern states in the cold war era; and local and regional conflicts.

Instructor(s): Carl Shook     Terms Offered: Spring. This course will not be offered for the 2021-2022 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): Islamicate Civilization II (NEHC 20202) or Islamic Thought & Literature-2 (NEHC 20602), or the equivalent
Note(s): The Islamicate Civilization sequence does not fulfill the General Ed requirements
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 15613, NEHC 20203, ISLM 30203, RLST 20203, HIST 35623

NEHC 30204. Islamic Intellectual History. 100 Units.

The course introduces students to current methodological trends in the Western study of intellectual history and then examines debates and discourses in the field of Islamic intellectual historiography, with a focus on selected examples. Students will develop and present individual original research projects.

Instructor(s): Ahmed El-Shamsy     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20204, HIST 25714, HIST 35714

NEHC 30300. Introductory Qur'anic Arabic III. 100 Units.

This course is the third in a 3-quarter sequence "Introduction to Qur'anic Arabic" (IQA), which aims to provide students with foundational philological and reading skills by covering the essentials of Qur'anic/Classical Arabic grammar. This course also features readings of select passages from the Qur'an, Ḥadīth and Tafsīr. The 3 quarters of IQA are sequential, and students are strongly encouraged to join in the first quarter. Exceptions can be made on a case by case basis.

Instructor(s): graduate student instructor TBD     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Graduate and undergraduate students from any department are welcome to register. The minimum prerequisite for IQA III is the successful completion of IQA II or equivalent training. The IQA sequence is also open to students who may have had more exposure to Arabic (modern or classical) but wish to acquire a solid foundation in Arabic grammar, and/or students who feel they are not yet ready for third-year Arabic courses.
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 30300, RLST 15300

NEHC 30350. Bordering the Middle East: Imperial State-building and its Legacies. 100 Units.

In this course, students will learn about the bordering of the Middle East, as a regional whole, and in the particulars of individual nation-state boundaries, in the 19th and 20th centuries. We will study ideas about North African and Southwest Asian geography, history, and culture, and their use, by Ottoman, British, and French imperial actors engaged in creating and enforcing political boundaries. We will also learn about the impacts of these borders on the lives of the bordered in the past and present.

Instructor(s): Carl Shook     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20350

NEHC 30504. Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

The course introduces the Jewish/Hebrew Bible as a literary treasury with a material history. We will survey the genres and the different works, review scholarly theories about the texts and about ideas in them, and situate them in the history of Israel and Judea and in the culture of ancient Southwest Asia. We will also engage theories of history, literature, and narrative. The course includes a weekly Discussion Section for mixed-modes activities and conceptual discussions.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. This course counts as a Gateway course for RLST majors/minors.
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 20120, FNDL 11004, BIBL 31000, RLST 11004, HIJD 31004, NEHC 20504

NEHC 30568. Balkan Folklore. 100 Units.

Vampires, fire-breathing dragons, vengeful mountain nymphs. 7/8 and other uneven dance beats, heart-rending laments, and a living epic tradition. This course is an overview of Balkan folklore from historical, political, and anthropological perspectives. We seek to understand folk tradition as a dynamic process and consider the function of different folklore genres in the imagining and maintenance of community and the socialization of the individual. We also experience this living tradition firsthand through visits of a Chicago-based folk dance ensemble, "Balkan Dance."

Instructor(s): Angelina Ilieva     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20568, CMLT 33301, REES 29009, ANTH 25908, ANTH 35908, CMLT 23301, REES 39009

NEHC 30570. Mughal India: Tradition & Transition. 100 Units.

The focus of this course is on the period of Mughal rule during the late sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, especially on selected issues that have been at the center of historiographical debate in the past decades.

Instructor(s): M. Alam     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Advanced standing or consent of instructor. Prior knowledge of appropriate history and secondary literature required.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20570, HIST 26602, HIST 36602, SALC 27701, SALC 37701

NEHC 30573. The Burden of History: The Nation and Its Lost Paradise. 100 Units.

What makes it possible for the imagined communities called nations to command the emotional attachments that they do? This course considers some possible answers to Benedict Anderson's question on the basis of material from the Balkans. We will examine the transformation of the scenario of paradise, loss, and redemption into a template for a national identity narrative through which South East European nations retell their Ottoman past. With the help of Žižek's theory of the subject as constituted by trauma and Kant's notion of the sublime, we will contemplate the national fixation on the trauma of loss and the dynamic between victimhood and sublimity.

Instructor(s): Angelina Ilieva     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 24005, CMLT 33401, REES 29013, NEHC 20573, CMLT 23401, HIST 34005, REES 39013

NEHC 30600. Saints and Sinners in Late Antiquity. 100 Units.

Between the third and seventh centuries, Christian communities came to flourish throughout the Middle East and neighboring regions in the Roman and Iranian empires as well as the kingdoms of the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Ethiopia. This course will examine the development of Christian institutions and ideologies in relation to the distinctive social structures, political cultures, economies, and environments of the Middle East, with a focus on the Fertile Crescent. The makers of Middle Eastern Christianities were both saints and sinners. Holy men and women, monks, and sometimes bishops withdrew from what they often called "the world" with the intention of reshaping society through prayer, asceticism, and writing; some also intervened directly in social, political, and economic relations. The work of these saints depended on the cooperation of aristocrats, merchants, and rulers who established enduring worldly institutions. To explore the dialectical relationship between saints and sinners, we will read lives of saints in various Middle Eastern languages in translation.

Instructor(s): R. Payne     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 31613, HIST 25613, NEHC 20600, RLST 21613, HIST 35613

NEHC 30625. Approaches to the Study of the Ancient Near East. 100 Units.

This is a required introductory course for all CMES ancient-track students.

Instructor(s): Brian Muhs     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CMES 31002

NEHC 30645. History of the Fatimid Caliphate. 100 Units.

This course will cover the history of the Fatimid (Shiite) caliphate, from its foundation in the North Africa about 909 until its end in Egypt 1171. Most of the material will be presented in classroom lectures. Sections of the course deal with Fatimid history treated chronologically and others with separate institutions and problems as they changed and developed throughout the whole time period. Readings heavily favored or highly recommended are all in English.

Instructor(s): P. Walker     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 24401, HIST 34401, MDVL 20645, NEHC 20645

NEHC 30692. Armenian History through Art and Culture. 100 Units.

Who are the Armenians and where do they come from? What is the cultural contribution of Armenians to their neighbors and overall world heritage? This crash-course will try to answer these and many other similar questions while surveying Armenian history and elements of culture (mythology, religion, manuscript illumination, art, architecture, etc.). It also will discuss transformations of Armenian identity and symbols of 'Armenianness' through time, based on such elements of national identity as language, religion, art, or shared history. Due to the greatest artistic quality and the transcultural nature of its monuments and artifacts, Armenia has much to offer in the field of Art History, especially when we think about global transculturation and appropriation among cultures as a result of peoples' movements and contacts. The course is recommended for students with interest in Armenian Studies or related fields, in Area or Civilizations Studies, Art and Cultural Studies, etc.

Instructor(s): Hripsime Haroutunian     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 20692, HIST 25711, NEHC 20692, ARTH 20692

NEHC 30755. Research Topics in Ottoman History. 100 Units.

This course will discuss current trends in research for 19th and early 20th Century Ottoman and Turkish history.

Instructor(s): Holly Shissler     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Consent of Instructor required

NEHC 30802. Empires and Peoples: Ethnicity in Late Antiquity. 100 Units.

Late antiquity witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of peoples in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Vandals, Arabs, Goths, Huns, Franks, and Iranians, among numerous others, took shape as political communities within the Roman and Iranian empires or along their peripheries. Recent scholarship has undone the traditional image of these groups as previously undocumented communities of "barbarians" entering history. Ethnic communities emerge from the literature as political constructions dependent on the very malleability of identities, on specific acts of textual and artistic production, on particular religious traditions, and, not least, on the imperial or postimperial regimes sustaining their claims to sovereignty. The colloquium will debate the origin, nature, and roles of ethno-political identities and communities comparatively across West Asia, from the Western Mediterranean to the Eurasian steppes, on the basis of recent contributions. As a historiographical colloquium, the course will address the contemporary cultural and political concerns-especially nationalism-that have often shaped historical accounts of ethnogenesis in the period as well as bio-historical approaches-such as genetic history-that sometimes sit uneasily with the recent advances of historians.

Instructor(s): R. Payne     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Open to advanced undergraduates and graduate students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 20902, MDVL 20902, CLAS 33718, HIST 30902, NEHC 20802, CLCV 23718

NEHC 30808. Biography of the Prophet Muhammad. 100 Units.

This introductory course offers an overview of Prophet Muhammad's life as portrayed in the early and medieval Arabic narrative tradition and through the lens of modern scholarship. We will discuss a diverse range of topics, such as life in pre-Islamic Arabia, the Prophet's early life before prophethood, the first revelations, the Meccan period, his migration to Medina, his religio-political leadership and the military expeditions during the Medinan period, his reported miracles, etc. At the same time, students will gain an overview of the sira/maghaz' literature, i.e., the texts devoted to the life of the Prophet Muhammad in the Muslim tradition. Modern methodological questions which concern the reliability of the narrative traditions in reconstructing the biography of the "historical Muhammad" and a wide range of approaches developed in Western academia to overcome problems related to the source material will also be addressed.

Instructor(s): Mehmetcan Akpinar     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): No background in Islamic studies or Arabic language required.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20808, MDVL 20808, NEHC 20808, ISLM 30808

NEHC 30838. Further Topics in Late Ottoman History-1. 100 Units.

This course will introduce students to a number of important topics in Eighteenth and nineteenth century Ottoman history, such as the nature of the great local notables, the growing importance of proteges, and the bureaucratic reform.

Instructor(s): H. Shissler     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Open to Graduate students and undergraduates with some knowledge of Middle Eastern History.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20838

NEHC 30891-30892. Seminar: Introduction to the Ottoman Press I-II.

This is a 2-quarter research seminar.  Part 1 may be taken independently. Course introduces students to the historical context and specific characteristics of the mass printed press (newspapers, cultural and political journals, etc.) in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th C.  We will investigate issues such as content, censorship, production, readership and distribution through secondary reading and the examination of period publications.

NEHC 30893. Sem: WWI in the Ottoman Empire-1. 100 Units.

World War I in the Ottoman Empire. This course will examine WWI in in the Ottoman Empire broadly, considering social, economic, and military aspects of the conflict and with attention to the wartime experience for those at the front and on the home front. This is a two-quarter seminar, where the first quarter can be taken independently as a colloquium-style course for credit.

Instructor(s): Holly Shissler     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Instructor consent required for undergraduates
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 59301

NEHC 30937. Nationalism & Colonialism in the Middle East. 100 Units.

The seminar covers the history of the region during the 19th and 20th centuries. It looks at how the modern historiography of modern Middle Eastern studies shaped, and was shaped by, post-colonial studies, subaltern studies, and historical perceptions of urbanity, modernity, Orientlaism, and class. The class will pay heed to the fluid and constructed nature of Arab national culture, and the terminology used by Arab nationalists concerning "nahda," "revival," and "rebirth." We will explore various "golden ages" Arab nationalists envisioned, like pre-Islamic Semitic empires, the first Islamic state under the leadership of the Prophet Muhammad, the Ummayds, the Abbasids and Muslim Spain, as a way of analyzing the the constructed and temporal nature of national discourses. We will finally examine the distinction between Pan-Arab nationalism (qawmiyya), which considered Arab culture, history, and language as markers of one's national identity, and often strove for political unity with other Arab states; and territorial-patriotic nationalism (wataniyya), which hailed the national cultures of particular Arab states (Egyptian, Iraqi, Lebanese), focusing on their geography, archaeology, and history the key features of national identity.

Instructor(s): Orit Bashkin     Terms Offered: Autumn

NEHC 31451. Rhoades Seminar: Reading Ancient Egyptian Art. 100 Units.

For millennia ancient Egyptian artists constructed visual narratives on tomb chapel walls, temple structures, and other material remains - such as stelae - that provide glimpses of lived experiences in the land that gave rise to this ancient African culture. Focusing on two-dimensional representations produced in Egypt (ancient Kemet) between approximately 3000-1069 BCE, this course will consider the functions of such pictorial accounts within their original contexts and explore approaches to reading and interpreting them. We will investigate topics including depictions of "daily life" on the Nile, royal sojourns to foreign lands, and the imagined landscapes of the underworld, deconstructing scenes and the ancient artistic conventions used to produce them. Particular emphasis will be placed on how the natural environment of North Africa is reflected in the arts of ancient Egypt, from detailed renderings of indigenous flora and fauna to interpretations of the physical landscape. Sources will include ancient texts in translation and firsthand examination of Egyptian artifacts in Chicagoland museums, including the ISAC Museum.

Instructor(s): A. Arico     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 21451, NEHC 21451, ARTH 31451

NEHC 31500. Mourning and Struggle in African, Native American, and Palestinian Narratives. 100 Units.

In this course, we will explore themes spanning three diverse bodies of literature and film, identifying points of connection and difference between expressions of sorrow and resistance in African, Native American, and Palestinian works. We focus on portrayals of mourning and examine how in response to catastrophic experiences and histories of colonialism, writers and filmmakers narrate loss and trauma. We will investigate how these authors renegotiate their identities, how they fashion national and political imaginaries, and how they envision alternative futures. Together, we will analyze source materials related to the themes of violence, memory, gender, and race. Through our weekly assignments and discussions, we will seek to determine the tropes and aesthetic tools that ignite modes of storytelling, and to answer: how do writers and artists employ aesthetic form to portray catastrophes? How might expressions of grief also be mobilized for resistance and struggle? Our class will be organized into three modules, touching upon African, Native American, and Palestinian prose, poetry, and film alongside theoretical works in memory and trauma studies. By the end of the quarter, students will be able to develop their own complex evaluations of these narratives-and recognize how comparisons through artistic expression can be a powerful tool for amplifying a multiplicity of stories about mourning and defiance.

Instructor(s): Stephanie Kraver     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GLST 21500, NEHC 21500, RDIN 21500, RDIN 31500, CMLT 31505, CMLT 21505

NEHC 32419. Major Trends in Islamic Mysticism. 100 Units.

An examination of Islamic mysticism, commonly known as Sufism, through secondary English literature and translations of premodern Arabic Sufi texts. The goal is to gain firsthand insight into the diverse literary expressions of Islamic spirituality in their historical context, and to understand exactly what, how, and why Sufis say what they say.

Instructor(s): Yousef Casewit     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): SIGN 26068, RLST 24550, NEHC 24550, MDVL 24550, GLST 24550, ISLM 32419

NEHC 32451. Readings in Islamic Law. 100 Units.

This course explores theological, philosophical, and Sufi approaches to Islamic law in the premodern Islamic world, with a focus on the acts of worship ('ibādāt) such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage (ḥajj). In addition to discussing secondary literature addressing themes of agency, reason and scripture, sources of law, the epistemic foundations of legal reasoning, and embodiment, we will study selected texts authored by key figures such as Ghazālī, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Ibn 'Arabī, Mullā Ṣadrā, and Qāḍī Sa'īd Qummī [in translation]. All readings will be available in English.

Instructor(s): Nariman Aavani     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): No prerequisites, but there will be opportunities for students with Arabic or Persian proficiency to make use of it.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 32451, NEHC 20300, RLST 20300

NEHC 32501. Islamic Ethics I: Foundations. 100 Units.

A graduate seminar that familiarizes students with a field without sharp counters through an encounter with basic theoretical issues and classical texts. We set the Islamic tradition in conversation with issues ranging from individual flourishing and the organization of society to conceptions of law and prophecy. The course is framed by consideration of the possibilities and pitfalls of the field as presently construed, understanding the contested nature of both 'ethics' and 'Islam.'

Instructor(s): Raissa von Doetinchem de Rande     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates may petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 32500, RETH 32500

NEHC 32502. Persian Literary Translation Through the Translation of Hafez. 100 Units.

Persian Literary Translation Through the Translation of Hafez Translating poetry is often a challenging endeavor, but translating Persian classical poetry is especially complex for several reasons, including the genre's prevalence of ebhām (ambiguity) and ihām (polyvalence). These challenges have caused many literary translators to dub Hafez's poetry as practically untranslatable, yet nonetheless there have been many attempts at translation, with varying degrees of success. This course aims to both explore the specific challenges translators of Hafez have encountered and also to strengthen students' literary translation skill through the translation of Hafez's works. After conducting a survey of existing translations of Hafez and other Persian classical poets, hands-on translations of several ghazals of Hafez will foster a better understanding of the multilayered meanings of his poetry. In addition, published as well as video sources on literary translation will serve as an introduction to prevailing theories of translation and to efficient methodologies of translating literary texts. The course being essentially designed to familiarize students with the practice of translation, students will create and refine their own translations of selected poems of Hafez. The complete term paper must be 10-15 pages of typed double-spaced font 12 text and include the introductory essay, the translation, and the original poems.

Instructor(s): Shabani-Jadidi, Pouneh     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): PERS 20102
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 22502, PERS 20502

NEHC 32700. Biblical Law. 100 Units.

This course will examine the laws in the Torah/Pentateuch and elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible for their legal, social, and moral reasoning; their style; their meaning in literary works, as literature; and their historical setting. It will compare them to laws in other ancient works like the Hammurabi monument(s).

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 22700, HIJD 32700, RLST 22700, JWSC 22702, BIBL 32700

NEHC 32906. The Book of Ezekiel. 100 Units.

A seminar for reading the Book of Ezekiel (in English; optional reading group for those who read biblical Hebrew), the Bible's most bizarre and challenging Prophetic work. It features Ezekiel's close encounters with a brutal divine, instantaneous transportation to future spaces and faraway places, dream-scenes that become real, mortifying dramatizations, and surreal sensory overload. Ezekiel says he played the role of a crude mime, a confounding cryptic, and an erotic singer. This charged and disturbing work generated a variety of literary and speculative Jewish and Christian traditions, like the Apocalyptic and the Mystical. Modern Bible critics discount its retrospective frame, consider it a repository of historical materials, and probe Ezekiel for personality disorders. We will engage it the way it presents itself to us, as literature, in a which a character tells his glorious and troubled story, and explore its frame, content, poetics, Judean literary traditions, contemporary Babylonian scene, and historical message.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 32906, JWSC 22906, BIBL 32906, RLST 22906, NEHC 22906

NEHC 33271. Islamic Education in West Africa. 100 Units.

This course will critically explore the history of Islamic scholarship and the transmission of religious knowledge and scholarly authority in West African Muslim societies from the late medieval period to the present day. We will examine a variety of knowledge traditions, textual and pedagogical approaches, epistemologies, and embodied practices of Muslim scholars and students of the region in order to understand what it means to seek, transmit, and create knowledge in the context of West African Muslim societies. In addition to relevant secondary literature, we will read passages from some of the texts taught in these places. Intermediate Arabic is recommended, but not required for this course.

Instructor(s): Abubakar Abdulkadir     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20271, KNOW 33271, ISLM 33271, NEHC 20271

NEHC 33524. Constantinople, Byzantine and Ottoman: Crossroads of East and West. 100 Units.

Constantinople (modern Istanbul) was founded in 324 AD to be the capital of the eastern Roman empire. It did this until 1453, when it became the capital of the emerging Ottoman empire, a function that it served until 1922. No city in history has, for so long, served continually as the capital of two successive empires that, in their various incarnations, stradled Europe, Asia, and Africa and played a major role in shaping global politics and world culture. In this course, students will learn about these two parallel histories and cultures through a series of paired thematic units: Foundations; Imperial Cultures; Religious Cultures; and Hagia Sophia (a monument that continues to be a flashpoint for competing claims to the past and modern identities). One week in the middle will be devoted to Transitions, namely to the period around the siege of 1453, before which many Turks lived under east Roman rule and after which most Romans (Greeks) lived under Ottoman rule. The instructors will foster creative dialogue between these two cultures by focusing, in each unit, on exemplary monuments and primary written sources. Students will explore how public authority was claimed and contested, and how each phase of the city's history appropriated or sidelined the legacy of its own past.

Instructor(s): Anthony Kaldellis; Hakan Karateke      Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): CLCV 23524, CLAS 33524, NEHC 23524

NEHC 33704. Religion in Modern Iran. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 33404, AASR 33404

NEHC 33825. Human Rights in the Middle East. 100 Units.

This seminar explores the broad range of human rights struggles, concerns and activism in the contemporary Middle East region. The class will examine human rights issues posed by authoritarian, dictatorial and single-party state formations in the Middle East particularly by looking at the effects of internal security apparatuses, mechanisms of state violence, and struggles for political participation and liberty. We explore ongoing indigenous struggles for recognition and autonomy, such as the Kurdish, Sahrawi and Amazigh cases, while also contextualizing the region's complex history of colonial and neocolonial interventions by force and their human rights implications. We will examine the varied roles that non-state actors play in Middle Eastern human rights spheres, from militias to NGOs to religious and communal structures. The course will look to local actors and movements to explore forms of resistance, struggle, and social change while maneuvering through often highly-constrained political spaces. We pay particular attention to marginalized communities by looking at the rights struggles of minorities, women, children, migrant workers, the disabled, and the LGBTQ+ community in Middle Eastern contexts. Personal Status Laws and their effects on rights, especially with regard to marital relations and parental rights are considered. Interdisciplinary and varied modes of knowledge production including film serve as source materials.

Instructor(s): Lindsay Gifford, Pozen Center for Human Rights Assistant Research Professor     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GLST 23825, HMRT 23825, NEHC 23825, HMRT 33825

NEHC 34305. Exile and Émigré Literature. 100 Units.

This course navigates the global refugee, exilic, expatriate and émigré crises and experiences as modes of displacement that permeate modern and contemporary literature. Using a comparative approach, this course offers a sustained and nuanced examination of the notion of displacement in most of its forms as represented by many canonical literary works produced by writers of various nations. This course compares the historical, socio-political, economic, cultural and national motives behind the experiences of displacement discussed throughout the course. The main topics covered in this course are: Loss, Alienation and Disorientation, Displacement and Gender Crossing, Displacement and Imperialistic Gestures, Displacement and Mobility, Displacement and Self-fashioning, Acts of Departure: Roots and Routes, Home-Abroad Dichotomy, Displacement, Memory and the Narrative/Poetic Imagination, Displacement and Individual/ National Identity, Abjection and Assimilation, Cross-Cultural Psychology and Dialogical Acculturation, The Crisis of Acceptance and Belonging, Biopolitics and Zoopolitics, The American Dream and Otherness.

Instructor(s): Ahmad Qabaha     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 23434, ENGL 33434, CMLT 34305, RDIN 34305, CMLT 24305, RDIN 24305, NEHC 24305

NEHC 34567. Islamic Psychology. 100 Units.

An exploration of the growing body of secondary literature on Islamic psychology. Relevant premodern approaches to mental well-being, rooted in scriptural, theological, philosophical, and mystical sources will be examined alongside contemporary literature that synthesizes modern psychology with Islamic teachings. No Arabic required.

Instructor(s): Yousef Casewit     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 24567, ISLM 34567, RLST 24567

NEHC 34590. Early Islamic Theological (Kalām) Texts. 100 Units.

This course offers the opportunity of engaging first-hand with the Arabic texts that define the discussions and polemics in Islamic theology of the formative period (7-10th centuries). Besides studying texts from different genres and produced by authors of differing theological orientations, we will discuss a wide range of themes, such as faith, free will, God's attributes, revelation, etc., in their intellectual and polemical contexts. The study of the primary readings will be supplemented by secondary scholarly literature. The main objective of this course is to enable students to understand the early theological texts in their religious and historical contexts, which will also inform their study of the major theological works of the Islamic tradition in the later periods.

Instructor(s): Mehmetcan Akpinar     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): 2 years of Arabic required.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 24590, NEHC 24590, MDVL 24590, ISLM 34590

NEHC 34592. Jewish and Islamic Ethics in al-Andalus. 100 Units.

This course will include readings in Jewish and Islamic ethics from al-Andalus and the Maghrib with a focus on the writings of Maimonides (d. 1204) -- especially his "Eight Chapters" and Commentary on Avot (completed in the 1160s) and Ibn al-Mar'a of Malaga (d. 1214) -- especially his commentary on Ibn al-'Arif.

Instructor(s): Jim Robinson and Yousef Casewit     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 24592, NEHC 24592, HIJD 34592, MDVL 24592, RLST 24592, ISLM 34592, RETH 34592

NEHC 34815. Collecting the Ancient World: Museum Practice and Politics. 100 Units.

Where is this artifact from? Who does it belong to? How did it get here? Who's telling its story? Critical inquiry into the practice and politics of museums has reached a new zenith in contemporary discourse. From discussions of acquisition and repatriation to provenience (archaeological findspot) and provenance (an object's ownership history) and the ethics of curation and modes of display, museum and art professionals-and the general public alike-are deliberating on the concept of museums and the responsibilities of such institutions towards the collections in their care. This course will explore the early history of museums and collecting practices and their impact on the field today, with a focus on cultural heritage collections from West Asia and North Africa. We will first spend time on such topics as archaeological exploration of "the Orient," colonial collecting practices, and the antiquities trade, as well as the politics of representation and reception in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Next, we will look at critical issues presently facing museums, including ethical collection stewardship, provenance research, repatriation, community engagement, and public education. The course will be structured in a seminar format, with lectures devoted to the presentation of key themes by the instructor and critical discussion as a group. Meetings will include visits to the ISAC Museum at UChicago.

Instructor(s): K. Neumann     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 24815, ARTH 34815, HIST 20509, HIST 30509, NEHC 24815

NEHC 35004. Readings in Ibn Tufayl's Hayy b. Yaqzan. 100 Units.

A study of Ibn Tufayl's twelfth-century philosophical/mystical romance about a boy spontaneously generated on a desert island who achieves knowledge of God through empirical study of nature. The many themes in Hayy ibn Yaqzan will be studied in relation to the philosophical literature that formed it and in light of recent modern scholarship about it.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 25105, HIJD 35004, MDVL 15004, RLST 25105, ISLM 35004

NEHC 35218. Suhrawardi and His Interpreters. 100 Units.

Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī (d. 1191), the founder of the ishrāqī philosophical tradition, is undoubtedly one of the most innovative and influential philosophers in the history of Islamic thought. In this seminar, we will examine major themes in the writings of Suhrawardī along with excerpts from Arabic commentaries by Muslim and Jewish authors such as Ibn Kammūnah (d. 1284), Shahrazūrī (d. 1288), Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī (d. 1311), Dawānī (d.1502), Dashtakī (d. 1542), Qarabāghī (d. 1625) and Harawī (d. 1689). Topics include, Suhrawardī's understanding of the history of philosophy, light and the order of existence, virtues and human happiness, self-knowledge and self-awareness, conceptual and non-conceptual knowledge, and theory of ritual actions.

Instructor(s): Nariman Aavani     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): 2 years of Arabic.
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 25218, NEHC 25218, MDVL 25218, ISLM 35218, RLST 25218

NEHC 35705. The last century of Persian in India (c. 1770-1850): Persian literary culture and its transformation. 100 Units.

In this seminar we will read original texts and familiarize students with archival research on Persian materials from the colonial period, looking at examples in original manuscripts and lithographed editions. Despite being rarely considered by historians of Persian cultural history and historians of British India, this period saw a fascinating profusion of writings, composed in particular by Hindu and Muslim scribes commissioned by British officers. Throughout the course we will emphasize the crucial role of Persian and Persian-writing Indian literati for the early colonial state administration and intelligence. Besides looking at works produced in a colonial context, we will examine the transformation of prose writing amongst Persianate literati in North Indian cities.

Instructor(s): Jean Arzoumanov     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 25705, SALC 25705, SALC 35705

NEHC 36103. Dreams, Visions, and Mystical Experience. 100 Units.

An exploration of primary literature and secondary scholarship on dream interpretation, luminous vision, and religious experience, with a focus on the writings of figures from the late North African Sufi tradition such as 'Ali al-Jamal and 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Dabbagh.

Instructor(s): Yousef Casewit     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 26103, NEHC 26103, ISLM 36103

NEHC 36107. Moving Objects, Dispersed Cultures: Case Studies from China and the Middle East. 100 Units.

In this course, we will delve into "big problems" created by the movement, relocation, or displacement of objects that are assigned special cultural, artistic, and historical values in new contexts. We will follow the movement of artifacts across both geographical and disciplinary boundaries, challenging established notions of cultural heritage and art. We often study and read ancient texts as primary sources, but we don't always pause to consider that those texts were written on physical objects like pieces of wood, leaves, or animal skin. Similarly, we're familiar with the display of ancient artwork inside museums or galleries, but have we wondered about the journey of individual objects to those new locations? How do objects move from their original place to modern collections? How do they become art? And how do they become historical sources? Guided by an art historian and a social historian, this course presents different ways to look at "objects that move", both as sources about past societies and as mirrors for contemporary ones. Through studying examples from the history of China and the Middle East, we will reconsider concepts such as cultural heritage, national patrimony, or even art that have been taken for granted. We will learn about the different histories of the dispersal of cultural heritages in those two regions, from nation-building and colonial projects in the twentieth century to the illicit trade in antiquities and the creation of digital replicas today.

Instructor(s): Wei-Cheng Lin, Cecilia Palombo     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: Third or fourth-year standing.
Equivalent Course(s): BPRO 27100, ARTH 16107, RLST 26107, ARTH 36107, EALC 16107, EALC 36107, NEHC 16107

NEHC 36151. The History of Iraq in the 20th Century. 100 Units.

The class explores the history of Iraq during the years 1917-2015. We will discuss the rise of the Iraqi nation state, Iraqi and Pan-Arab nationalism, and Iraqi authoritarianism. The class will focus on the unique histories of particular group in Iraqi society; religious groups (Shiis, Sunnis, Jews), ethnic groups (especially Kurds), classes (the urban poor, the educated middle classes, the landed and tribal elites), Iraqi women, and Iraqi tribesmen. Other classes will explore the ideologies that became prominent in the Iraqi public sphere, from communism to Islamic radicalism. We will likewise discuss how colonialism and imperialism shaped major trends in Iraqi history. The reading materials for the class are based on a combination of primary and secondary sources: we will read together Iraqi novels, memoirs and poems (in translation), as well as British and American diplomatic documents about Iraq.

Instructor(s): Orit Bashkin     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): SIGN 26028, NEHC 26151

NEHC 36250. Introduction to Islamic Theology. 100 Units.

Survey of ideas and arguments formulated by renowned Muslim theologians and responses that their doctrines triggered. Major doctrines will be covered, starting with early debates over the nature of belonging to the Muslim community, the nature of God, revelation, prophecy, freewill and predestination. The course roughly follows the historical development of Islamic theology in conversation with other Islamic sciences (philosophy, sufism, law), with a close examination of the confrontation between a group of rationalist theologians (Muʿtazilites), the traditionalist hadith-scholars, and the emergence of Sunni Ashʿarite theology between the 9th and 11th centuries.

Instructor(s): Yousef Casewit     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): No knowledge of Arabic is required. Reading materials will be in English. Open to graduate students. This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23250, NEHC 23250, ISLM 36250

NEHC 36500. The Radiant Pearl: Introduction to Syriac Literature and its Historical Contexts. 100 Units.

After Greek and Latin, Syriac literature represents the third largest corpus of writings from the formative centuries of Christianity. This course offers students a comprehensive overview of the dominant genres and history of Syriac-speaking Christians from the early centuries through the modern day. Moving beyond traditional historiography that focuses exclusively on early Christianity within the Roman Empire, this class examines Christian traditions that took root in the Persian and later Islamic Empires as well. Through studying the history and literature of Syriac-speaking Christians, the global reach of early Christianity and its diversity comes to the fore. Syriac-speaking Christians preached the Gospel message from the Arabian Peninsula to early modern China and India. Syriac writers also raised female biblical figures and holy women to prominent roles within their works. Students will broaden their understanding of the development of Christian thought as they gain greater familiarity with understudied voices and visions for Christian living found within Syriac literature. Special attention will be paid to biblical translation, asceticism, poetry, differences between ecclesial communities as well as the changing political fortunes of Syriac-speaking populations. No previous knowledge or study expected.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 36500, GNSE 26505, NEHC 26500, GNSE 36505, RLST 16500, BIBL 36500

NEHC 36702. Arabic into Hebrew: Translation and Cultural Change during the Middle Ages. 100 Units.

Religions, like all cultural phenomena, are akin to organic beings: they change, grow and adapt, absorb and assimilate what they encounter, become transformed constantly in relation to challenges and opportunities - and sometimes react against them. This course will focus on one example of religious-cultural-philosophical adaptation and change through a study of the medieval translation of Arabic and Judeo-Arabic works into Hebrew during the 12th-15th centuries. We will focus on the translations themselves and translation technique, but principally on what was translated and why, when and where, by whom and for whom. All this with an added emphasis on the result: how did Judaism and Jewish culture change through translation - in all its forms - during the high middle ages.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 26702, CMLT 36702, HREL 36702, JWSC 26702, ISLM 36702, NEHC 26702, HIJD 36702, RLST 26702, RLVC 36702, MDVL 26702

NEHC 37213. Partings, Encounters, and Entangled Histories: The Formation of Judaism and Christianity. 100 Units.

When did the fault lines between Judaism and Christianity emerge? This course explores this question by examining the formation of Judaism and Christianity within the world of the Ancient Mediterranean. What religious views, texts, and practices did Jews and Christians hold in common? How did early writers construct communal boundaries and project "ideal" belief and practice? What role did the changing political tides of the Roman and Persian empires play? We will explore continuities and growing distinctions between Jews and Christians in the areas of scriptural interpretation, ritual practices, and structures of authority. Special attention will be paid to debates around gender and sexuality, healing, and views of government and economics. We will approach these issues through material evidence and close readings of early literature in light of contemporary scholarship. Students interested in modern histories of Judaism and Christianity will gain a firm foundation in the pivotal debates, texts, and events that set the trajectories for later centuries.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): No prerequisite knowledge of the historical periods, literature, or religious traditions covered is expected.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): CLCV 24021, BIBL 37213, HIST 31600, NEHC 27213, HCHR 37213, CLAS 34021, HIJD 37213, JWSC 27213, RLST 27213

NEHC 38003. Islamic Art: Private Collections on Public Display. 100 Units.

In the past decade, two museums in Texas - the MFA Houston and the Dallas Museum of Art -- have suddenly emerged as major centers for Islamic art. Usually, well-developed displays of Islamic art build on sustained institutional commitment to curation over several generations. However, these Texas museums both quickly transformed their abilities to exhibit Islamic art by securing long term loans of significant private collections. With the al-Sabah Collection and the Hossein Afshar Collection, MFA Houston more than doubled its display space for Islamic art in 2023; and similarly, the Dallas Museum of Art has displayed the Keir Collection since 2014. This travelling seminar brings students to Texas for two weeks, facilitating direct study of an expansive range of Islamic arts produced from the medieval period to the present, in materials ranging from silk, parchment, ceramic, and rock crystal; to lacquer, sandstone, metal, jade, and plexiglass. Students will learn basic classification systems for navigating the vast range of Islamic arts, and will also each select a specific work for close study. Upon return to campus, students will develop their thoughts on the object in relation to questions of collection and display. What force does a given object have in shaping, confirming, or challenging logics of collection and display? What might the same object achieve differently within the context of a different, possibly thematic, exhibition?

Instructor(s): P. Berlekamp     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Consent Only
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 28003, ARTH 28003, ARTH 38003

NEHC 38055. Queerness in the Shadow of Empire: Sexualities in the Modern Middle East. 100 Units.

Critics, from both the Right and the Left, claim that liberal sexual regimes are Western, imperial impositions onto Muslim and Middle Eastern societies. On the other hand, LGBTQ+ advocates claim that the restriction of sexuality is itself a colonial legacy. This class will delve into this debate by examining cutting edge empirical and theoretical work on Queer lives in the modern Middle East.

Instructor(s): E. Abelhadi     Terms Offered: Autumn. Distribution: C;3
Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent
Note(s): Distribution: C;3
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 30141, CHDV 28055, RDIN 28055, CHDV 38055, RDIN 38055, GNSE 20141, NEHC 28055

NEHC 38499. How Did The Ancients Interpret Their Myths? 100 Units.

How did the ancient Greeks interpret their own narratives about the gods? How did their encounter with Near Eastern mythologies shape their own story-telling, and how did their understanding and use of myths evolve with time? In this course, we will explore the ancient interpretation of myth from the archaic Greek to the Roman periods. First, we will focus on the cross-cultural adaptations of Near Eastern traditions in Greek epic (Homer and Hesiod), as a form of interpretation itself. Then we will discuss how ancient poets and thinkers interpreted and reinterpreted divine narratives, paying attention to their philosophical, literary, and cultural strategies, from Orphism and Plato to the Stoics and later philosophical schools, including Euhemerism and its engagement with Phoenician mythology.

Instructor(s): Carolina López-Ruiz     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28499, HREL 38499, CLCV 28422, NEHC 28499, CLAS 38422

NEHC 38660. Contemporary Palestinian Life Writing. 100 Units.

This course analyzes a range of Palestinian life narratives produced by authors based in different places, both in Palestine and the diaspora, united in a common cause and a desire to speak out, thereby circulating their works as a form of Palestinian testimony. This course sees these writers conversing with each other, each attempting to represent their own personal experience but also responding to the broader context of ongoing Palestinian dispossession, making this integral to the snapshot of experience they want to narrate. This course shows that such texts, individually meaningful but also conversant with wider concerns and messages of solidarity and advocacy, are ideal components of contemporary Palestinian literature that position itself as future-orientated, and expresses a desire to combat the international community's failure to acknowledge Palestinian rights for justice and self-determination. This course contends that contemporary Palestinian life writing goes beyond narrating the specifics of the conflict in order to reflect on central questions of dignity, justice, and solidarity at the time Palestine is still a place that is not fully recognized. All readings will be in English, although there will be an opportunity to read and discuss texts in the original language (Arabic).

Instructor(s): Ahmad Qabaha     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 38660, ENGL 38661, CMLT 38660, NEHC 28660, CMLT 28660, ENGL 28661, RDIN 28660

NEHC 39023. Returning the Gaze: The West and the Rest. 100 Units.

Aware of being observed. And judged. Inferior... Abject… Angry... Proud… This course provides insight into identity dynamics between the "West," as the center of economic power and self-proclaimed normative humanity, and the "Rest," as the poor, backward, volatile periphery. We investigate the relationship between South East European self-representations and the imagined Western gaze. Inherent in the act of looking at oneself through the eyes of another is the privileging of that other's standard. We will contemplate the responses to this existential position of identifying symbolically with a normative site outside of oneself-self-consciousness, defiance, arrogance, self-exoticization-and consider how these responses have been incorporated in the texture of the national, gender, and social identities in the region. Orhan Pamuk, Ivo Andrić, Nikos Kazantzakis, Aleko Konstantinov, Emir Kusturica, Milcho Manchevski.

Instructor(s): Angelina Ilieva     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 29023, REES 39023, REES 29023, CMLT 39023, HIST 33609, CMLT 29023, HIST 23609

NEHC 39030. Islam, Race and Decoloniality. 100 Units.

This course explores western perspectives, attitudes and representations of Muslims and Islam from medieval European thought, through liberal colonial encounters to contemporary media and political discourses. Students will examine the intersection of race and religion as it applies to the construction of Muslim identity and alterity in the Western imagination. We will explore the remarkable consistency across centuries of the threatening, menacing, barbaric and uncivilized Muslim "Other". The course centers around these Orientalist constructions and will explore the power structures, colonial modalities, epistemological frameworks, and ideological assumptions that perpetuate the racialization of Islam and Muslims within the United States and abroad. This course ultimately aims to uncover potentials for resistance, recovery and renewal through the politics and praxis of decoloniality. Students will gain familiarity with decolonial theory and practices, as well as the important project of 'epistemic delinking' as it is framed by contemporary scholars intent on challenging, possibly undoing and remapping the Muslim experience within global liberal political modernity.

Instructor(s): Maliha Chishti     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 29030, NEHC 29030, ISLM 39030, RDIN 39030, ANTH 29030, KNOW 39030, ANTH 39030, RDIN 29030

NEHC 39765. Cultural Heritage Management Crisis in Conflict Areas. 100 Units.

As a result of the widespread destruction of monuments, museums, and archaeological sites in conflict areas, combined with the creation of brand-new international funds to protect heritage in situations of armed conflict or climate change, this class presents a series of lectures and discussions by the course instructors along with guest lectures by heritage specialists who focus on the various geographical zones concerned. It will also adopt a transdisciplinary approach where several fields of expertise will be convoked, from archaeology and curatorial to international heritage protection law.

Instructor(s): Marc Maillot, Gil Stein     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 29765, KNOW 39765, ARTH 39765, KNOW 29675

NEHC 40010. Introduction to Arabic and Islamic Studies. 100 Units.

This course is designed for graduate students who wish to learn about the tools, primary and secondary sources, references, journals, distinct subfields, and electronic resources available to researchers in Arabic and Islamic Studies. We will acquire first-hand knowledge and practice of basic skills that will help professionalize students in the field, and will discuss methodological and historiographical issues related to the study of Islamicate civilization in various historical, cultural, political, and religious frameworks.

Instructor(s): Mehmetcan Akpinar     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Basic ability to work with Classical Arabic is required.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20410, RLST 20410, ARAB 40010, ISLM 40010, ARAB 20410

NEHC 40020. The Mediterranean Sea in Antiquity: Imperial Connections. 100 Units.

The Mediterranean Sea has long inspired imaginings of lands and peoples connected by its waters. From the Romans' Mare Nostrum, "our sea," to today's variants of "middle sea" - Greek Mesogeios, German Mittelmeer, and of course, Latin Mediterranean - imaginations of the sea have often celebrated its spatial and social cohesion. The Mediterranean continues to possess a middling geopolitical identity today, situated as it is between continental Europe, the Aegean, the Middle East, and North Africa. And yet, despite our diachronic investment in recognizing the Mediterranean's grand narrative as a locus of cultural connectivity, its long-term histories of interregional dynamics remain difficult to approach holistically. This concern is especially salient when it comes to the study of ancient empires, those large, expansionary polities whose social, political, and economic practices drew disparate groups together, and at times forced them apart. This class has two closely related objectives. First, we tackle the most ambitious pieces of scholarship on Mediterranean history to evaluate how various disciplines have sought to analyze and to bound the sea as a cartographic whole. In the process, we gain an appreciation not only for the methodological and interpretive scales involved in such an undertaking, but for the various disciplinary strategies the Mediterranean's diverse histories have inspired. Second, we interrogate one sociopolitical structure - the empire - and question how the Mediterranean encouraged and challenged imperialism as a recurring formation that worked to maintain sovereignty across broad geographical expanses. In doing so, we explore the variegated processes of cultural connectivity that have characterized the ancient Mediterranean from east to west.

Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 41717, ANCM 41717, HIST 51300, CDIN 41717, ANTH 46715

NEHC 40130. Textual Amulets in the Ancient Mediterranean. 100 Units.

Amulets with inscribed texts were used broadly by individuals and households and across ancient Mediterranean cultures for protection against evils, for curing disease, and for obtaining advantage over adversaries in all walks of life. In this course, we will survey a broad range of such amulets coming from the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Phoenician-Punic world, Greece and southern Italy, and inscribed on such varied materials as sheets of gold and silver, papyri, ostraca and gems, while scrutinizing their material aspects, their cultural context, and their shared and distinctive features.

Instructor(s): Carolina Lopez-Ruiz, Sofia Torallas-Tovar, Christopher Faraone     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Classical or Near Eastern languages recommended but not required.
Note(s): THis course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20130, CLCV 27923, CLAS 37923, HREL 40130, RLST 20130

NEHC 40470. Readings in Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed. 100 Units.

A careful study of select passages in Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, focusing on the method of the work and its major philosophical-theological themes, including: divine attributes, creation vs. eternity, prophecy, the problem of evil and divine providence, law and ethics, the final aim of human existence.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): MDVL 25400, HIJD 45400, RLST 21107, NEHC 20471, RLVC 45400, HREL 45401, ISLM 45400, FNDL 24106, JWSC 21107

NEHC 40600. Islamic Love Poetry. 100 Units.

The focus of this course is classical Islamic love poetry, Arabic and Persian love lyric will be covered, as well as some Ottoman love lyric (at least in translation). In the past we have incorporated Urdu, Punjabi, Bangla, Bosnian, and Turkish traditions, and-for comparative and historical purposes-Hebrew poetry from medieval Andalus. Because none of us are proficient in the all these languages, students who are proficient a given language are asked to provide a guide (including text, translation, explanation of key vocabulary, etc.) for selected poems from in that language. Each member of the class will be asked to present one poem guide, in addition to a final assignment. Among the poets commonly included in the course are Ibn Zaydun, Ibn al-Farid, Ibn al-`Arabi, Rumi, Hafiz, Baba Fighani, Na'ili, Mir Dard, Bulleh Shah, and Ghalib.

Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 40100, ISLM 40100, RLIT 40300

NEHC 40601. Readings in the Text of the Qur'an. 100 Units.

Intensive readings in the Arabic text of the Qur'an. We focus on reading the Qur'anic text closely, with attention to grammar, syntax, recitation protocols, vocabulary, parables, symbols, figures of speech, rhetoric, changes in voice and person, allusions to parallel Qur'anic passages, and theology. Classical and modern commentaries are consulted, but the primary emphasis is on the Qur'anic text itself. The winter 2013 course will focus upon suras attributed to the Meccan period of Muhammad's prophetic career, particularly those such as suras 52, 53, 55, and 56 that take up the theme of the garden. Students may well have different levels of Arabic; the course does not make Arabic proficiency into a matter of evaluation, but encourages each participant to work at his or her level.

Instructor(s): Michael Sells     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): The second quarter of “Introduction to Qur’anic Arabic”, or 2 years of Arabic or the equivalent.
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 40500

NEHC 40604. Readings in Arabic Religious Texts. 100 Units.

Texts to be covered include the 27th Sura of the Qur'an, selections from the Adab work Muhadarat al-Abrar of Ibn `Arabi, and examples of the Hadith Qudsi genre (hadiths that report divine, non-Qur'anic messages given to the Prophet).

Instructor(s): Michael Sells     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 50200, HIJD 50200

NEHC 40605. From Caliphate to Nation State: A Survey of Modern Muslim Constitutional Thought. 100 Units.

Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 49200

NEHC 40902. The Books of Kings: Critical Review. 100 Units.

Students read the entire Book of Kings to learn its shape, scope, and character. Read scholarship on major and local aspects to learn the field. Lay groundwork to write seminar paper in winter course BIBL 52800.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): One year Biblical Hebrew + one text course. Expectation participants will take BIBL 52800 The Book of Kings: Seminar in the winter.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 50902, HIJD 50902

NEHC 41000. Writings of Ibn al-'Arabi. 100 Units.

This course will focus on sections from Ibn al-`Arabi's al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya "The Meccan Openings," including chapters 1 and 10, as well as the commentary he wrote upon his own love poems. The important new critical edition of the Futuhat, by Abd al-`Aziz Sultan al-Mansub (Yemen, 2013), will serve as the base text. We will also engage one of the chapters from Ibn `Arabi's Fusus al-Hikam (Bezels of Wisdom) and will be able to take advantage of the new, fully-vocalized edition of that work.

Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 51000

NEHC 41500. Ibn al-Arabi and His Commentators. 100 Units.

This course examines the mystical philosophy of Muhyi-i-Dīn Ibn al-ʿArabi (d. 637/1240), one of the most influential and original thinkers of the Islamic world. Notoriously complex, his writings have been the subject of numerous commentaries, and thinkers from virtually every discipline have drawn from his inspirations. This course systematically covers Ibn al-ʿArabī's ontology, theology, epistemology, teleology, spiritual anthropology and eschatology, each topic building from the previous. We look closely at the commentarial tradition surrounding his works and trace the reception and transmission of his ideas. Notably, we will look at the integration of his thought within twelver Shiʿism through figures such as Haydar Amuli and dissemination of his ideas in the Ottoman Empire, India, China and East Asia via Central Asia through the likes of ʿAbd al-Rahman Jami.

Instructor(s): Mukhtar Ali     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 41500

NEHC 41780. Poetry of the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

The course will survey poetic genres of the Hebrew Bible, their elements and tropes, scholarship on biblical poetry specifically, and approaches to poetry in general.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: Introductory Biblical Hebrew I–III (BIBL 33900–34000 + Text course) or equivalent.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 21780, BIBL 41780, RLST 21780, HIJD 41780

NEHC 41815. Writing the Algerian War of Independence. 100 Units.

This course aims to examine the representation of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) in the work of Algerian and French writers. It will consider a corpus of testimonial texts, novels, and poetry in relation to the memory of the war, its traumatic experiences, and various forms of anticolonial struggle and insurgency. We will analyse the narrative, discursive, and poetic strategies used by authors to explore individual and collective memories and elaborate a politics of resistance and transformation in the Algerian context. Studied authors include Maïssa Bey, Assia Djebar, Leïla Sebbar, Mouloud Feraoun, Jean Sénac, Laurent Mauvignier, and Joseph Andras.

Instructor(s): Khalid Lyamlahy     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): All readings and in-class discussions will be in English. Students will have the option to write either in English or in French.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 41815, CMLT 41815

NEHC 42308. Phoenician Religion (In Their Own Words And Those of Their Neighbors) 100 Units.

The Phoenicians were a Canaanite people who maintained their language, religion, and culture until Roman times. One of the main challenges facing the study of the Phoenician religion (and culture in general) is that most of their literature is lost. This course gathers together a variety of emic sources in the Phoenicians' own language or stemming from the Phoenician realm but written in Greek or Latin, as well as sources written by others about the Phoenicians, with a special focus on cult and religious identity. The texts we will read and discuss range from royal, votive, and funerary inscriptions, to the views about the Phoenicians in the Hebrew Bible, and Greek and Roman writers. This course is partly a text-based, reading course, and partly a thematic, culture course.

Instructor(s): Carolina López-Ruiz     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Intermediate knowledge (2 years) of a Semitic language (e.g., Hebrew, Phoenician, Aramaic, Ugaritic, Arabic) OR of ancient Greek and/or Latin.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 42308, RLST 22308, NEHC 22308, CLCV 22322, CLAS 32322

NEHC 42700. Interactions b/w Jewish Phil. and Lit.in Middle Ages. 100 Units.

Any study of Jewish philosophy that focuses on a small collection of systematic summas tells only half the story. In this seminar, the emphasis will be shifted from canonical theologies to lesser-known works of literature. Each class will examine the way a different genre was used to defend philosophy and teach it to the community at large. Emphasis will be on literary form and style, rhetoric, methods of teaching and argumentation, all in relation to questions about reception and dissemination, progress and creativity, science and religion.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28504, ISLM 42700, RLVC 42700, HIJD 42700, NEHC 28504, JWSC 22701, MDVL 22700

NEHC 42720. The Return of Migration: Mobility and the New Empiricism. 100 Units.

This seminar questions the prerogatives of disciplines in framing and explaining social change via mobility. Following earlier theories of diffusion to understand diachronic cultural change, and the subsequent contextual critiques that privilege historical contingencies and human agency, advances in identifying past human movement through techniques like ancient DNA genome testing have increasingly led to the revival of migration as a subject of focus and explanation. As growing interest in contemporary refugee and forced migration studies is showing, migration represents not just a wide-ranging practice of different types, but is a semantically charged and ambiguous term whose recent applications provide new opportunities to assess its interpretive advantages and limitations. Is the new empirical emphasis on migration re-racializing antiquity? What do we gain by studying concepts of diasporas, transnationalism, and border crossings in the premodern world? Why does migration matter? Divided into two parts, the course covers the conceptual and theoretical work in current literature on migration as well as applications to specific historical problems from ancient and modern Eurasia.

Instructor(s): James Osborne and Catherine Kearns     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 50500, CDIN 42720, CLAS 42720

NEHC 42780. Readings: Sufism in Morocco. 100 Units.

A close reading 18th-19th century Moroccan Sufi texts with a focus on the Shadhili writings of Sidi Ali al-Jamal and Mulay al-'Arabi al-Darqawi.

Instructor(s): Yousef Casewit     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Arabic reading proficiency required.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 42780, RLST 22780, NEHC 22780

NEHC 43500. Islamic Jurisprudence, Reason, and the State. 100 Units.

This course will explore social scientific approaches to the study of Islamic jurisprudence. We will be reading historical, legal, and anthropological literature on Islamic law, as well as introducing/revisiting anthropological theories of the state, public policy, governmentality and scientific knowledge production, in order to produce novel questions and analytics. Much of this work will be experimental and tentative as we collaboratively build on existing literature and supply our collective theoretical and conceptual toolbox.

Instructor(s): Elham Mireshghi     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Students must have familiarity with social scientific theory.
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): AASR 43500, ISLM 43500, ANTH 42815

NEHC 44600. Zion and Zaphon: Biblical Texts and Memory Studies. 100 Units.

The course will engage memory studies to analyze how ancient authors responded to the campaigns of Assyria against Judea and Israel in the 8th-7th cents BCE. Sources will include ancient art, archaeological finds, and literature of many genres in the Hebrew Bible and outside it.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Introductory Biblical Hebrew sequence (BIBL 33900–34000 + Text course) or equivalent.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 44600, BIBL 44600, NEHC 21865, KNOW 44600, RLST 21865

NEHC 44602. Song of Songs. 100 Units.

In this text-course we will read the entire poetic composition, drawing on theory of literature in general and poetry in particular, tracing its unique forms of continuity, and analyzing its biblically distinctive forms of gender characterization.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): prerequisite: 1 year biblical Hebrew/ BIBL 33900 and BIBL 34000
Note(s): This is the Biblical Hebrew exegesis course.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 44603, RLST 24602, HIJD 44602, GNSE 24603, BIBL 44602

NEHC 44801. Words of the Wise: Proverbs and Qohelet. 100 Units.

Text-course (text in biblical Hebrew only) covering the literary genres, discursive styles, and philosophical ideas of Proverbs and Qohelet (Ecclesiastes), with attention to voicing, double-voicing, and intertextuality.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): One year of Biblical Hebrew.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. JWSC majors/minors can petition to count this course toward their degree requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 24801, HIJD 44800, RLST 22304, BIBL 44800

NEHC 45516. Seminar: State and Society under the Ptolemies. 100 Units.

Recent research encourages a reexamination of the classical opposition between pre-modern and modern states. As traditionally defined, the key difference would be the inability of a pre-modern state to exercise in-depth control of society. Being unable to develop a significant bureaucratic apparatus, a pre-modern state could have only achieved a weak control of the people it administered. To a certain extent, the opposition still has some validity, but the alleged "weakness" of pre-modern states, for instance in terms of capacity for extraction of revenue, should be revisited. Thanks to the sources available, the Ptolemaic possessions (by which one will understand not only Egypt but all the other territories under Ptolemaic control, from Asia Minor to Syria and from Cyrene to Cyprus) provide an ideal case study to test these concepts. We will examine written documents in their original languages, but translations will also be provided, which will allow students who do not control the ancient languages to also participate in the seminar.

Equivalent Course(s): HIST 70407, ANCM 45516

NEHC 45602. Zionism and Culture, 1881 to the Present. 100 Units.

This course investigates the shifting relations between Hebrew/Israeli literature and culture and Zionism as a political project, ideology, myth, and power structure. We will investigate multiple forms of cultural articulation, from built environment, to popular culture, to culture as a set of practices that govern everyday life, while devoting special attention to poetry - an institution valorized by classical secularist Zionism yet one often seen as standing in tension with Zionism's contemporary religious-nationalist forms. What role has Hebrew culture played within the Zionist project, as bearer, expression, reflection, or refraction of nationalist ideology or myth? What are the relationships between culture's putative forms of autonomy and forms of dissent, resistance, or alternative political vision in Israel and Palestine? How might this connect to Mizrachi and other 'minority' identities, and the roles of Palestinians as cultural producers within Israeli frames? What is to be learned about secular nationalism, Jewish secularism, post-secularism, religiosity, and political theology particularly in an era of what seems to be the rising hegemony of expressly religious Zionism.

Instructor(s): Na'ama Rokem and Kenneth Moss     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): No prerequisites. Undergraduates must receive faculty consent.
Equivalent Course(s): CDIN 45602, CMLT 45602, HIST 45602

NEHC 47800. Between the Jewish Question & the Modern Condition: Jewish Thought, Culture, and Politics, 1830-1940. 100 Units.

In the 19th c., the Jewish presence in Europe ceased to be a fact & became a Question: how were Jews to be transformed and integrated-or "emancipated"-into "society." From the 1870s, this Jewish Question was globalized & politicized by nationalism, new forms of antisemitism, European imperialism, capitalism's reordering of global life, mass migration from Eastern Europe to the US, the racialization of global politics & tensions of nation & empire in Eastern Europe, the Ottoman world & the Middle East. This class investigates how European, US & Middle Eastern Jews confronted the Jewish Question (1830s-1930s) communally & individually. It asks how this confrontation shaped key dimensions of modern Jewish thought, culture & politics: Zionism & other forms of modern Jewish politics, Jewish social thought, religious life, communal policy & new forms of secular culture. Conversely, we will also consider the limits of approaching modern Jewish culture & consciousness as a response to the Jewish Question: are modern forms of Jewish religiosity & secularity, gender norms, visions of culture, education & the moral life better understood as emergent responses to more general problems of modernity? Alternatively, should key aspects of contemporary Jewish life-such as religious nationalism & religious revivalism-be understood at least in part as products not so much of modernity's powers as of modernity's limited effects on a Jewish tradition evolving according to its own cultural logic?

Instructor(s): K. Moss     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students of all intellectual background welcome; advanced undergraduates with consent of instructor.
Note(s): Readings include classic and new scholarship matched to key works of Jewish thought and culture. All readings in English (translation), but I will happily facilitate reading in the original languages.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 49800, REES 49800, GRMN 38821

NEHC 47903. Writing, Reading, and Singing in Bengal, 8th to 19th AD. 100 Units.

The course offers an introduction to the literary traditions of Bengal (today's West Bengal in India, and Bangladesh). We will study the making of Bengal as a region of literary production through a selection of secondary and primary sources in translation. We will look at how literature and literacy have been defined in various contexts up to the colonial period and discuss what constituted the literary identity of Bengal's various linguistic traditions. We will approach the topics of reading practices and genres from the perspective of both material culture (script and scribal practices, manuscript formats, etc.) and the conceptual categories underlying literary genres and the linguistic economy of Bengal (scholastic and non-scholastic, classical and vernacular languages, individual reading and publicly performed texts, hinduyani and musalmani). Even if Bengali language and literature stand at the center of this course, we will also discuss the literary traditions that predate the formation of Bengali literature and were part of the background of the making of Bengali texts (Sanskrit, Apabhramsha, Arabic, Persian, Maithili, and Awadhi literature). The aim of the course is to introduce students to precolonial Bengali literature in its conceptual, aesthetic, and historical dimensions. The course will address topics of interest for students in comparative literature, religious studies, history, linguistics, medieval studies, book history, musicology or performance studies.

Instructor(s): T. D'Hubert     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Students who want to take the course as an Advanced Bangla (BANG 47903) course must attend the additional reading course in which we will do close readings of texts in Bengali.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 47903, BANG 47903

NEHC 48402. The Book of Judges. 100 Units.

A text-course (text in biblical Hebrew only). It will cover the book's concept of a "judge," its themes, plot, and values, its sources and formation, the real beginning and end of the book, and its historical referents. Framed by theory of history and of narrative.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): One year Biblical Hebrew.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. JWSC majors/minors can petition to count this course toward their degree requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 48402, HIJD 48402, NEHC 28402, RLST 22302

NEHC 48603. Talking Birds and Cunning Jackals: A Survey of Indo-Persian Prose. 100 Units.

South Asia was a major source of narrative matter for the development of literary prose in the Islamicate world. For instance, literary prose in Arabic, but also in Persian (and Castilian) were fashioned through successive renderings of the Sanskrit Pan͂catantra. Later, in the post-Timurid period, South Asian Persianate literati, and munshis in particular, contributed to elevate the status of Persian prose to that of poetry. This course offers a survey of a variety of Indo-Persian prose texts such as tales, premodern translations of Indian romances and epics (Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇa, Pan͂catantra, Mādhavānala Kāmakandalā, etc …), letters, anecdotes from chronicles, tadhkira literature, autobiographical writings, treatises, and encyclopedic works. The readings are organized thematically and by degree of stylistic elaboration. We will first read plain prose texts that will introduce the students to key elements of the Persianate understanding of Indic culture. In this first section of the course, we will mostly read narrative texts (chronicles, translations of Sanskrit and Hindavi works, and dāstāns). We will then turn to epistolography, biographies, and autobiographical writings. Finally, we will read technical and non-technical texts dealing with various aspects of Indo-Persian courtly culture and aesthetics (philosophy, mysticism, grammar, poetry, or musicology). Each text will be introduced and framed by discussions on relevant secondary literature in English and Persian.

Instructor(s): T. D'Hubert     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Intermediate level of Persian
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 48603, PERS 48693

NEHC 48610. Jewish Sufism. 100 Units.

During the Middle Ages the Jews in the Muslim world developed a robust synthesis of Jewish Spirituality and Islamic Sufism. Even those who did not subscribe to a Sufi pietistic Judaism nevertheless introduced Sufi language and ideas into their Jewish thought. This course will introduce several important figures in this Jewish Sufi movement, from Bahya ibn Paquda in 11th-century Spain to Maimonides and his descendants in 12th14th century Egypt. There will be a section for Arabists to read Bahya's "Duties of the Hearts" in Arabic, and a section for Hebraists to read the twelfth-century Hebrew translation of it.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 48610, NEHC 28611, JWSC 28610, ISLM 48610, RLVC 48610, RLST 28611, MDVL 28610

NEHC 49000. Thesis Research: Nehc. 100 Units.

Students may register for this course while conducting research for the MA thesis. Students need to obtain permission of their advisor and contact the department coordinator for assistance in registration.

NEHC 49003. Islam Beyond the Human: Spirits, Demons, Devils, and Ghosts. 100 Units.

This seminar explores the diverse spiritual and sentient lifeforms within Islamic cosmology that exist beyond the human-from jinn, angels, and ghosts to demons and devils. We will focus on theological, scientific, philosophical, anthropological, and historical accounts of these creatures across a variety of texts, as well as their literary and filmic afterlives in contemporary cultural representations. In so doing, we consider the various religious, social, and cultural inflections that shape local cosmological imaginaries. We ask how reflecting on the nonhuman world puts the human itself in question, including such concerns as sexuality and sexual difference, the boundaries of the body, reason and madness, as well as the limits of knowledge.

Instructor(s): Alireza Doostdar and Hoda El Shakry     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Enrollment by Consent Only (for both grads and undergrads). Students should send the instructors a paragraph explaining their interest and prior preparation or familiarity with the themes in the course.
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 49003, ISLM 49003, ANTH 49003, CMLT 29003, AASR 49003, KNOW 49003, GNSE 29003, RLST 29003, ANTH 29003, NEHC 29003, GNSE 49003

NEHC 49989. Race and the Bible. 100 Units.

The course will cover race in the Bible, race in the ancient world of the Bible, American use of the Bible on race, and the critique of race as a formative and constructed concept.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh and Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): BIBL 31000 (Introduction to the Hebrew Bible) or BIBL 32500 (Introduction to the New Testament). BIBL 32500 can be taken concurrently.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. JWSC majors/minors can petition to count this course toward their degree requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 49999, HIJD 49999, HCHR 49999, RLST 29109, NEHC 29989, CRES 27699

NEHC 53510. Early Jewish Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

Explores Jewish ideas and hermeneutics at Exodus 19-20 and select other biblical texts, in sources from the Septuagint and Dead Sea scrolls through Targumim and Rabbinic literature to Medieval Jewish commentaries.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Biblical Hebrew and either Aramaic or Greek (Koiné or Septuagint)
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 53510, NELC 30063, HIJD 53510, NEHC 20513, RLST 20510, JWSC 20510

NEHC 55800. Novellas of the Hebrew Bible: Jonah, Ruth, Esther, Job. 100 Units.

Seminar using theory of narrative to interact with scholarship on biblical narrative and analyze four narrative works in the Hebrew Bible.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): 1 yr Biblical Hebrew + 1 text course.
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 55800, BIBL 55800

NELG 30125. Amarna Canaanite in its Sociolinguistic Setting. 100 Units.

In this course, we will focus on letters from the Amarna archive (ca. 1360-1330 BCE) that were written in what is commonly referred to as "Canaano-Akkadian", a form of Akkadian with significant influence from the native Canaanite language(s) of the scribes. There is no consensus as of yet what "Canaano-Akkadian" represents in terms of language. One aim of the course is to look at different proposals and evaluate them based on the original texts. In order to be able to understand the origin of Canaano-Akkadian and to put it into its proper historical and sociolinguistic context, we will further read earlier texts from Canaan, including those from Hazor and Taanach, before going over to letters from major Canaanite sites attested in the Amarna archive, such as Byblos, Jerusalem, Megiddo, Gezer, and others.

Instructor(s): Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Intermediate Akkadian, two years of Hebrew (or Arabic)
Equivalent Course(s): NELG 20125

NELG 30301. Introduction to Comparative Semitics. 100 Units.

This course examines the lexical, phonological, and morphological traits shared by the members of the Semitic language family. We also explore the historical relationships among these languages and the possibility of reconstructing features of the parent speech community.

Instructor(s): R. Hasselbach-Andee     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of two Semitic languages or one Semitic language and Historical Linguistics.
Equivalent Course(s): LING 30320, NELG 20301, LING 20320

NELG 40301. Advanced Seminar: Comparative Semitic Linguistics. 100 Units.

This course is an advanced seminar in comparative Semitics that critically discusses important secondary literature and linguistic methodologies concerning topics in the field, including topics in phonology, morphology, syntax, etc.

Instructor(s): R. Hasselbach-Andee     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Introduction to Comparative Semitics. Undergraduates require consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): NELG 20901

PERS 30021. The Persian Short Story. 100 Units.

Persian short story writing began in the twentieth century with Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh's collection Yek-ī būd yek-ī nabūd (1921). The 1920s through the 1940s is considered the formative period of Persian short-story writing, also known as the first period. The second period in the development of the modern Persian short story began with the coup of 28 Mordād 1332/19 August 1953 and ended with the 1979 revolution. The third period that started after the 1979 revolution has been called the period of diversity in that it brought forth a variety of literary movements. In this course, we will review the three periods of Persian short story development mentioned above to give you historical background on this genre of Persian literature. However, the focus of readings in this course is the short stories written by Hedayat, Daneshvar, Pirzad, Golshiri, Esma'ili, and others who have employed elements of fantasy, surrealism, and the paranormal in their stories. The class meets twice per week, each time for an hour and a half. We will read the original stories in Persian and discuss them in class in Persian. We will use hypothesis as a social annotation tool to engage you more deeply with the readings through a collaborative discovery of the text. We will also do collaborate translations of selected sections of some stories in our course blog as well as composing commentaries on each story.

Instructor(s): Shabani-Jadidi, Pouneh     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PERS 20021

PERS 30331. Love and War: The Romance and Epic Traditions in Premodern Persian. 100 Units.

This advanced reading course introduces students to the intertwined epic and romance genres in premodern Persian. Through engagement with the original sources, students will become familiar with the vocabulary, grammatical features, poetic topoi, and metrical rules necessary to read, understand, and analyze key selections from Ferdowsi, Neẓāmi, Amir Khosrow, Jāmi, and other poets. In addition to developing their linguistic skills and familiarizing themselves with central texts of the premodern Persian canon, students will also engage with both Persian- and English-language scholarship on the tradition. This course is open to those who have completed two years of Persian or the equivalent, or are currently enrolled in the second year.

Instructor(s): O’Malley, Austin      Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): two years of Persian or the equivalent, or are currently enrolled in the second year.
Equivalent Course(s): PERS 20331

PERS 39021. Reading Indo-Persian harmonized prose: Bahār-i dānish. 100 Units.

In this course, we will read excerpts from one of the most popular collections of stories written in harmonized (aka ornate) prose in Mughal India: ʿInāyatallāh's Bahār-i dānish. We will use several editions of the texts as well as commentaries and translations and focus on grammar, rhetoric, and the various strategies one may use to render Persian harmonized prose into English.

Instructor(s): Thibaut d'Hubert     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PERS 29021, SALC 29021, SALC 39021

PERS 48693. Talking Birds and Cunning Jackals: A Survey of Indo-Persian Prose. 100 Units.

South Asia was a major source of narrative matter for the development of literary prose in the Islamicate world. For instance, literary prose in Arabic, but also in Persian (and Castilian) were fashioned through successive renderings of the Sanskrit Pan͂catantra. Later, in the post-Timurid period, South Asian Persianate literati, and munshis in particular, contributed to elevate the status of Persian prose to that of poetry. This course offers a survey of a variety of Indo-Persian prose texts such as tales, premodern translations of Indian romances and epics (Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇa, Pan͂catantra, Mādhavānala Kāmakandalā, etc …), letters, anecdotes from chronicles, tadhkira literature, autobiographical writings, treatises, and encyclopedic works. The readings are organized thematically and by degree of stylistic elaboration. We will first read plain prose texts that will introduce the students to key elements of the Persianate understanding of Indic culture. In this first section of the course, we will mostly read narrative texts (chronicles, translations of Sanskrit and Hindavi works, and dāstāns). We will then turn to epistolography, biographies, and autobiographical writings. Finally, we will read technical and non-technical texts dealing with various aspects of Indo-Persian courtly culture and aesthetics (philosophy, mysticism, grammar, poetry, or musicology). Each text will be introduced and framed by discussions on relevant secondary literature in English and Persian.

Instructor(s): T. D'Hubert     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Intermediate level of Persian
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 48603, SALC 48603

SUMR 30201. All about Kings: Sumerian Royal Inscriptions, Correspondence, and Hymns. 100 Units.

In this course, we will read a selection of Sumerian texts that provide insights into the image of the king. We will start with royal inscriptions, move on to the so-called royal correspondence of the Kings of Ur, and finish with excerpts from the self-praise poem of king Sulgi commonly referred to as 'Sulgi B'. Apart from tackling philological issues and practicing to read cuneiform from copies and photos, we will also address broader questions during classroom discussions, such as: Can we use royal inscriptions, correspondence, and hymns as historical sources? Can we bridge the gap between the reign of historical Ur III kings and their feats as commemorated in texts preserved exclusively on Old Babylonian manuscripts? Can we use language and orthography for dating a text?

Instructor(s): Jana Matuszak     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Elementary Sumerian sequence (SUMR 10101 and SUMR 10102)
Equivalent Course(s): SUMR 20201

SUMR 30202. Dumuzi's Dream. 100 Units.

In this course, we will read the Sumerian mythological narrative known by its modern title "Dumuzi's Dream." Judging by the numerous manuscripts preserved from the Old Babylonian period, it was a popular text in scribal education. We will practice reading from copies, photos, and original cuneiform tablets, as five manuscripts are housed at the Oriental Institute Museum and available for hands-on study. Based on close engagement with the individual manuscripts, we will discuss the principles of textual criticism and how to prepare an eclectic text, as well as a text edition. Besides philological issues, we will also address broader questions during classroom discussions, such as: Can we use such literary texts to reconstruct Sumerian mythology? How does this text relate to other literary compositions revolving around the divine couple Innana and Dumuzi, and how does it relate to non-literary text corpora? In how far can we determine its function, both within scribal education and beyond? Can we actually apply the term 'literature' to the Sumerian textual legacy?

Instructor(s): Jana Matuszak     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Elementary Sumerian sequence (SUMR 10101 and SUMR 10102)
Equivalent Course(s): SUMR 20202

SUMR 30204. Sumerian Creation Narratives. 100 Units.

In this course we will read creation accounts in the Sumerian language from the third and early second millennium BCE. Apart from the obvious thematic focus, the course will also serve as an introduction to different genres, ranging from mythological narratives to disputations to (parodies of) hymns. By reading texts from the Presargonic, Ur III, and Old Babylonian periods, students will also gain a deeper understanding of Sumerian grammar, palaeography, and orthography.

Instructor(s): Jana Matuszak     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): SUMR 10101 and SUMR 10102
Equivalent Course(s): SUMR 20204

SUMR 30320. Readings in Emesal. 100 Units.

The nature and function of Emesal, the most important variety of Sumerian after the so-called main dialect, remain debated. This is mainly due to the heterogeneity of the corpus of texts transmitted in Emesal. After familiarizing ourselves with the characteristics of Emesal, available resources and the latest scholarly discourse, we will approach the question of how we might define Emesal by reading excerpts from a variety of sources dating to the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE, ranging from proverbs and literary disputations between women to 'love songs', mythological narratives, city laments, and ritual lamentations.

Instructor(s): Jana Matuszak     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SUMR 20320

SUMR 30505. Introduction to Neo-Sumerian Economic Texts. 100 Units.

The goal of this class is to provide an overview of various genres of economic and administrative texts from the Neo-Sumerian (or so-called "Ur III") period, ca. 2112-2004 BC, with the bulk of preserved textual material spanning from the latter part of Shulgi's reign to the early years of Ibbi-Sin (ca. 2064-2025). Emphasis will be made on the technical aspects of reading and interpreting individual documents (signs, vocabulary, format, etc.) as well as on the utilization of the documents to reconstruct a coherent and comprehensive picture of Sumerian government, society, and economy.

Instructor(s): Ryan Derek Winters     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): SUMR 20505

TURK 30101-30102-30103. Advanced Turkish I-II-III.

The objectives of the course are to develop advanced language skills in Modern Turkish through reading, writing, listening, and speaking, with special emphasis on the proper usage of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions, and to continue the study of Turkish literature and texts begun in the second year. This course is conducted entirely in Turkish. The course is designed to bring the advanced student to a professional level of proficiency. Students are expected to produce advanced level writing in Turkish.

TURK 30501-30502-30503. Ottoman Turkish I-II-III.

A selection of Turkish texts in Arabic script, both printed and handwritten, introduced in order of difficulty, and ranging from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Texts are drawn from chronicles, official documents, memoirs, poetry, and other genres.

TURK 40586. Advanced Ottoman Reading I. 100 Units.

This course introduces the students to difficult Ottoman narratives from different periods. Please be in touch with the instructor if you are not sure of your level.

Instructor(s): Hakan Karateke     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): TURK 30503 or equivalent
Note(s): Open to qualified undergraduate students

UZBK 49900. Reading and Research Course: UZBK. 100 Units.

Reading and Research Course: UZBK

Instructor(s): Kagan Arik     Terms Offered: Spring