anglais1

Course Description

This course is a kind of  selectrd texts  of survey of the Islamic world from the dawn of Islam to the emergence of the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth-century. It traces the development of Islamic society with a particular emphasis on the themes of cultural interaction, state-formation and world systems. The reading materials will make use of both contemporary scholarship and primary-source materials translated into English. Some of the themes that will be explored in this course include war and conquest, political structures, and institutional and spiritual formations. This is a World History Group 1 course, designed for first-year Master students.

Learning Outcomes

This course is intended to advance the students’ understanding of global processes, to 
improve their ability to conduct independent research, to read both primary sources and 
modern sources critically in english as they completed three years licence, and to develop critical thinking and reasoning skills in a historical 
context. Having completed this course students will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of key themes in the study of Islamic and Middle 
Eastern history
- Analyse and explicate major ideas associated with the history of the Islamic world
- Explain relationships between intellectual developments of the Islamic world and 
broader issues of historical context.
- Construct evidence-based arguments about the legacy of important events in 
Islamic history

Lecture schedule

Week 1: 06/02/2025

Introducing the Islamic World  ( a selected text) 

a) Introductory Lecture

 b) Tribes, oasis and traders of the Hijaz

Activities : questions and translating words from text

Week 2 – 13/02

 The Pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula and Mediterranean ( a selected text)

a) Rome and Sasanian Persia

 b) The Life of Muhammad

Activities : questions and translating words from text

Week 3 – online  20/02

 The Prophet’s Life & Message ( a selected text)

 a) The First Islamic Polity

b) Early Conquests

Activities : questions and translating words from text

Week 4   27/02

 Islamic Sciences ( a selected text)

 a) The Qur’an

b) The shari’a, sunna, hadith

Activities : questions and translating words from text

Week 5 –  07/03

 The Early Islamic Empires

a) The Umayyads

b) The Rise of the ‘Abbasid

Week 6 –   14/03   

 Islamic Society & Government

a) Towns, people and faith – Will look at the structure of Islamic society, beginning with the sultan at the top and moving to discuss the role of the slaves, farmers, merchants, ulama, fuqaha, amirs, sultan and caliph. b) Theories of Islamic government – Farabi, Imam Razi, Nasir al-Din Tusi.

Week 7 – 10/04

 Fragmentation & the Emergence of Shi’ite Caliphates

a) The Fatimids, Isma’ilis and Buwayhids

Week 8 – 17/03

 Intellectual & Technological Developments

a)     Poetry, Astronomy and Architecture in the Early Islamic World

Week 08 24/03

Video + Activities

Week  01/05

Review

Week 10   08/05

 week 11     15/05

2nd semester test