Premodern Islamic Worlds

This course introduces the Islamic world from the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632) to 1500 CE. The Islamic world stretches across a remarkable geographical expanse from modern Spain and Senegal in the west to the north of modern India in the east. Telling one cohesive story out of many histories is therefore challenging, even if we had a full lifetime to devote to it. We cannot include everything and, as with every complicated story worth knowing, what we choose to exclude is important. This semester, we bypass some of the traditional narratives of political and military history, which privilege the rise and fall of dynasties, the rule of great men, and the clashes of armies. We will still organize along political lines, but the focus of our conversations will be the incredible diversity of the various communities in the Islamic world. We approach these histories through primary sources— poems, coins, buildings, etc.—that we will read together in every class meeting. Our goal will be to situate each source in the political, cultural, and religious contexts of its production. This approach will allow us to appreciate premodern Islamic worlds through the centuries.

Through the assignments and conversations in class and section, students will

• Explore the diversity of premodern Islam;
• Analyze primary sources produced in the Islamic world before 1500, both individually and as a class;
• Engage with modern scholarship about Islam in India and Central Asia; the Middle East; North, West, and East Africa; and Southern Europe;
• Construct a source-based argument about the Islamic world before 1500.