An exploration of the classical texts, spiritual teachings, epic narratives, and religious movements that have shaped a complex civilization for some three thousand years, from the Indus Valley to today. Readings in primary sources – Vedas and Upanishads, Buddhist and Jain teachings, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita, Bhakti and Sufi poets, Sikh gurus and Muslim kings. Attention to the creation of a rich and composite civilization and the ways in which these sources continue to be of significance to the understanding of modern India.... Read more about CULTBLF 60/HDS 3429: Religion in India: Texts and Traditions in a Complex Society
The course is an introduction to the fundamental concepts of Islam and the role that religious ideas and institutions play in Muslim communities around the world. Its main concern is to develop an understanding of the manner in which diverse notions of religious and political authority have influenced Muslim societies politically, socially and culturally.... Read more about HDS 3628/CULTBLF 19 : Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies
Explores the major political, economic, social, and security challenges facing - and emanating from - the Middle East. Particular attention paid to the causes of the so-called Arab Spring and the prospects for genuine democratization. Explores the role of colonial legacies, Islam, peculiarities of the physical environment, demographic patterns, cultures of patriarchy, the distortions of foreign aid and oil wealth, and the machinations of great powers in generating the region's particular pattern of political development. Embraces a variety of theoretical and empirical literatures, including translated works by Middle Eastern commentators, politicians, and social theorists. Students will emerge from the course with both an understanding of a changing region whose geopolitical importance - to the United States and the world - shows no sign of waning, and a grounding in some of the principal analytic approaches in the study of comparative political systems.
Texts of the Persian literary tradition that were illustrated constitute our focus, including Firdawsi's Shahnama and Nizami's Khamsa. Study of word and image is staged through key examples to open new lines of inquiry.
This course will survey Islamic history from the rise of Islam to the end of the 15th century. The course will survey political, religious and sectarian developments in this period. Topics include debates about the Quran, Muhammad, hadith and the caliphate.Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Islamic Civilizations 135.
In this course we will explore the major genres of classical Persian Sufi poetry and prose. In addition to examining the formation of these genres and their contexts of composition, we will pursue a range of broader questions, including: What is Sufism, and how do we discern ‘Sufi’ from ‘non-Sufi’ literature? What have the purposes and functions of literature been in Persianate Islamic contexts? What is the relationship between language, realization and experience Is Persian Sufi literature, and how do authors in the Sufi tradition deal with the problem of ineffability? What is the place of love in Persian Sufi literature and how is it conceptualized? And, how do Persian Sufi authors deal with the diversity inherent in human experience?... Read more about HDS 3045/RELIGION 1804/PERSIAN 108: Persian Sufi Literature
This course offers an overview of the development of classical Persian literature through the lens of ethics (broadly conceived as normative or prudent conduct), from the 10th through 15th centuries. Students will become acquainted with the key themes and beliefs at work in pre-modern Persian literature, and with the variety of literary forms, images and rhetorical devices employed to train the reader.... Read more about HDS 3046/PERSIAN 105: Beyond Akhlāq: Ethical Literatures of the Persianate World
An estimated 450 to 500 million Muslims live in Africa—close to a third of the global Muslim population. The overwhelming majority of them lives in the northern half of the continent, above the equator. The spread of Islam increased the contact between the peoples of North Africa, the Sahara, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The course is designed to provide an understanding of the spread of Islam and the formation and transformation of Muslim societies in Africa.... Read more about HDS 3357/Islamic Civilization 179: Critical Perspectives on the Dynamics and Development of Islam in Africa
This course explores the doctrines and practices of the Ismailis, adherents of a minority branch of Shia Islam that recognizes the continuation of religious authority after the Prophet Muhammad through a particular line of his descendants known as the Imams.... Read more about HDS 3939/ISLAMCIV 186/RELIGION 1816: Ismaili History and Thought
The aim of this seminar is to study the evolution of Islamic thought and political practices in Muslim societies from the 19th to the early 21st centuries.
This graduate seminar explores the transformation of Islamic institutions in the modern period, such as religious endowments (Awqaf), sharia courts, and Islamic education. We will engage with the historiography of these institutions and with primary sources in Arabic that will help us open new paths for research.
Pakistani musician and author Ali Sethi, AB ’06, returned to Harvard to talk to his longtime friend and mentor Ali Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim Religion and Cultures, about sufi poetry, his own artistic journey and life as a perpetual student of the arts, and his days as a Harvard...
In this course we will explore the major genres of classical Persian Sufi poetry and prose. In addition to examining the formation of these genres and their contexts of composition, we will pursue a range of broader questions, including: What is Sufism, and how do we discern ‘Sufi’ from ‘non-Sufi’ literature? What have the purposes and functions of literature been in Persianate Islamic contexts? What is the relationship between language, realization and experience Is Persian Sufi literature, and how do authors in the Sufi tradition deal with the problem of ineffability? What is the place of love in Persian Sufi literature and how is it conceptualized? And, how do Persian Sufi authors deal with the diversity inherent in human experience?... Read more about HDS 3045/RELIGION 1804/PERSIAN 108: Persian Sufi Literature
This course explores the doctrines and practices of the Ismailis, adherents of a minority branch of Shia Islam that recognizes the continuation of religious authority after the Prophet Muhammad through a particular line of his descendants known as the Imams.... Read more about HDS 3939/ISLAMCIV 186/RELIGION 1816: Ismaili History and Thought
This graduate seminar explores the transformation of Islamic institutions in the modern period, such as religious endowments (Awqaf), sharia courts, and Islamic education. We will engage with the historiography of these institutions and with primary sources in Arabic that will help us open new paths for research.
An exploration of the classical texts, spiritual teachings, epic narratives, and religious movements that have shaped a complex civilization for some three thousand years, from the Indus Valley to today. Readings in primary sources – Vedas and Upanishads, Buddhist and Jain teachings, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita, Bhakti and Sufi poets, Sikh gurus and Muslim kings. Attention to the creation of a rich and composite civilization and the ways in which these sources continue to be of significance to the understanding of modern India.... Read more about CULTBLF 60/HDS 3429: Religion in India: Texts and Traditions in a Complex Society
This course will survey Islamic history from the rise of Islam to the end of the 15th century. The course will survey political, religious and sectarian developments in this period. Topics include debates about the Quran, Muhammad, hadith and the caliphate.Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Islamic Civilizations 135.
Does the Qur’an enunciate a distinctive concept of femininity? If so, what is it? This course explores the meaning of gender and femininity in the Qur'an by approaching the text on three levels: vocabulary and grammar; meaning in context; and what can be called "the latent meaning of the text." Most traditional Qur'anic exegesis is on the second level, interpreting verses and vocabularies in light of their context.... Read more about HDS 3041: Discovering Femininity in the Gendered Language of the Qur’an
In this course we will explore the major genres of classical Persian Sufi poetry and prose. In addition to examining the formation of these genres and their contexts of composition, we will pursue a range of broader questions, including: What is Sufism, and how do we discern ‘Sufi’ from ‘non-Sufi’ literature? What have the purposes and functions of literature been in Persianate Islamic contexts? What is the relationship between language, realization and experience Is Persian Sufi literature, and how do authors in the Sufi tradition deal with the problem of ineffability? What is the place of love in Persian Sufi literature and how is it conceptualized? And, how do Persian Sufi authors deal with the diversity inherent in human experience?... Read more about HDS 3045/RELIGION 1804/PERSIAN 108: Persian Sufi Literature
This course offers an overview of the development of classical Persian literature through the lens of ethics (broadly conceived as normative or prudent conduct), from the 10th through 15th centuries. Students will become acquainted with the key themes and beliefs at work in pre-modern Persian literature, and with the variety of literary forms, images and rhetorical devices employed to train the reader.... Read more about HDS 3046/PERSIAN 105: Beyond Akhlāq: Ethical Literatures of the Persianate World
This course will take place in January 2019. In this interdisciplinary field study seminar we will examine a diversity of narratives regarding displacement and belonging in both Israel and the West Bank. Through direct encounters with representatives from government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and a variety of civil society sectors in the region, students will hear diverse examples of what sociologist Ariel Hochschild calls “deep stories” that frame how individuals and communities make sense of their worlds.... Read more about HDS 3335: Learning in Context: Narratives of Displacement and Belonging in Israel and the West Bank
An estimated 450 to 500 million Muslims live in Africa—close to a third of the global Muslim population. The overwhelming majority of them lives in the northern half of the continent, above the equator. The spread of Islam increased the contact between the peoples of North Africa, the Sahara, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The course is designed to provide an understanding of the spread of Islam and the formation and transformation of Muslim societies in Africa.... Read more about HDS 3357/Islamic Civilization 179: Critical Perspectives on the Dynamics and Development of Islam in Africa
The course is an introduction to the fundamental concepts of Islam and the role that religious ideas and institutions play in Muslim communities around the world. Its main concern is to develop an understanding of the manner in which diverse notions of religious and political authority have influenced Muslim societies politically, socially and culturally.... Read more about HDS 3628/CULTBLF 19 : Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies
This course explores the doctrines and practices of the Ismailis, adherents of a minority branch of Shia Islam that recognizes the continuation of religious authority after the Prophet Muhammad through a particular line of his descendants known as the Imams.... Read more about HDS 3939/ISLAMCIV 186/RELIGION 1816: Ismaili History and Thought
The aim of this seminar is to study the evolution of Islamic thought and political practices in Muslim societies from the 19th to the early 21st centuries.
