Committee on the Study of Religion

Instructor: Ali Asani 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...

Instructor: Ali Asani Description: A seminar for graduate students focusing on current scholarship on Islamic civilization in South Asia. Course Notes: Open to undergraduates with a background in Islamic or South Asian studies. Recommended Prep...

Instructor: Ali Asani Description: A course on selected topics in Shii History, Thought and Literature. Permission of the instructor required. Course Notes: Prerequisite: introductory course on Islam.

Instructor: Ali Asani This course explores traditions of devotional poetry in South Asia through the lens of three genres: the qawwali, concerts of mystical poetry; sufiana kalam, Sufi romantic epics and folk poems; and the ginans, songs of wisdom. In...

Instructor: Malika Zeghal 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...

Instructor: Ali Asani 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...

Instructor: Nicholas Boylston 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...

The course follows key themes in religion and gender as these were shaped and reshaped through the colonial and post-colonial eras. In particular, the religious history of American women and the history of women in Islam primarily in relation to the...