The Multi-Cultural Mediterranean*

Goals:

This course is designed for students with little or no background in Middle Eastern history; however, it is not designed as a standard introduction to the history of the region.  Thus, the course will also be of interest to students who have already taken introductory courses in Islamic and/or Middle Eastern history.  For students of all backgrounds, the course will serve as an opportunity to further explore themes of inter-religious interactions, trans-national exchanges, and coexistence among various faiths in the Islamic context.  The course will also expose students to historical methods, in particular, 1) interpreting and analyzing primary sources, and 2) analyzing and synthesizing different historiographical methods and approaches.  Students will also be asked to reflect on the contributions of other disciplines to the writing of history, especially anthropology and literature.

Requirements:

Class participation: 20%

4 Reading Responses: 30%

Final Paper: 50%

Grading:

1. Class participation is extremely important, especially given the intensive nature of the course.  Students should attend all scheduled class times, and should actively participate (by offering comments, asking questions, discussing in small groups, etc.).
2. Reading responses are designed to help you synthesize the reading on your own before we discuss it as a group.  They should be between 1 and 2 double-spaced pages, and should include at least two questions you have about the readings.  Responses will not be graded, but your grade will suffer if you fail to hand them in, hand them in late, or hand in work that is clearly inferior to the quality expected of graduate students. 
3. The final paper is an opportunity for you to explore one of the topics we touched on in class in further depth, or to choose a topic we did not cover.  (You must meet with me to approve your topic, even if it is something we have covered in class.)  The paper should be 12 to 15 double-spaced pages long, and must include original research (that is, primary and secondary sources which were not assigned in class). 

Readings:

Monday, June 11: Arabia, 620; Islam and the People of the Book

• Jonathan Berkey, The Formation of Islam, Chapters Three and Four (pp. 39-54).
• Mark R. Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross, Chapters One and Four.
• Tarif Khalidi, The Muslim Jesus, pp. 1-46.

Primary Sources:

• Selections from the Qur’an
• The Pact of ‘Umar

Tuesday, June 12: Cairo, 1200: The World of the Geniza

• S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, v. 1, pp. 70-74, 149-164: v. 4, 1-47
• Tamer El-Leithy, Coptic Culture and Conversion in Medieval Cairo, selections.
• Sarah Stroumsa, Maimonides in His World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker, Chapters One and Two.
• Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land, selections.

Primary Sources:

• • S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, v. 1, pp. 70-74, 149-164: v. 4, 1-47
  • Tamer El-Leithy, Coptic Culture and Conversion in Medieval Cairo, selections.
  • Sarah Stroumsa, Maimonides in His World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker, Chapters One and Two.
  • Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land, selections.
• ~.

Wednesday, June 13: Salonica and Istanbul, 1700: The Early-Modern Ottoman Empire

• Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts, Chapters Three, Four, Six and Eight.
• Molly Greene, Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants: A Maritime History of the Early-Modern Mediterranean, Chapter Four.
• Yaron Ben-Naeh, “Moshko the Jew and his Gay Friends: Same-Sex Sexual Relations in Ottoman Jewish Society,” Journal of Early Modern History, vol. 9, no. 1-2 (2005) pp. 79-108.

Primary Sources:

• Evliya Çelebi’s travel writings (in Robert Dankoff, An Ottoman Traveller: Selections from the Book of Travels of Evliya Çelebi), selections.

Thursday, June 14: Jerusalem, 1913: Palestine before World War I

• Michelle Campos, Ottoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians and Jews in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine, Chapters One, Two, and Five.
• Abigail Jacobson, From Empire to Empire: Jerusalem between Ottoman and British Rule, selections.
• Amy Dockser Marcus, Jerusalem 1913, pp. 1-133.

Primary Sources:

• Photographs of Ottoman Jerusalem (including selections from the collections of Wasif Jawhariyyeh, Karimeh Abbud, and others).

Friday, June 15: Morocco and Greece, 2012: Shared Saints

• William Dalrymple, From the Holy Mountain, selections.
• Heath Lowry, In the Footsteps of the Ottomans: A Search for Sacred Spaces and Architectural Monuments in Northern Greece, selections.
• Oren Kosansky, “The Real Morocco Itself: Judeo-Muslim Pilgrimage, Hybridity, and the Idea of the Moroccan Nation,” in Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa, Emily Gottreich and Daniel Schroeter, eds. (Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 2011).

Primary Sources:

• Dov Noy, Moroccan Jewish Folktales, selections.

Saturday, June 16 (9 am to 1 pm): Final Project Workshop

• Students will present their plans for their final papers; although students are not expected to have done all the research for their final papers, they should have a well-developed idea of which topics the paper will address.  Students are also required to turn in an outline of their paper at this time.  This session is an opportunity to gain feedback from the professor and from other students on the final paper in the early stages.

Additional Contact Hours:

May (date and time TBD):

• Orientation (3 hours via Skype):
  • This initial meeting will include an orientation to the course, introduction of the professor and the students, and an opportunity for students to ask questions and voice concerns about the goals, requirements, and expectations of the course.

June (date and time TBD):

• Final presentations (3 hours via Skype):
  • This final meeting of the course will provide students with an opportunity to share their final paper projects with one another.  In addition to being asked to present orally on their final papers (8-12 minutes), students will be expected to answer questions from their classmates and the professor about their research.