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Syllabus
CROSS CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS IN THE PRE-MODERN
MUSLIM WORLD - 38480
Last update 06-09-2016
HU Credits: 2
Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor)
Responsible Department: islamic & middle east stud.
Academic year: 0
Semester: 1st Semester
Teaching Languages: Hebrew
Campus: Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator: Prof. Michal Biran
Coordinator Email: [email protected]
Coordinator Office Hours: Monday 1015-1115 (fall); 1115-1215 (spring)
Teaching Staff:
Prof Michal Biran
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Course/Module description:
The course thematically reviews different channels of cross-cultural encounters
between the Muslim world and its surrounding cultures. Via these examples, taken
mostly, but not exclusively, from the later Middle Ages (1000-1500), and studied on
the basis of studies and of primary sources, it aims to evaluate the impact of the
Muslim world on world history and vice verse.
Course/Module aims:
Presenting work-in progress for peers' and experts' feedback; daily management
of the project` acquiring digital humanities tools; reading and analizing primary
sources in Chinese, Persian and Chaghatay.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be
able to:
Present their research in a coherent way and give feedback and comments to
others; Enhance their understanding of Mongolian and Inner Asian history; Grasp
the use of databases and digital humanities tools; Practice reading and analyzing
primary sources.
Attendance requirements(%):
100
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: The course will be based on
discussion of the assigned readings; each student will also present a referrat related
to a certain class and will write a take-home exam at the end.
Course/Module Content:
Course Topics and Reading:
1. Introduction: Culture and Cross-Cultural Contacts; Islamic History and World
History.
Reading: Halivand, Cultural Anthropology (Hebrew version: Tel Aviv, 1999), ch. 2
(What is Culture); ch. 15 (Cultural transformations)
OR
John Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2000), ch.
2 (Culture) [or Hebrew version, Tel Aviv 2006.
Recommended Reading:
Marshall G. S. Hodgson, "The Role of Islam in World History," in his Rethinking World
History (Cambridge, 1993), 97-125
R. M. Eaton, "Islamic History as Global History," in M. Adas (ed.) Islamic and
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European Expansion (Philadelphia, 1993), 1-36.
Unit 1: Intellectual Encounters:
2. The Case Study: The Translation Movement, Bayt al-Hikma, the Renaissance
Reading: D. Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture (New York and Oxon, 1998), 1-10,
187-192, 75-106.
Ibn Khaldun, al-Muqaddima (Hebrew version: Jerusalem, 1966), 227-31.
Recommended Reading:
S. L. Montgomery, Science in Translation (Chicago, 2000), 89-185.
3. Languages and Translators
Reading: T. Th. Allsen, “The Rasulid Hexaglot in its Eurasian Cultural Context,” in
P.B. Golden (trans. and ed.), The King’s Dictionary (Leiden, 2000), 25-49.
B. Dodge (tr.), The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A Tenth Century Survey of Muslim Culture.
(Cambridge, 1970), 1:6-40
4. Knowledge and Science: Scholars as Cultural Brokers: Rashid al-Din - World
History, Chinese Medicine, Buddhism and Judaism in Mongol Eurasia.
Reading:
T. T. Allsen, Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia (Cambridge 2001), esp. 72-82.
A. Akasoy et al. Rashid al-Din: Agent and Mediator of Cultural Exchanges in Ilkhanid
Iran (London, 2014). [Various chapters assigned to various students for
presentation).
5. Religious Polemics:
Reading: P. Jackson (trans. And ed.) with assistance of D. Morgan. The Mission of
Friar William of Rubruck (London, 1990), 167-170.
M. Perlmann, Ibn Kammuna's Examination of the Three Faiths: A Thirteenth Century
Essay in Comparative Study of Religion (Berkeley, 1971),100-149 (Islam).
Riccoldo da Montecroce. 2012. Liber peregrinationis. Trans. in Rita GeorgeTvrtkovi, A Christian Pilgrim in Medieval Iraq. Riccoldo da Montecroce’s Encounter
with Islam. Turnhout: Brepols.
Recommended Reading: R. Pourjavady and S. Schmidtke, A Jewish Philosopher of
Baghdad: 'Iz al-Dawla Ibn Kammuna (d. 1284) and his Writings (Leiden, 2006), 8-58.
6. Inter-faith Experiments: Akbar's Din-i Ilahi
Reading: A. Wink, Akbar (Oxford: Oneworld publications,2009), 86-108.
M. H. Elliot (tr.), The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, V, 523-46
(Badauni's description of Akbar's religion).
Unit 2: Practical Encounters
7. Empires as Creators of Inter-Cultural Contacts: Conquest, War and Diplomacy
Reading:
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8. Travel Literature: Different Views of the Timurid Courts:
Reading: Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, Embassy to Tamerlane. Tr. G. Le Strange
(London, 1928), esp.173-4, 218-25.
J. Schiltberger, The Bondage and Travels of Johan Schiltberger (New York, 1970),
esp. 20-39, 99-103.
M. Rossabi, “A Translation of Ch’en Ch’eng’s Hsi yu fan kuo chih,” Ming Studies,
17 (Fall 1983), 49-57.
9. Trade and Slave Trade
Reading: M. Kizilov, "Slave trade in the early modern Crimea from the perspective of
Christian, Muslim, and Jewish sources", Journal of Early Modern History, 11 (2007/1),
1-31.
Translated passages from 'Umari's Masalik al-absar on the Golden Horde's slave
trade.
10. Migrations:
Reading: Th. T. Allsen, ” Population Movements in the Mongolian Era, "in Nomads as
Agents of Cultural Change, eds. R. Amitai and M. Biran (Honoluluu 2015), 119-151..
Translated biographies from Ibn al-Fuwatti's Talkhis Majma' al-udaba'.
Unit 3: Images
11. Event: The Mongol Conquest of Baghdad 1258.
J. A. Boyle, “The Death of the Last Abbasid Caliph: A Contemporary Muslim
Account,” JSS, 6 (1961), 151-161; rpt. in idem, The Mongol World Empire 1206-1370
(London, 1976) [DS 19 B69 86002] [Nasir al-Din Tusi]
B. Spuler, History of the Mongols (London, 1972), 115-121 [Wassaf]
B. Lewis (ed. and trans.), Islam (New York, 1974). Vol. 1, pp. 81-84. [Ibn al-Kathir]
Yuanshi's biography of Guo Baoyu (ERC translation)
Safi al-Din Urmawi's biography in Umari's Masalik al-Amsar (Biran's trans).
13+14.: Collective Memory: Between Crusaders and Mongols
Reading: C. Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (Edinburg, 1999),
589-616.
M. Biran, Chinggis Khan (Oxford, 2007), ch. 5.
Ibn al-Athir (d. 1233) and Jurji Zaidan (d. 1914) on the Fall of Jerusalem in 1099 and
on the Mongol invasion of 1220.
Required Reading:
SEE SYLLABUS_ EACH LESSON HAS ITS OWN READINGS.
Additional Reading Material:
RECOMMENDED READING
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("‫ "גיוון התרבויות‬,2 ‫ )פרק‬31-36 ,(2006 ,‫ הסטוריה ותרבות )רסלינג‬,‫ גזע‬,‫לוי שטראוס‬-‫קלוד‬
Bentley, J. H. Old World Encounters (Oxford, 1993)
Cook, Michael, “The Centrality of Islamic Civilization.” In Benjamin Z. Kedar, Merry
Wiesner-Hanks, eds. The Cambridge World History, Vol. 5, pp. 385-414. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Eaton, R. M. "Islamic History as Global History," in M. Adas (ed.) Islamic and
European Expansion (Philadelphia, 1993), 1-36.
Golden, P. B. Nomads and Sedentary Societies in Medieval Eurasia (Washington
DC,1998.
Hodgson, Marshall G. S. "The Role of Islam in World History," in his Rethinking World
History (Cambridge, 1993), 97-125
Liu Xinru and L.N. Shaffer, Connections Across Eurasia: Transportations,
Communications and Cultural Exchange on the Silk Roads (New York, 2007)
Ricci, Ronnit. Islam Translated: Literature, Conversion and the Arabic Cosmopolis of
South and South-East Asia (Chicago, 2011).
Rosenthal, Franz. The Classical Heritage in Islam (London: Routledge and Kegan
Paul, 1975).
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