An introduction to the Arabic language. The course takes a comprehensive approach to language learning and emphasizes the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students are introduced to the principles of grammar, taught how to read and write in the Arabic alphabet, and trained in the basics of everyday conversation. Through the use of a variety of written, video, and audio materials, as well as other resources made available through the Web, the course emphasizes authentic materials and stresses the active participation of students in the learning process.

An introduction to the Arabic language. The course takes a comprehensive approach to language learning and emphasizes the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students are introduced to the principles of grammar, taught how to read and write in the Arabic alphabet, and trained in the basics of everyday conversation. Through the use of a variety of written, video, and audio materials, as well as other resources made available through the Web, the course emphasizes authentic materials and stresses the active participation of students in the learning process.

An introduction to the Arabic language in an intensive course. The course takes a comprehensive approach to language learning and emphasizes the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students are introduced to the principles of grammar, taught how to read and write in the Arabic alphabet, and trained in the basics of everyday conversation. Through the use of a variety of written, video, and audio materials, as well as other resources made available through the Web, the course emphasizes authentic materials and stresses the active participation of students in the learning process. Students who complete this course will be ready and eligible to enroll in ARAB 201.

A continuation of ARAB 101-ARAB 102. The course takes students to a deeper and more complex level in the study of the Arabic language. While continuing to emphasize the organizing principles of the language, the course also introduces students to a variety of challenging texts, including extracts from newspaper articles, as well as literary and religious materials. Students will be trained to work with longer texts and to gain the necessary communicative skills to prepare them for advanced-level Arabic.

A continuation of ARAB 201. The course takes students to a deeper and more complex level in the study of the Arabic language. While continuing to emphasize the organizing principles of the language, the course also introduces students to a variety of challenging texts, including extracts from newspaper articles, as well as literary and religious materials. Students will be trained to work with longer texts and to gain the necessary communicative skills to prepare them for advanced-level Arabic.

Continuation of ARAB 201-ARAB 202. Involving further development of students' skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, this course exposes students to a variety of authentic Arabic materials, including print and online sources, incorporating MSA and diglossia. Focus on enhanced communication skills in Arabic and attention to the use of language in its sociocultural context. Appropriate for students who have completed ARAB 201-ARAB 202 at Wellesley or the equivalent in summer courses or international study programs.

Further development of all linguistic skills with special attention to reading, writing, and discussion. The course also introduces students to modern Arabic literature. Focus on enhanced communication skills in Arabic and attention to the use of language in its sociocultural context. Appropriate for students who have completed ARAB 202 at Wellesley or the equivalent in summer courses or international study programs.

An exploration of themes of resistance and dissent in the literatures and cultures of North Africa and the Middle East since the early 1980s. Topics include the rise of democratic movements, such as political parties, associations, and NGOs; the role and importance of Islam to the identity of contemporary nation-states in the region; the status of women and minorities in the ideologies of the movements under study; and the status and implications of dissent. Materials studied include works of fiction and nonfiction, films, speeches, song lyrics, and online publications.

Filmmakers in the modern Middle East and North Africa have been at the forefront of intellectual engagement with their societies’ major challenges. By narrating the lives of individuals caught in historical circumstances not of their choosing, they have addressed issues such as incomplete decolonization and economic exploitation, cultural and political dogmatisms, the politicization and policing of religious, gender and sexual identities, foreign intervention and occupation, and dictatorship, civil war, and displacement. We will engage with the form, content, and historical contexts of a range of films and analyze how they leverage aesthetic, affective, and effective image, speech, and sound to persuade their audiences.

This course provides a survey of Middle Eastern history from c. 1900 to the present, with an emphasis on the Arab Middle East. Its main objective is to help you gain insight into the historical backgrounds and contexts of the broad political developments of this period: the demise of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I; the Armenian genocide; the establishment of European “Mandates” in most of the Arab world and the nationalist struggles for independence that ensued; the establishment of Israel and the expulsion and exodus of Palestinians in 1948; the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990; the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the emergence of Islamist political movements in other parts of the Middle East; the regime of Saddam Hussein, the first Gulf War of 1991; the failure of the Oslo peace process of 1993-1995, the expansion of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories except Gaza, the rise of HAMAS; the U.S. invasion and the ensuing civil war in Iraq; the devastation of war and oppression in Syria, and deepening autocracy in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

Intertwined with the political history of the modern Middle East are the dramatic cultural and social changes that have shaped how many Middle Easterners live their lives and imagine their futures. This course explores the historical contexts of the changing constructions of femininity and masculinity in different Middle Eastern settings from World War I to the present. Such contexts include nationalist and Islamist movements; economic, ecological, and demographic change; changing conceptions of modernity and tradition, individual and family, and public and private space; and state violence and civil war. Primary sources will focus on the self-representations of Middle Eastern men and women as they engaged with what they considered the major issues of their times.

This research seminar purposefully brings Africa north and south of the Sahara into a unified frame of study. It focuses on African cultural expressions such as music, song, literature, fashion, photography and film, digital creations, museums, and architecture in the period 1900 to the present. The themes structuring the syllabus are: colonialism, nationalism, and modernity; constructions of gender; identities, and the changing environment. You will learn about important concepts and themes in African historiography and cultural studies, and a wide range of relevant texts. Explorations of African subjectivities and narrative agency in all their complexity are central to the intellectual trajectory of this class. Research papers will engage with a particular kind of text or form of African culture across regions.

This is a research seminar about the history of “Greater Syria” (modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel/Palestinian Authority) from the perspective of its cities, especially Aleppo, Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Haifa, and Jerusalem. Focus on the impact of the Ottoman Empire's mid-nineteenth-century Tanzimat (or modernization) reforms; the Empire's demise after World War One, and European Mandate rule (French in Lebanon and Syria, and British in Trans-Jordan and Palestine). Themes include: changes in governance and the administration of Islamic law; localism, Arab nationalism, sectarianism, and changes in communal identities and inter-communal relations; migration, urban and demographic growth, and the transformation of urban space; Jewish nationalism and immigration, and the impact of World War Two.

A crucial aspect of modern and contemporary international history is the large-scale violence against civilians that has marked recent civil wars throughout the world, from former Yugoslavia to Rwanda, and from Ireland to Sri Lanka and China. Though such violence is often labeled “ethnic” or “religious,” its causes are much broader. This research seminar will focus on: the causes and consequences of both state-perpetrated and communal violence; the scholarly (and legal) debates about how to approach political/social reconstruction in the aftermath of such large-scale violence, and the ethics of the representation of violence by historians and other authors/creators. Drawing on the conceptual readings and case studies of the syllabus, students will design a research paper about a particular conflict chosen by them.

An exploration of urban forms and culture in Muslim societies from Islamic late antiquity to the present. The course examines and critiques concepts of 'the Arab city' and ‘the Islamic city' while focusing on elements of continuity and change in particular cities, such as Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Istanbul, Isfahan, Samarqand, Lucknow and Lahore. Topics include migration, settlement, and the construction of new cities; conversion; the emergence of ‘holy cities' as centres for pilgrimage, religious education and Islamic legal scholarship; sacred space and architecture; religious diversity in urban environments; the impact of colonialism; post-colonial developments; modern and contemporary environmental issues; renewal and preservation.

Historical study of the Islamic tradition, from its beginnings in Arabia through its shaping in the seventh to tenth centuries in the diverse and newly integrated regions of Western and Central Asia and North Africa. Topics include the sacred sources of the Islamic religious tradition, the Prophet and the Qur'an; the formulation of religious law, ethics, theology, and philosophy; varied patterns of piety and mysticism; and the development of Sunni and Shi'i understandings of Islam and Islamic history. Particular attention to the diversity within the Islamic tradition, its intercultural contacts, and its continuing processes of reinterpretation. The course also addresses approaches, methods, issues, and new directions in the study of Islam and Muslim societies.

How have Muslims, over the course of a millennium and a half and in strikingly different environments and circumstances, conceived of human nature, moral conduct and responsibility, and the good life; and how have they formulated, debated and applied ethical principles? This course explores these questions with reference to the rich materials that have informed the religious cultures of Muslim communities, including the sacred sources of the Qur'an and the Prophet's example, the reception, interpretation and development of late antique moral philosophies and wisdom literatures, the evolving corpora of legal and theological scholarship, and the elaboration of rationally based ethical systems. Issues include charity, the environment, animal welfare, economics, gender and sexuality, medicine and bio-ethics, conflict and dispute resolution.

This course is a fast paced experiential introduction to the rich cultural and literary history of Morocco. In addition to language classes in Classical Arabic and Moroccan Arabic, students will get a basic introduction to the Amazigh language and its alphabet in order to enable them to read street signs and decipher some of the graffiti art. Students will also attend lectures given by at least a dozen scholars on topics such as: linguistic diversity and national identity, postcolonial literature, gender and women issues, Moroccan Jewish heritage and history, Amazigh activism, and the complexities of contemporary schools of thought within Islam. Students will also have a chance to travel to southern and central Morocco in order to put the texts they are reading in context and engage with local scholars in small discussion seminars.

Love in its myriad manifestations constitutes a central and perennial theme in the literary and artistic repertoires of Arabic- and Persian-speaking societies. This course explores the varied, subtle vocabulary and the versatile, multivalent imagery linked with the themes of love and longing in Arabic- and Persian-language literature and film. In different times and places, how have men and women writers and directors used the themes of love and longing to depict and critique concepts of gender and gender relations, and social and political inequalities? How have men and women writers and filmmakers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries both continued and disrupted earlier literary and poetic discourses of love? How have modern filmmakers engaged with and reworked classical stories of transgressive love? Divided roughly equally between literary and cinematic works, the course explores treatments of love and longing in, for example, early Arabic poetry and the Quranic text, philosophical and medical treatises, narrative cycles (for example the Thousand and One Nights), epic (notably the Persian Shahnameh or ‘Book of Kings’), lyric poetry (Rumi, Saadi, Hafez), modern verse, and film, including films by Dariush Mehrjui, Nacer Khemir, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abbas Kiarostami, Rakhshan Bani-Etamad and Moufida Tlatli.

An exploration of the contacts and interactions among the major religious communities of Eurasia especially as facilitated by trade, travel and pilgrimage along the 'Silk Road'. After initial consideration of the idea of the 'Silk Road' and the history of its 'discovery', the course focuses on commerce and contacts in specific historical periods from antiquity to the present. Readings include sacred texts (including Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, Daoist, Islamic and Zoroastrian texts), as well as merchants', travellers' and pilgrims' accounts. The course includes substantial attention to the material cultures and artistic works produced by the religious communities of the Silk Road.

How have Muslims, over the course of a millennium and a half and in strikingly different environments and circumstances, conceived of human nature, moral conduct and responsibility, and the good life; and how have they formulated, debated and applied ethical principles? This course explores these questions with reference to the rich materials that have informed the religious cultures of Muslim communities, including the sacred sources of the Qur'an and the Prophet’s example, the reception, interpretation and development of late antique moral philosophies and wisdom literatures, the evolving corpora of legal and theological scholarship, and the elaboration of rationally based ethical systems. Issues are likely to include charity, the environment, animal welfare, economics, gender and sexuality, medicine and bio-ethics, conflict and dispute resolution.

This course provides an in-depth exploration of the Palestinian Israeli conflict from a comparative and social justice perspective. Our goal is to provide an analysis of events to engage in constructive academic debates. The class begins by contextualizing the study of the Middle East within the broader scope of comparative politics and Peace and Justice studies. Next, we focus on the origins of the conflict: the debate about 1948, the consolidation of the Israeli state, and the development of Palestinian and Israeli political and military organizations. The course then delves into different dimensions of the conflict: regional geopolitics, international relations, environmental debates, gender activism, terrorism, and the “Wall.” The last portion of the class considers peace negotiations, conflict mediation, compromise, and solutions: the refugee question, Jerusalem, TRCs, and the role of the United States.

An exploration of the study and representation of Islam and West Asia/the Middle East in European and American scholarship, literature, arts, and journalism, from the Middle Ages to the present. Topics, studied in historical context, include medieval European images of Islam, translations of sacred texts and literary works, religious polemic, colonial histories and correspondence, Orientalism and post-Orientalism, new and emerging scholarship, the modern press and popular culture. Students will participate in focused discussion of primary sources and works of criticism, including Edward Said's Orientalism, and will undertake individual and group-based research projects.

An exploration of law in theory and practice in Muslim communities from the early Islamic period to the present day. How have Muslim societies developed legal principles, discourses and practices? How have different kinds of law – the religious law or shari'a, legal rulings issued by rulers and states, customary law – interacted at different times and in different localities? What have been the roles of scholars, jurists and judges? How have legal discourses and local practices interacted with issues of social and economic status, gender and sexuality? Areas of concentration include law in the diverse societies of the early modern empires (Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal), the legal interventions of colonial powers and their legacies, and contemporary legal discourses among Muslims in Muslim-majority and non-Muslim majority settings.

An exploration of urban forms and culture in Muslim societies from Islamic late antiquity to the present. The course examines and critiques concepts of 'the Arab city' and ‘the Islamic city' while focusing on elements of continuity and change in particular cities, such as Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Istanbul, Isfahan, Samarqand, Lucknow and Lahore. Topics include migration, settlement, and the construction of new cities; conversion; the emergence of ‘holy cities' as centres for pilgrimage, religious education and Islamic legal scholarship; sacred space and architecture; religious diversity in urban environments; the impact of colonialism; post-colonial developments; modern and contemporary environmental issues; renewal and preservation.

An exploration of the journey, both physical and metaphorical, in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Urdu literature and film, and the experiences and encounters of Muslim travelers from the Middle Ages to the present. Focus on travelers' observations and reflections as expressed in their accounts of pilgrimage, foreign study, long-distance commerce, diplomacy, exploration, migration, and tourism, as well as involuntary travel and exile. Materials include poetry, pilgrimage manuals, travel narratives, letters, memoirs, novels, short stories and graffiti, as well as documentary, narrative and experimental film. Authors include Ibn Fadlan, Ibn Battuta, Evliya Çelebi, al-Tahtawi, Nawab Sikandar Begum, Atiya Fyzee, Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Malcolm X, Naguib Mahfouz; filmmakers include Ismäel Ferroukhi, Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Samira Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi.

Love in its myriad manifestations constitutes a central and perennial theme in the literary and artistic repertoires of Arabic- and Persian-speaking societies. This course explores the varied, subtle vocabulary and the versatile, multivalent imagery linked with the themes of love and longing in Arabic- and Persian-language literature and film. In different times and places, how have men and women writers and directors used the themes of love and longing to depict and critique concepts of gender and gender relations, and social and political inequalities? How have men and women writers and filmmakers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries both continued and disrupted earlier literary and poetic discourses of love? How have modern filmmakers engaged with and reworked classical stories of transgressive love? Divided roughly equally between literary and cinematic works, the course explores treatments of love and longing in, for example, early Arabic poetry and the Quranic text, philosophical and medical treatises, narrative cycles (for example the Thousand and One Nights), epic (notably the Persian Shahnameh or ‘Book of Kings’), lyric poetry (Rumi, Saadi, Hafez), modern verse, and film, including films by Dariush Mehrjui, Nacer Khemir, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abbas Kiarostami, Rakhshan Bani-Etamad and Moufida Tlatli.