What is Islam? Rethinking Centers and Peripheries in Religious Tradition

Catalog description

Islam is a major religion with over a billion adherents living in different parts of the world. One can easily speak of “Islam” as an all-encompassing religious tradition with a scripture and a fixed set of beliefs shared by many a follower, but Islamic/Islamicate history and heritage is a tapestry of multiple patterns and colors. In this class we will survey Islamic history and traditions by reading and discussing both primary and secondary sources. We will question what we might mean when we say something, or someone is “Islamic”. We will examine how Muslims elaborated on their religious corpus to build political, ethical, legal, and religious institutions. We will also discuss how gender, sexuality, race, and class functioned in the building of these institutions.