Middle Eastern Cities: Then and Now

Catalog description

This team-taught course integrates the insights of history and anthropology to explore the life of cities in the Middle East, some of which became capitals of empires and played major roles on the world stage, in the past and present. We will be looking at, among others, Mecca, Damascus, Fez, Baghdad, Constantinople/Istanbul, Cairo, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Beirut. We will study how these cities developed as economic, cultural, religious and governmental centers as we explore how people earned their livelihoods, practiced their religious beliefs, raised their families, educated their children, designated public and private spaces and fared during periods of war. The roles played by various ethnic and religious groups will be a continuing theme.