Cities Empires and Gods

Catalog description

This survey course introduces the early civilizations and religious traditions of the Near East and India that are the institutional and cultural basis of the Middle East today. The course begins with the first, literate, urban civilizations of the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile, and Indus. Stress is on the institutions of ancient kingships and the religious traditions of Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Hebrews, Persia (Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism), and Early India (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism).