This interdisciplinary module aims to introduce students to the notion of multiple Islamic worlds across the medieval period. It will draw on a range of disciplinary and methodological approaches in both textual and material culture in order to examine issues such as power, authority, legitimacy and learning across various geographies belonging to a so-called singular ‘Islamic World’.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
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A | Spring Term 2022-23 |
Through three key thematic approaches (‘Text as Image/Image as Text’; Power Projection and Legitimacy; Travel and Learning), students will explore the ways in which different Islamic societies depicted, described and displayed themselves and others. This module includes the study of material and textual culture and uses literary and historical methodologies in order to develop a nuanced and critical understanding of the multiplicity of Islamic cultures in the medieval period.
Subject content
Academic and graduate skills
Other learning outcomes
This module examines issues such as power, authority, legitimacy and learning across various geographies belonging to a so-called singular ‘Islamic World’. The seminars are based around three thematic approaches: ‘Text as Image/Image as Text’; 'Power Projection and Legitimacy'; 'Travel and Learning'. Through these, students will explore the ways in which different pre-modern Islamic societies depicted, described and displayed themselves and others. The first theme looks at how images and texts are used to tell stories in different settings. The second theme concerns the ways in which power and legitimacy were presented by Muslim rulers. The third theme turns to some of the intellectual, scientific and philosophical developments that occurred in the pre-modern Islamic world.
This will be a primary module for the Medieval Islamic Cultures pathway within the MA in Medieval Studies. It will also be available to MA in Medieval Studies students who are not on the pathway.
Task | % of module mark |
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Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
We aim to distribute an agreed mark and written comments on summative assessment to students 25 working days following submission.
Bierman, Irene. Writing Signs: The Fatimid Public Text, University of California Press (1998)
Blair, Sheila. The Monumental Inscriptions from Early Islamic Iran and Transoxiana, Leiden:
Brill (1992)
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia ed. Mehdi Amin Razavi.
Richmond: Curzon Press (1996)
Robinson, Chase F. Islamic Historiography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2003)