NELC3400 - Age of Caliphs, 600-1100

There are few moments of human history that were as creative as the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries in the Near East. Nor are there many such moments in history that pose as many questions to the historian. How do we know what we think we know about early and ‘classical’ Islamic history? In what ways is pre-modern Islamic history distinctive? How do we understand the role of religion in pre-modern societies?
In this course, we will examine the social and political history of the Islamic Near East (with a few exotic pit-stops) in its formative centuries, from the rise of Islam to the coming of the Saljuq Turks. Special topics include: the rise of Islam; the early Islamic conquests; the expansion and disintegration of the imperial caliphate under the Umayyads and ‘Abbasids; religious authority in early Islam; ‘Abbasid successor states; Shi‘ism; provincial cultures.