SAST5860 - History of Islam in Asia

This class is designed to structure reflection on Islam and Islamic culture in South Asia, including intensive discussions on the placement of boundaries of “Islamic” culture, performance, and identity. We will ask where and how these boundaries have evolved with reference to language, ritual, politics, and nationalism in South Asia. We will position our readings and reflections in the disciplines of Religious Studies and Social and Cultural History. If you already have a solid background in South Asian history, this class is perfect for you. If you do not, you will need to do more work behind the scenes to get the basics in place to participate fully in course discussions. We will structure our study with particular attention to significant urban spaces in South Asia. While studies of what constitutes a public and even a nation have focused on the impact of European models, the particular interaction of Islam with all other identity-constitutive areas of life must be grounded in the South Asian context. To drive this home, each of the topics will be grounded in a particular urban space or set of connected urban spaces; we will also consider the differences between this approach and prominent intellectual history approaches. How are public spaces imagined in South Asia, and how are they linked to identity? This class takes a typological approach to studies of the public in South Asia; namely, instead of the public arriving as a European import, this course assumes that we can observe public formation particular to South Asia and independent from European public characteristics. The class will involve regular consideration of a range of primary sources including amulets in the Penn Museum collection and original documents held in the Special Collections at the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Library of Congress.
For this class, you must have some background in study of South Asia and/or study of Islam. Aside from guiding reflection on literature key to the history of Islam in South Asia, the course is also designed to help you learn how to do several tasks essential to the work of a productive academic professional. You will learn to:
Participate confidently in seminars and scholarly discussions on shared readings.
Read effectively and efficiently for seminar discussions.
Lead seminar discussions.
Design and execute an independent research project relevant to the class.
Design, pitch, and present a 20-minute seminar paper