Take me to the Spring Time Schedule
291. Topics in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Islamic Studies. (3). (Excl).
Section 101 – Islam in America, I: The Immigrant and Expatroit
Experience. This course will review the history, geography, and sociology of Muslim immigration and settlement in America
(whether temporary or permanent). Fundamentals of Muslim belief
and practice and the nature of the Muslim Umma or community will
be surveyed. Special attention will be given to redefinitions
of the Islamic Umma in America (tension between Islam as a unified
socio-economic, religious, and political entity, versus the separation
in the U.S. of "church" and state); Islam's changing
religious and social institutions in America (masjid or mosque
and Islamic center, Islamic educational and professional organizations, and the role of the America Imam or religious leader); the struggle
for individual/social identity regarding traditional gender roles
(male honor/female modesty), raising children and preserving the
Muslim family in a non-Muslim environment, and the challenge of
upholding Islamic Law in business and the workplace. American
sectarian developments will also be discussed: The breakdown of
traditional sectarian barriers or distinctions (between Sunni
and Shi'i communities), the popularity of charismatic and ecumenical
Islamic teachings (such as Sufism and the Ahmadiyya), and the
development of entirely new forms of Islamic community (such as
Rashad Khalifa's United Submitters International). Readings will
be in English with some Arabic terminology, supplemented by regular
presentations of Islamic musicality in America and films on Islam
in the modern world and Islam in the West. (O'Connor)
Section 102 – Authority in Islam:
From Medieval to Modern Age. This course introduces students
to the controversial issue of who should lead the Islamic community.
Conducted as a reading course in Islamic history, students will
study how religious, cultural, political, and historical influences
impacted on the institutions of authority in Islam. Besides studying
historical events and individual views, students will learn the
"vocabulary of power," focusing on terms specific to the Islamic context. The course will cover from the rise of Islam
to the modern period, spending one week for each "period" (i.e., the rise of Islam and the early caliphate, the
Abbasids, the Ottoman empire, and the modern era.) Run as a seminar, there will be brief lectures followed by student discussion of the readings for each class. Grading is based on participation, weekly summaries, two oral presentations, and a book review. The
readings are in English, and although some knowledge of Islamic
history would be helpful, it is not required. (Hanne)
See: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ehanne/authority.html
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Take me to the Summer Time Schedule
101(Arabic 101). Elementary
Modern Standard Arabic, I. (4). (LR). Laboratory
fee ($12) required.
Arabic 101-102 sequence provides an accelerated introduction to the phonology and script of Modern Standard Arabic and its basic
vocabulary and fundamental structures. There will be increased
emphasis on developing speaking, reading, and writing skills through
simple short texts, situational dialogues and interactive communicative
activities. Textbooks: R. Rammuny, Sounds and Letters. A Programmed
Introduction and P. Abboud et al, Elementary Modern Standard
Arabic. Part One. (Rammuny/Staff)
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102(Arabic 102). Elementary
Modern Standard Arabic, II. APTIS 101. (4). (LR).
Laboratory fee ($10) required.
See APTIS 101. (Rammuny/Staff)
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291. Topics in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Islamic Studies. (3). (Excl).
Section 201 – Islam in America, II: African American Muslim Communities. This course will
review the history of Muslim presence in that community from the
slave era, to early and contemporary conversion experience, and to the rise throughout this century of new and indigenous African
American Muslim communities. The impact on the African American
community of the Ahmadiyya da'wa (mission to teach Islam) in North
American will be discussed. We will also discuss the unique outreach
of Islam to African-Americans in prison as an avenue to conversion.
The "Arabization" of the African American Sunni community
will be studied as a process of traditional Islamic education
(study of Arabic, Qur'an, Hadith, Shari'a/Fiqh, Sufism, and Islamic
socialization). Outside the Sunni community, the process of ongoing
prophecy and revelation, and competing systems of indigenous Islamic
interpretation will be documented through the devotional literature, music, and iconography of the Nation of Islam, Ansarrullah Community, and Five Percent Nation of Gods and Earths. Islamic cultural diversity
will be shown through African American Muslim experience: segregation/veiling
vs. non-segregationist/non-veiling, Islamic dress/foodways vs.
American dress and food habits, non-politicized Islamic Umma vs. the Jihadist Black "Nation," and Islamic musicality
in qur'anic tajwid and Sufi dhikr/sama' vs. African American song, rap and dance as Islamic vehicles of expression. (O'Connor)
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417(Arabic 415). Colloquial
Levantine Arabic, I. APTIS 202 or 403. (3). (LR).
This sequence provides extensive oral and communicative practice
based on situational dialogues as used by native speakers in Jerusalem, Amman, Damascus, and Beirut. In the first part, the basic principles
of pronunciation, grammar and functional vocabulary are emphasized through oral and pattern practice drills. Then emphasis shifts
to practical use of the dialect through interactive communicative
tasks involving teacher-student, student-student, and group exchanges.
There is a special focus on cultural and social conventions. The
goal is to develop the ability to communicate with native speakers
of Levantine Arabic with some ease. Textbooks: McCarus-Rammuny, A Course in Levantine Arabic. (Rammuny/Staff)
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418(Arabic 416). Colloquial
Levantine Arabic, II. APTIS 417. (3). (LR).
See APTIS 417. (Rammuny/Staff)
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Take me to the Spring/Summer Time Schedule
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