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HUMA 3817 3.0 Memory, Authority and the Transmission of...
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HUMA 3817 3.0
Memory, Authority and the Transmission of Knowledge in the Muslim World
Winter 2015
Abu Zayd, a reader and his audience at a library in Basra. Maqamat of al-Hariri, written and
illustrated by al-Wasiti, 634 AH/1237 CE. (Image taken from Alen George. “Orality, Writing
and the Image in the Maqamat: Arabic Illustrated Books in Context” in Art History, Volume 35,
Issue 1, pg. 18.)
Course Director:
Selma Zecevic ([email protected])
230 Vanier College (phone: 416 736 2100, ext. 77398)
Office hours: Tue. and Wed. 1 pm: 2 pm.
Administrative secretary:
Rita Parente ([email protected])
210 Vanier College (phone: 416 736 2100, ext. 77389)
Course format: Three- hour seminar (Thursday 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. CB 122)
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Course Description:
From the establishment of the first Islamic library and research center (Bayt al-
Hikma) in Abbasid Baghdad in the early ninth century until present day, Islamic
primary religious schools, colleges (madrasas), and libraries have played a pivotal
role in the transmission and preservation of the knowledge of Islamic authoritative
texts. These institutions trace their origin to the courtyards of mosques, which
emerged as sites for memorizing, studying and copying Islamic sacred texts. Over
time, they have become important social spaces in which notions of authority,
tradition and knowledge have been continuously re-negotiated.
This course focuses on the modes of transmission, acquisition and reproduction of
knowledge in the Muslim world from the ninth century to the present.
Interdisciplinary in approach, this course brings together the works of historians,
anthropologists, social scientists and Islamic scholars and philosophers who have
addressed the significance of writing, memorizing, commenting and transmitting
Islamic scholarly texts in the process of the negotiation of authority and tradition
among different classes of ‘guardians’ of Islamic religious knowledge. The main
goal of this course is threefold: First, it provides a comprehensive overview of the
history of those Islamic educational institutions which played a key role in the
formation of the educated Islamic religious elite (ulama’). Second, it exposes
students to the institutional strategies which served to preserve and negotiate
authority and knowledge in various pre-modern and modern Islamic societies.
Third, it examines the complexity of the process of ‘learning’, which was itself
grounded in several interrelated processes such as memorizing, listening, silent and
loud repeating, writing, commenting, and so on.
A contextual examination of the rise and development of Islamic institutions of
higher education, madrasas, is central to the analysis of these issues. While
concentrating on examples of pre-modern and modern Sunni and Shi’i madrasas,
the students focus on the similarities and differences in the modes of acquisition
and transmission of knowledge of authoritative religious texts in various historical
and ideological contexts. In the course of examining the history of various
madrasas, the students engage in the analysis of different genres of primary and
secondary source material, including biographical dictionaries of Islamic scholars,
curricula from primary and secondary Islamic educational institutions,
autobiographical narratives by legal scholars, mystics and philosophers, college
diplomas, and so on.
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Required Readings:
1. Jonathan Berkey: The transmission of knowledge in medieval Cairo: a social
history of Islamic education (Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press, 1992)–
available at York University Bookstore
2. Dale Eickelman. Knowledge and Power in Morocco: The Education of a
Twentieth-Century Notable (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press,
1985) – available at York University Bookstore
3. George Makdisi. The Rise of the Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and
the West – (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981)York University E book
(CLASS PROJECT)
4. Weekly readings supplied at course’s Moodle website
Useful databases: Encyclopedia of Islam (York University on-line resources);
Index Islamicus (York University online resources)
Grade Distribution:
1. Attendance: 10%
2. Class participation: 10%
3. Group project presentation (a chapter from George Makdisi’s The Rise of the
Colleges : Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West): 5%
4. In-class presentation of a scholarly article or book-chapter: 10%
6. Weekly questions (derived from the required readings), submitted every
week in class: 10%
7. Research essay proposal (summary and selected bibliography, due March
12, 2015): 10 %
8. Research essay (12 pages inclusive, due April 17, 2015): 25%
9. Final exam (last day of classes, April 2, 2015): 20%
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HUMA 3817 3.0 Memory, Authority and the Transmission of Knowledge in
the Muslim World
Winter 2015
Course Syllabus:
I. January 8, 2015: Introduction
No readings are required for the first meeting of the class
Required viewing:
1. Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness (DVD)
II. January 15, 2015: Memory, Authority and the Transmission of
Knowledge
Required readings:
1. Gudrun Kramer and Sabine Schmidtke, “Introduction: Religious Authority and
Religious Authorities in Muslim Societies. Critical Overview” in Speaking for
Islam: Religious Authorities in Muslim Societies, edited by Gudrun Kramer and
Sabine Schmidtke (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, Inc., 2006), pp. 1-14.
(Moodle)
2. George Makdisi, “Authority in the Islamic Community” in La notion d’autorité
au Moyen Age: Islam, Byzance, Occident, Makdisi,Sourdel, Sourdel-Thomine, eds.
(Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1973): 116-126. (Moodle)
3. Yusuf H. R. Seferta, “The Concept of Religious Authority according to
Muhammad 'Abduh and Rashid Ridha” Islamic Quarterly 30:3 (1986), pp. 159-
164. (Moodle)
In-class discussion: Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness (Film)
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Presentations:
1. Wilfred Madelung, “Authority in Twelver Shism in the Absence of Imam” in La
notion d’autorité au Moyen Age: Islam, Byzance, Occident, Makdisi, Sourdel,
Sourdel-Thomine, eds. (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1973):162-173.
2. W. Montgomery Watt, “Authority in the Thought of al-Ghazali” in La notion
d’autorité au Moyen Age: Islam, Byzance, Occident, Makdisi, Sourdel, Sourdel-
Thomine, eds. (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1973):57-67.
III. January 22, 2015: The Rise of Authoritative Texts and the
Construction of Authority
Required readings:
1. Gregor Schoeler, “The Beginnings of Religious Scholarship in Islam: Sirah,
Hadith, Tafsir” in The Genesis of Literature in Islam (Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2002): 40-54 (Moodle)
2. Shawkat M. Toorawa.”From Memory to Written Record” in Ibn Abi Tahir
Tayfur and Arabic Writerly Culture: A Ninth Century Bookman in Baghdad
(London and New York: Routledge, 2005), 7-18. (York University E Book)
3. Jonathan Berkey. “Origins and Early Controversy” in Jonathan Berkey, Popular
Preaching and Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic Near East (Seattle :
University of Washington Press, 2001), pp.22-35. (Moodle)
Presentations:
1. Jacques Berque. “The Koranic Text: From Revelation to Compilation” in
George N. Atiyeh (ed.) The Book in the Islamic World: The Written World and
Communication in the Middle East (Albany: State University of New York
University Press, 1995), pp. 17-33.
2. Asma Afsaruddin, “The excellences of the Qur'an: textual sacrality and the
organization of early Islamic society” The Journal of the American Oriental
Society Vol. 122 No. 1 (2002), pp. 1-24. (Two Presenters)
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IV. January 29, 2015: The Places of Learning: Madrasa
1. Jonathan Berkey. “Introduction” in The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval
Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1992),pp. 3- 20.
Class Project: George Makdisi: The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in
Islam and the West (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981) York
University Library - E Book
V. February 5, 2015. Madrasa, Mosque and Library
Required readings:
1. Jonathan Berkey. “Institutions” in The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval
Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1992), pp. 44-94.
2. Johannes Pedersen. “Libraries” in The Arabic Book (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1984): 113: 130. (Moodle)
Presentations:
1. Christopher Melchert. “The Etiquette of Learning in the Early Islamic Circle” in
Law and Education in Medieval Islam: Studies in Memory of Professor George
Makdisi, Lowry, Stewart and Toorawa, editors (Cambridge: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial
Trust, 2004): 33-44. (Moodle)
2. Michael Chamberlain. “Madrasa, the production of knowledge and the
reproduction of elites” in Michael Chamberlain. Knowledge and Social Practice in
Medieval Damascus, 1190-1350 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006),
pp. 69-90. (Two Presenters) (Moodle)
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VI. February 12, 2015: Students, Teachers and Patrons of Learning
Required readings:
1. Jonathan Berkey. “Professors and Patrons: Careers in the Academic World” in
The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic
Education (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), pp. 95-127.
2. Alice Hunsberger. “Nasir Khusraw: Fatimid Intellectual” in Islamic Intellectual
Tradition in Islam, edited by Farhad Daftary (London: I.B. Tauris, 2000),
pp. 112-129. (Moodle)
Presentations:
1. Jonathan Berkey, "Silver Threads among the Coal": A Well-Educated Mamluk
of the Ninth/Fifteenth Century” in Studia Islamica 73 (1991), pp. 109-125. York
University Library – Online sources (JSTOR):
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1595957
2. Sabine Schmidtke, “Forms and Functions of ‘Licences To Transmit’ (Ijāzas) in
18th-Century-Iran. ʿ Abd Allāh al-Mūsawī al-Jazāʾ irī al-Tustarī’s (1112-73/1701-
59) Ijāza kabīra” in Speaking for Islam: Religious Authorities in Muslim Societies,
edited by Gudrun Kramer and Sabine Schmidtke (Leiden: Brill Academic
Publishers, Inc., 2006), pp. 95-127. (Two Presenters)
VII. February 14-20, 2015: Reading Week
VIII. February 26, 2015: Learning with the Sufis Masters
Required readings:
1. Qamar-ul Huda. “‘Awarif al-Ma’rif: The Sufi Manual of Shaikh Abu Hafs
‘Umar al-Suhrawardi” pp. 41-56 and 62-72, in Striving for Divine Union: Spiritual
Exercises for Suhrawardi Sufis (E-Book available through York University e-
resources).
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2. James Fadiman and Robert Frager. “Sufi Teachers” in Essential Sufism,
Fediman and Frager, editors (New York: Harper One, 1997): 127-151.(Moodle)
Recommended Reading :
1. Spencer Trimingham. “The Formation of Schools of Mysticism” in Spencer
Trimingham. Sufi Orders in Islam, pp. 1-30. (York University e-book)
Presentations:
1. Spencer Trimingham. “The Organization of the Orders” in Spencer Trimingham.
Sufi Orders in Islam, pp. 166-194. (E-Book available through York University e-
resources) – (Two presenters)
2. Elizabeth Sirriyeh. “The Making of a Scholarly Saint” in Sufi Visionary of
Ottoman Damascus Abd al-Ghani al-Nablusi, 1641-1731 – pp. 1-18.
IX. March 5, 2015. The Tradition of Learning in the Ottoman World
Required readings:
1. Ilk Arifin Mansurnoor, “Religious Scholars and State: Patterns of Recruitment
among the Ottoman ‘Ulama” Islamic Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Spring 1992), pp. 35-
51. (York University e-resources)
2. Madeline C. Zilfi. “A Medrese for the Palace: Ottoman Dynastic Legitimation in
the Eighteen Century” Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol 113 no. 2
(April-June 1993), pp. 184-191. (Moodle)
Presentation:
1. Benjamin Fortna. Imperial Classroom: Islam, The State and Education in the
Late Ottoman Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) (Four presenters)
RESEARCH ESSAY PROPOSAL IS DUE TODAY !
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IX. March 12, 2015. Women and Learning
Required Readings:
1. Jonahtan Berkey. “Women and Education” in The Transmission of Knowledge
in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education” (Princeton: Princeton
University Press),pp. 161-181
2. Omaima Abou-Bakr, “Teaching the Words of the Prophet: Women Instructors
of the Hadith (Fourteenth can Fifteenth Centuries)” Hawwa Vol 1. No 3 (2003),
pp. 306-328 (York University online source)
Presentations:
1. Mohammad Akram Nadwi. “Women’s Role in the Diffusion of ‘The
Knowledge” in Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam (Oxford: Interface
Publication, 2007): 138-184 (Three Presenters)
2. Keiko Sekura, “Women’s Empowerment and Iranian-Style Seminaries in Iran
and Pakistan” in The Moral Economy of the Madrasa: Islam and Education Today
(London and New York: Routledge, 2011), pp. 32-58. (Two Presenters) (York
University e-book).
IX. March 19, 2015. Old Methods, Modern Times
Required readings:
1. Indira Falk Gesink, “Islamic Reformation: A History of Madrasa Reform and
Legal Change in Egypt” Comparative Education Review Vol. 50 no.3 (2006), pp.
325-345. (York University online sources, JSTOR)
2. Humayun Kabir, “Contested Notions of Being ‘Muslim’: Madrasas, Ulama and
the Authenticity of Islamic Schooling in Bangladesh” in in The Moral Economy of
the Madrasa: Islam and Education Today (London and New York: Routledge,
2011), pp. 59-84. (York University e-book).
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Presentations:
1. Jasmin Zine, Canadian Islamic Schools: Unravelling the Politics of Faith,
Gender, Knowledge, and Identity (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008),
York University e-book, (Four Presenters)
X. March 26, 2015. Book Discussion
Required reading:
1. Dale Eickelman. Knowledge and Power in Morocco: The Education of a
Twentieth-Century Notable (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press,
1985) (Two Students serve as moderators)
XI. April 2, 2015: Final Exam