Program Requirements
World Islamic and Middle East Studies is an interdisciplinary program focusing on Muslim cultures and societies both past and present. Recognizing the variety of approaches within Islam, its global reach, but also its regional specificities, and that of the Middle East in particular, the program aims at providing students with training in the languages, textual traditions, and social life of Muslims across different times and places.
For information about instructors and course descriptions, visit the program’s website at http://www.mcgill.ca/islamicstudies/.
Complementary Courses (18 credits)
18 credits of complementary courses selected from the World Islamic and Middle East Studies course lists as follows:
3 credits at the 100-/200 level, in non-language ISLA courses;
6 credits at the 300 level, in non-language ISLA courses;
9 credits at any level. If non-language courses are selected, no more than 6 credits overall at the 100-200 level. Students might fulfill these credits by taking complementary courses from other departments listed as relevant to the program.
ISLA 100/200-Level
3 credits from:
-
ISLA 199 FYS: Narrations of the Middle East (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : An introduction to competing narratives about crucial moments in the history and culture of the Middle East. Reading and discussion of texts drawn from a variety of perspectives and genres, including historical accounts, poetry, fiction, memoir and others.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Fall
Restriction(s): Only open to newly-admitted students in U0 or U1, who may take only one FYS.
Note: Enrollment limit 25. Students who register for more than one FYS will be obliged to withdraw from all but one of them.
Note: Language of instruction is English.
-
ISLA 200 Islamic Civilization (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : An introduction to, and survey of, the religious, literary, artistic, legal, philosophical and scientific traditions that constituted Islamic civilization from the 7th Century until the mid-19th Century.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Fall
Note: All readings are in English.
-
ISLA 210 Muslim Societies (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : An introduction to the different, often disparate, ways in which Muslims live and think in the modern world (19th-21st centuries). Muslim social contexts across the globe and cyberspace.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
-
ISLA 221D1 Introductory Arabic (4.5 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Introduction to Modern Standard Arabic, including pronunciation and reading and writing of the Arabic script; and speaking and comprehension of basic sentences, commands, statements in the present tense.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisites: Permission of the Institute required.
Restriction: Not open to students who have taken ISLA521D1/D2.
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 221D1 and ISLA 221D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms
Students must register for both ISLA221D1 and ISLA 221D2.
-
ISLA 221D2 Introductory Arabic (4.5 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : See ISLA 221D1 for course description.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 221D1
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 221D1 and ISLA 221D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms
Students must register for both ISLA221D1 and ISLA 221D2.
-
ISLA 232D1 Introductory Turkish (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Introduction to speaking and comprehension of basic sentences, commands, statements in the present and future tenses. Introduction to simple daily conversations.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Restriction: Not open to students who have taken ISLA532 D1/D2.
Students must register for both ISLA232D1 and ISLA 232D2.
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 232D1 and ISLA 232D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms.
-
ISLA 232D2 Introductory Turkish (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : See ISLA 232D1 for course description.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 232D1
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 232D1 and ISLA 232D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms.
-
ISLA 241D1 Introductory Persian (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Introduction to the Persian language, beginning with pronouncing, reading and writing the Persian script, and moving to vocabulary and grammatical structures needed to communicate in simple dialogues, read simple texts, and write simple paragraphs.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: Placement test or permission of the instructor
Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 541 D1/D2.
Students must register for both ISLA 241D1 and ISLA 241D2.
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 241D1 and ISLA 241D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms.
-
ISLA 241D2 Introductory Persian (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : See ISLA 241D1 for course description.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 241D1
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 241D1 and ISLA 241D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms.
-
ISLA 251D1 Introductory Urdu-Hindi (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Introduction to Urdu-Hindi language including pronunciation and reading and writing of either Urduor Hindi script, speaking and comprehension of basic sentences, commands, statements in the present tense.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA551D1/D2.
Students must register for both ISLA251D1 and ISLA 251D2.
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 251D1 and ISLA 251D2are successfully completed in consecutive terms.
-
ISLA 251D2 Introductory Urdu-Hindi (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : See ISLA 251D1 for course description.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 251D1
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 251D1 and ISLA 251D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms.
ISLA 300 Level and Higher
6 credits from:
-
ISLA 310 Women in Islam (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The socio-legal status, conditions, and experiences of various groups of women in Middle Eastern societies. These features are explored within the framework of Islamic feminism and Western feminist discourses, and the tensions and conflicts between them. The dynamics of seclusion, veiling, and polygamy are explored in connection to Medieval Arab ruling elites as a background to some of the discussions and debates over the status of women in modern postcolonial Arab society. Socio-economic divisions, state policies, patriarchy, and colonialism are investigated as key factors in understanding the modern historical transformation of gendered relations and women's roles.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
-
ISLA 315 Ottoman State and Society to 1839 (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The emergence and development of the Ottoman Empire from its beginnings around 1300 until the Tanzimat Edict of Reform in 1839. A trajectory of Ottoman history from a small principality to a centralized empire, then to a decentralized governmental structure. In addition to chronological developments, questions of imperialideology and the management of ethnically and religiously diverse communities across a vast territory. Exploration of the place of the Ottomans in the early modern world, and their ideological and diplomatic rivalry with other major empires.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
-
ISLA 322D1 Lower Intermediate Arabic (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Speech, comprehension, reading and writing of more complex grammatical structures, including the conditional sentence, case endings, and verbs and verbal constructions.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 221D1/D2 or ISLA 521D1/D2 or placement test or permission of the Institute.
Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 522 or ISLA 522D1/D2.
Students must register for both ISLA322D1 and ISLA 322D2.
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 322D1 and ISLA 322D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms
ISLA 322D1 and ISLA 322D2 together are equivalent to ISLA 322
Students are expected to have knowledge of basic Arabic grammar and vocabulary.
-
ISLA 322D2 Lower Intermediate Arabic (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : See ISLA 322D1 for course description.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite:ISLA 322D1, ISLA 221D1/D2 or ISLA 521D1/D2 or placement test or permission of the Institute.
Students must register for both ISLA322D1 and ISLA 322D2.
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 322D1 and ISLA 322D2are successfully completed in consecutive terms
ISLA 322D1 and ISLA 322D2 together are equivalent to ISLA 322
Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 522 or ISLA 522D1/D2.
-
ISLA 325 Introduction to Shi'i Islam (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Developments in doctrines, legal school, rituals and political thought of Twelver Shi'ite Muslims during early and late medieval periods (centuries VII-XIII). The emergence of the earliest Shi'ite communities in Arabia, Yemen, Iraq and Iran stressing the relationship of the Shi'ite Imams and their religious scholars to the Sunnite Caliphates.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
-
ISLA 330 Islamic Mysticism: Sufism (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The varieties of "mystical" thought in Islam, primarily as seen in Sufism, its historical development and its place in Islamic culture. Analytical study of major authors, their writings and their central problems.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): ISLA 200 or permission of instructor.
-
ISLA 333D1 Lower Intermediate Turkish (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Listening comprehension, reading, and writing of more complex grammatical structures, including the subjunctive, future, and past tenses.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 232D1/D2 or ISLA 532D1/D2 or permission of the Institute.
Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 533D1/D2.
Students must register for both ISLA333D1 and ISLA 333D2.
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 333D1 and ISLA 333D2 are successfully completed inconsecutive terms.
-
ISLA 333D2 Lower Intermediate Turkish (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : See ISLA 333D1 for course description.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 333D1, ISLA 232D1/D2 or ISLA 532D1/D2 or permission of the Institute.
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 333D1 and ISLA 333D2 are successfully completed inconsecutive terms.
Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 533D1/D2.
-
ISLA 340 Islamic Law and Human Rights (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The impact of modernity on Islamic legal discourse and practice, with particular focus on hermeneutical approaches devised to create an overlapping consensus with liberal democracy. The counter discourse – popularly known as Salafism -- to which Islamic modernism gave rise will also be examined.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 200 or permission of instructor.
-
ISLA 342D1 Lower Intermediate Persian (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Speech, comprehension, and reading and writing of more complex grammatical structures, embedded within a variety of short authentic Persian texts.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 241D1/D2 or ISLA 541 D1/D2, placement test, or permission of the instructor.
Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 542D1/D2.
Students must register for both ISLA 342D1 and ISLA 342D2.
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 342D1 and ISLA 342D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms
Students are expected to have knowledge of basic Persian grammar and vocabulary.
-
ISLA 342D2 Lower Intermediate Persian (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : See ISLA 342D1 for course description.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 342D1 and ISLA 241D1/D2 or ISLA 541D1/D2 or placement test or permission of the instructor.
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 342D1 and ISLA 342D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms
-
ISLA 345 Science and Civilization in Islam (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : History of scientific traditions and ideas in Islamic civilization, from the origins of Islam to the early modern period. Emphasis is on the derivation, development and transmissions of Islamic science, as well as on the assimilation and influence of science within Islamic culture.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
Prerequisite: ISLA 200 or permission of the instructor.
Note: All readings are in English.
-
ISLA 350 From Tribe to Dynasty (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The political and intellectual developments shaping Arab and Persian societies from the rise of Islam in the 7th century until the early mid 8th century, including the major social changes, political revolts, religious schisms, and the consolidation of lasting cultural institutions.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Fall
-
ISLA 352D1 Intermediate Urdu-Hindi (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Speech, comprehension, and reading and writing of more complex grammatical structures, including the subjunctive, future, and past tenses.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 251D1/D2 or ISLA 551D1/D2 or placement test or permission of the instructor.
Restriction: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 552D1/D2.
Students must register for both ISLA352D1 and ISLA 352D2.
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 352D1 and ISLA 352D2 are successfully completed inconsecutive terms.
Students are expected to have knowledge of basic Urdu-Hindi grammar and vocabulary.
-
ISLA 352D2 Intermediate Urdu-Hindi (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : See ISLA 352D1 for course description.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 352D1
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 352D1 and ISLA 352D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms.
Students are expected to have knowledge of basic Urdu-Hindi grammar and vocabulary.
-
ISLA 355 Modern History of the Middle East (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Assessment of the historical transformation of the modern Middle East concentrating on its internal socio-economic changes, as well as the colonial experience and encounters with the West since the early 19th century. Examination of the historical conditions that led to the rise of nationalism, the nation-state, the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 210 or permission of instructor.
-
ISLA 360 Islam and Politics (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Assessment of the relationship between Islam and politics in the contemporary Middle East and Africa through various analytic themes, including political economy, social movement and gendered analysis.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Fall
Prerequisite: ISLA 210 or permission of instructor.
-
ISLA 370 The Qur’an: History and Interpretation (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : It examines the history of the codification of the text, its form, and modes of interpretation in both the modern and pre-modern periods. Presentation of different schools of Qur’anic exegesis, including traditional hermeneutical approaches, and modern approaches such as feminist interpretations of the Qur’ān.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): ISLA 200 or permission of instructor
-
ISLA 380 Islamic Philosophy and Theology (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : A survey of the most important philosophers and theologians in Islamic intellectual history, with a focus on the theories they articulated and the movements they engendered. The impact of European thought on 19th and 20th century Islamic intellectual history is also examined.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 200 or permission of instructor.
Note: Reading and discussion in English.
-
ISLA 383 Central Questions in Islamic Law (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : An integrative view of Islamic law in the past and present, including landmarks in Islamic legal history (e.g., sources of law; early formation; intellectual make-up; the workings of court; legal change; legal effects of colonialism; modernity and legal reform) and a structured definition of what it was/is.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
Prerequisite: ISLA 200 or permission of instructor.
-
ISLA 385 Poetics and Politics in Arabic Literature (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Major issues in classical and modern Arabic literature; how poetics and politics interact in classical and modern, popular folktales and high literature, novels and poetry. The politics of translation from Arabic into English.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 210 or permission of instructor.
Note: Reading and discussion in English.
-
ISLA 388 Persian Literature (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Examination of literature produced in the Persian-speaking world from the mid 10th to the late 20th century C.E. A broad selection of texts (prose and poetry) will be studied in translation.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Fall
Prerequisite: ISLA 200 or permission of instructor.
Note: Readings in English.
-
ISLA 392 Arabic Literature as World Literature (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Consideration of Arabic literature as part of world literature, including exploration of tensions between reading Arabic literature as local, discrete and self-contained and as part of larger global phenomena.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
Prerequisite: ISLA 210 or permission of instructor.
-
ISLA 423D1 Higher Intermediate Arabic (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Introduction to advanced grammatical constructions and vocabulary through readings of longer texts in Arabic, as well as conversation, and exposure to video/audio cultural materials. Continued exposition of Arabic grammar, including active and passive participles, conjunction of irregular verbs, and active and passive voices.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 322D1/D2 or ISLA 322 or ISLA 522D1/D2 or ISLA 522 or placement test or permission of the instructor.
Restriction: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 523D1/D2.
Fall and Winter
Students must register for both ISLA 423D1 and ISLA 423D2.
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 423D1 and ISLA 423D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms.
Students are expected to have knowledge of intermediate-level Arabic grammar and vocabulary.
-
ISLA 423D2 Higher Intermediate Arabic (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : See ISLA 423D1 for course description.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 423D1
Fall and Winter
No credit will be given for this course unless both ISLA 423D1 and ISLA 423D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms.
Students are expected to have knowledge of intermediate-level Arabic grammar and vocabulary.
ISLA Courses
-
ISLA 199 FYS: Narrations of the Middle East (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : An introduction to competing narratives about crucial moments in the history and culture of the Middle East. Reading and discussion of texts drawn from a variety of perspectives and genres, including historical accounts, poetry, fiction, memoir and others.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Fall
Restriction(s): Only open to newly-admitted students in U0 or U1, who may take only one FYS.
Note: Enrollment limit 25. Students who register for more than one FYS will be obliged to withdraw from all but one of them.
Note: Language of instruction is English.
-
ISLA 200 Islamic Civilization (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : An introduction to, and survey of, the religious, literary, artistic, legal, philosophical and scientific traditions that constituted Islamic civilization from the 7th Century until the mid-19th Century.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Fall
Note: All readings are in English.
-
ISLA 210 Muslim Societies (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : An introduction to the different, often disparate, ways in which Muslims live and think in the modern world (19th-21st centuries). Muslim social contexts across the globe and cyberspace.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
-
ISLA 325 Introduction to Shi'i Islam (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Developments in doctrines, legal school, rituals and political thought of Twelver Shi'ite Muslims during early and late medieval periods (centuries VII-XIII). The emergence of the earliest Shi'ite communities in Arabia, Yemen, Iraq and Iran stressing the relationship of the Shi'ite Imams and their religious scholars to the Sunnite Caliphates.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
-
ISLA 330 Islamic Mysticism: Sufism (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The varieties of "mystical" thought in Islam, primarily as seen in Sufism, its historical development and its place in Islamic culture. Analytical study of major authors, their writings and their central problems.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): ISLA 200 or permission of instructor.
-
ISLA 340 Islamic Law and Human Rights (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The impact of modernity on Islamic legal discourse and practice, with particular focus on hermeneutical approaches devised to create an overlapping consensus with liberal democracy. The counter discourse – popularly known as Salafism -- to which Islamic modernism gave rise will also be examined.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 200 or permission of instructor.
-
ISLA 345 Science and Civilization in Islam (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : History of scientific traditions and ideas in Islamic civilization, from the origins of Islam to the early modern period. Emphasis is on the derivation, development and transmissions of Islamic science, as well as on the assimilation and influence of science within Islamic culture.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
Prerequisite: ISLA 200 or permission of the instructor.
Note: All readings are in English.
-
ISLA 350 From Tribe to Dynasty (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The political and intellectual developments shaping Arab and Persian societies from the rise of Islam in the 7th century until the early mid 8th century, including the major social changes, political revolts, religious schisms, and the consolidation of lasting cultural institutions.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Fall
-
ISLA 355 Modern History of the Middle East (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Assessment of the historical transformation of the modern Middle East concentrating on its internal socio-economic changes, as well as the colonial experience and encounters with the West since the early 19th century. Examination of the historical conditions that led to the rise of nationalism, the nation-state, the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 210 or permission of instructor.
-
ISLA 360 Islam and Politics (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Assessment of the relationship between Islam and politics in the contemporary Middle East and Africa through various analytic themes, including political economy, social movement and gendered analysis.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Fall
Prerequisite: ISLA 210 or permission of instructor.
-
ISLA 370 The Qur’an: History and Interpretation (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : It examines the history of the codification of the text, its form, and modes of interpretation in both the modern and pre-modern periods. Presentation of different schools of Qur’anic exegesis, including traditional hermeneutical approaches, and modern approaches such as feminist interpretations of the Qur’ān.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): ISLA 200 or permission of instructor
-
ISLA 380 Islamic Philosophy and Theology (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : A survey of the most important philosophers and theologians in Islamic intellectual history, with a focus on the theories they articulated and the movements they engendered. The impact of European thought on 19th and 20th century Islamic intellectual history is also examined.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 200 or permission of instructor.
Note: Reading and discussion in English.
-
ISLA 383 Central Questions in Islamic Law (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : An integrative view of Islamic law in the past and present, including landmarks in Islamic legal history (e.g., sources of law; early formation; intellectual make-up; the workings of court; legal change; legal effects of colonialism; modernity and legal reform) and a structured definition of what it was/is.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
Prerequisite: ISLA 200 or permission of instructor.
-
ISLA 385 Poetics and Politics in Arabic Literature (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Major issues in classical and modern Arabic literature; how poetics and politics interact in classical and modern, popular folktales and high literature, novels and poetry. The politics of translation from Arabic into English.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 210 or permission of instructor.
Note: Reading and discussion in English.
-
ISLA 388 Persian Literature (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Examination of literature produced in the Persian-speaking world from the mid 10th to the late 20th century C.E. A broad selection of texts (prose and poetry) will be studied in translation.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Fall
Prerequisite: ISLA 200 or permission of instructor.
Note: Readings in English.
-
ISLA 392 Arabic Literature as World Literature (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Consideration of Arabic literature as part of world literature, including exploration of tensions between reading Arabic literature as local, discrete and self-contained and as part of larger global phenomena.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
Prerequisite: ISLA 210 or permission of instructor.
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ISLA 410 History: Middle-East 1798-1918 (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : A study of the Middle East from Napoleon's invasion of Egypt to the end of WWI. Emphasis will be on the emergence of nationalisms in the context of European imperialism; political, social, and economic transformation; religion and ideology; and changing patterns of alliances.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
3 hours
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ISLA 411 History: Middle-East 1918-1945 (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The impact of WWI on Middle Eastern society and politics; the British and French mandates; the growth of nationalisms, revolutions and the formation of national states; WW II and the clash of political interests within the region.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
3 hours
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ISLA 415 Modern Iran: Anthropological Approach (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The modern history, social, and cultural anthropology of contemporary Iran.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 210 or permission of instructor.
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ISLA 420 Indo-Islamic Civilization: Medieval (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The rise of Islam in South Asia in the 8th Century and its subsequent expansion; evolution of Indo-Islamic civilization and its apogee during Mughal rule up to 1707. Themes include state and religion; ruling institutions; political theory, Sufism and the process of conversion, as well as the formation of a composite culture.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
Prerequisite: ISLA 200 or permission of instructor.
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ISLA 421 Islamic Culture - Indian Subcontinent (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Survey of Islamic culture (faith systems, literature, music, art) on the Indian subcontinent from the early modern period to the present, with a focus on conflict and relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, and between majority and minority Muslim groups.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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ISLA 430 Islamdom: Baghdad to Cordoba (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The course examines the major socio-political developments in Iraq, Persia, Syria, Egypt, North Africa and Spain from the 9th to the 13th Century. Emphasis is laid on the Umayyad Caliphate centered in Cordoba, and the 'Abbasid Caliphate centered in Baghdad, and the rise of important local dynasties leading up to the Mongol invasion. The course underscores the formation of Islamic cultures in distinct geographical settings and the transformation of religious life under new socio-economic conditions. It also explores shifting notions of civil society and orthodoxy.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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ISLA 488 Tales of Wonder-Islamic World (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Reading of literary masterpieces of Islamic world focused on three collections of marvelous tales in Arabic, Persian and Urdu: The Arabian Nights, the Shahnameh, and the Adventures of Amir Hamza. May include film screenings, visual art, viewing of rare materials.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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ISLA 499 World Islamic and Middle East Studies Internship (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Internship with an approved host institution or organization.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Restriction(s): Open to U2 and U3 students with a minimum CGPA of 2.7, and permission of the departmental Internship Adviser. This course will not normally fulfill program requirements for seminar or 400-level courses. A letter from a supervisor at the institution must attest to successful completion of the student's tenure (minimum 150 hours). Students attain credit by writing a research project based on and inspired by their internship experience. This research paper is written after the Internship is completed.
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ISLA 502 Art in the Age of Empires (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : This course offers a wide-ranging survey of visual culture under the three Muslim superpowers of the early modern period: the Mediterranean-based Ottomans, the Safavids of Iran, and the Mughals of India. The course will examine the nature of these states and their distinctive and vibrant artistic idiom on a comparative basis. Topics include the formation of imperial ideology and its visual articulation; palaces and court culture; artistic organization, authorship, and agency; patronage, gender, piety, as well as cross-cultural interaction.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): ISLA 320 or permission of instructor.
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ISLA 505 Islam: Origin and Early Development (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The Qur'an, Hadith, the Shari'a and their major themes. The early development of law, theology and Sufism. The development and formation of an Islamic "orthodoxy", the development and nature of competing interpretations of Islam during the Classical Period. Topics: God, revelation, prophecy, the community and the individual and the meaning of history.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
3 hours
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ISLA 506 Revolutions in the Arab World (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : How the basic elements of Islam have been understood in the course of later Islamic history up to the present day. The nature and development of Shi'ism, Sufi brotherhoods, major intellectual trends, Islam in a world of nation states, diaspora. The challenges of modernity and the contemporary world.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
3 hours
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ISLA 512 Art of the Ottoman Empire (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : This course examines artistic production of the large and long-lived empire of the Ottomans. Focusing on key monuments of art and architecture, discussion will revolve around issues relating to imperial identity, patronage, court-culture, and cross-cultural exchange.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): ISLA 320 or permission of instructor.
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ISLA 515 The Medieval School in Islam (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Schooling in medieval Islamic society particularly in Iraq, Greater Syria, Persia, and Egypt. Sheds light on the structure of learning, aims of education, the life of students including women, and their relationship to their teachers. Illuminates forms of academic evaluation, and looks closely at the "scholarly license" as an accrediting tool delineating its function and scope. Through a set of representative studies on the medieval school, it brings attention to the heated debates surrounding the academic rigor of this form of learning, and the place of scientific learning in it, as well as the historical connection between it and the early European college.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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ISLA 516 Medieval Islam, 13th-15th Century (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The historical circumstances surrounding the Crusades against Muslims in Greater Syria and Egypt. The socio-economic, political, and cultural transformation of Muslim society following the destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate, and the rise of the Ikl-Khanid Mongols in Iran and Iraq, as well as the Mamluks in Syria and Egypt. Emphasis will be placed on the integration of new Persian, Turkish, and Indian populations into Islamic imperial culture.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisites; ISLA 200
Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 511D1/D2.
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ISLA 555 Urdu Poetry (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Interpretation of Urdu poetry for students with intermediate to advanced-level knowledge of Urdu-Hindi language. Includes advanced grammar topics, cultural and historical background, and interpretation and analysis.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): ISLA 352D1/D2 or permission of the instructor.
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ISLA 585 Arab Women's Literature (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : Explorations of writings by Arab women. Issues include: translation/reception, gender and genre, categories of knowledge about Arab women, feminist and post-colonial theories/methodologies.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: ISLA 392 or permission of instructor.
Note: Readings in English translation.
Non-ISLA Courses
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ANTH 327 Anthropology of South Asia (3 credits)
Overview
Anthropology : An introduction to anthropological research in India and greater South Asia. Topics include politics, caste, class, religion, gender and sexuality, development and globalization.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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HIST 240 Modern History of Islamic Movements (3 credits)
Overview
History : Islamic revival in the Middle East which led to the rise of different versions of Islamic traditions and beliefs. Emphasis on the nature and character of leading nationalist and Islamic movements and their ideologues since the late 19th century.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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HIST 341 Themes in South Asian History (3 credits)
Overview
History : Exploration of a theme in the history of South Asia.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: HIST 209 recommended.
Themes may vary from year to year.
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HIST 435 Topics in South Asian History (3 credits)
Overview
History : In-depth discussion and research on a topic in the history of South Asia.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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HIST 591D1 Modern Middle East History (3 credits)
Overview
History : Topics in the history of the modern Middle East.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 240 or HIST 339 or HIST 340 or HIST 448 or permission of instructor.
Students must register for both HIST 591D1 and HIST 591D2. No credit will be given for this course unless both HIST 591D1 and HIST 591D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms.
Restriction(s): Open only to history honours and graduate students or advanced students who have permission of instructor.
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HIST 591D2 Modern Middle East History (3 credits)
Overview
History : Topics in the history of the modern Middle East.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 240 or HIST 339 or HIST 340 or HIST 448 or permission of instructor.
Students must register for both HIST 591D1 and HIST 591D2. No credit will be given for this course unless both HIST 591D1 and HIST 591D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms.
Restriction(s): Open only to history honours and graduate students or advanced students who have permission of instructor.
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JWST 261 History of Jewish Philosophy and Thought (3 credits)
Overview
Jewish Studies : An introduction to Jewish philosophy and thought from the Hellenistic period (Philo) to the beginning of the modern era (Spinoza) focusing on topics such as prophecy and philosophy, God and the world; the Law as a canon of ethical rules and as a political constitution. Survey of the treatment of such issues by Jewish thinkers from Philo to Maimonides.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
For detailed course content go to www.mcgill.ca/jewishstudies/undergraduates.
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JWST 323 The Israeli Novel (3 credits)
Overview
Jewish Studies : In-depth examination of selected Israeli novels written during the past fifty years of national formation and consolidation. Authors may include Agnon, Yehoshua, Oz, Shabtai, Shalev and others.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
For detailed course content go to www.mcgill.ca/jewishstudies/undergraduates.
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JWST 338 Jewish Philosophy and Thought 2 (3 credits)
Overview
Jewish Studies : Focuses on either a period, a current of thought or the work of a thinker in the history of Jewish thought from the Middle Ages to Modern Times, paying particular attention to the relationship of Jewish thinkers to intellectual trends in their respective cultural contexts. themes and concerns of Jewish theology and on Jewish responses to contemporary trends in European thought.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
For detailed course content go to www.mcgill.ca/jewishstudies/undergraduates.
Winter
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JWST 366 History of Zionism (3 credits)
Overview
Jewish Studies : An examination of the development of the Zionist idea, the most influential expression of modern Jewish nationalism, which led to the creation of the Jewish state. The transformation of elements of traditional Jewish messianism into a modern political ideology. Hibbat Zion, Political Zionism, Cultural and Synthetic Zionism will be discussed.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
For detailed course content go to www.mcgill.ca/jewishstudies/undergraduates.
Recommended: JWST 365
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PHIL 356 Early Medieval Philosophy (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : An examination of selected works in the Christian, Islamic and Jewish traditions. Topics in moral and political philosophy, logic and metaphysics, philosophical psychology and epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophical theology may be discussed.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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POLI 340 Developing Areas/Middle East (3 credits)
Overview
Political Science : An examination of the societies, political forces and regimes of selected countries of the Eastern Arab world (Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia).
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: A basic course in Comparative Politics or a course on the region or written permission of the instructor
Note: The area in the field of Comparative Politics is Developing Areas.
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POLI 341 Foreign Policy: The Middle East (3 credits)
Overview
Political Science : An examination of the changing regional security environment and the evolving foreign policies and relationships of Arab states in three areas - relations with non-Arab regional powers (Israel, Iran), inter-Arab relations, Great Power relations. The course will focus particularly on Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: A 200- or 300- level course in International Relations or Middle East politics or permission of the instructor
Note: The field is International Politics.
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POLI 347 Arab-Israel Conflict, Crisis, Peace (3 credits)
Overview
Political Science : Concepts - protracted conflict, crisis, war, peace; system, subsystem; Conflict-levels of analysis; historical context; images and issues; attitudes, policies, role of major powers; Crises-Wars - configuration of power; crisis models; decision-making in 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 crisis-wars; conflict- crisis management; Peace-Making - pre-1977; Egypt-Israel peace treaty; Madrid, Oslo, Israel-Jordan peace; prospects for conflict resolution.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Prerequisite: 160-243 prior to 1997-98; or POLI 244
Note: The field is International Politics.
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RELG 204 Judaism, Christianity and Islam (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : An introduction to the beliefs, practices, and religious institutions of these three world religions.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
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RELG 307 Bible, Quran and Interpretations (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures as responses to earlier sacred texts and in the light of post-scriptural interpretations. The debates, polemics, interpretative strategies, and intellectual and spiritual sharing produced by these three religions in accepting, explaining, amplifying, modifying, and selectively rejecting their and other sacred scriptures.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
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RELG 309 World Religions and Cultures They Create (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : The constitution and mutual entanglements of selected religions and cultures originating and thriving in varied regional contexts. Focus on highlighting the symbolic (visual, aural) expressivity of religions via ritual, myth, and rational speculation and its impact on high and popular cultures.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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RELG 573 Religions in Global Society (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : This seminar is devoted to the study of a plurality of often intersecting religious traditions in a globalizing world, based on interdisciplinary scholarship drawing from history, sociology, anthropology and archaeology. It starts from locating religious phenomena within intersecting social, cultural and political fabrics around the world. It articulates the relation between a multi-faith appreciation of the role of religions in a variety of societies and the emergence of diverse patterns of secularity in them. It facilitates a rich understanding of a complex past to shed light on the new challenges of globalization, including the opening of horizons of postsecular understandings and arrangements.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
