Online
Section Information for Fall 2020
This course examines the historical origins of the Islamic spiritual, legal, and military conceptions of “striving in the path of God” (jihad) in global perspective across the Muslim-majority world from the Middle East to Africa, and Central, South, and Southeast Asia. Beginning with a comparative overview of concepts of war and religiously-sanctioned violence in the Abrahamic religious traditions (Islam, Judaism, Christianity), the course proceeds to cover the development of different interpretations of “jihad” as a concept among Muslim religious scholars and jurists, mystics, reformists, and political and military leaders. The course examines discussions and debates on “jihad” across the breadth of Islamic history from the Prophet Muhammad and the expansion of the early Islamic state and first caliphates of the Umayyads and Abbasids through the impact of the Crusades and European colonialism in the Islamic world up to the emergence of militant non-state Islamist (‘jihadi’) organizations like Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS). In addition to key secondary scholarship, students will also engage with a variety of primary sources ranging from selections from the Quran and Hadith to the poetry, songs, and essays about jihad produced by modern non-state militant groups.
HIST 387 DL7 is a distance education section.
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Credits: 3-6
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