University of Oregon, Department of History, HIST 410/510. Spring 2014, TTh, 2:00 3:20 PM, 185 Lillis Hall

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1 ISLAM AND THE RHETORIC OF EMPIRE Spring 2014, TTh, 2:00 3:20 PM, 185 Lillis Hall The Islamic conquests that swept across the Near East, North Africa, and Central Asia in the seventh and eighth centuries CE remain one of history s most transformative events. But what was it like to witness, experience, and participate in the early Islamic conquests? How did the Muslim conquerors justify their newfound dominion and how did their imperial ambitions shape the trajectory of early Islamic religion and its diverse expressions? Utilizing new historical methods for reading and interpreting the sparse contemporary and near-contemporary testimonies for this historical period, this course explore how these testimonies, both Muslim and non-muslim, continue to challenge historians to revise the history of the Islamic conquests. Strong focus is placed on reading primary source materials in English translation; no prior background is required. INSTRUCTOR SEAN ANTHONY Office: 309 McKenzie Hall Office Hours: MW 1-3pm; or by appointment swanthon@uoregon.edu Course Website. Please consult the course website regularly for announcements. The website is accessible via UofO s Blackboard system (see The site contains general course information, reading assignments, research guides, lecture handouts, study questions for discussion, paper assignments, visual images, links to other sites, etc. REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING Books Required for Purchase (available at the Duck Store): Fred M. Donner, Muḥammad and the Believers at the Origins of Islam (Cambridge, Mass., 2010) Chase F. Robinson, ʿAbd al-malik (Oxford, 2005) Andrew Palmer, The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles (Liverpool, 1993) Readings, Assignments, and Class Participation: Please consult this syllabus frequently throughout the quarter. It will serve as your guide for the readings and assignments necessary for you to participate in and benefit from class time to maximum extent possible. As is necessary, I will continue to update the content of the syllabus as needed, particularly the class schedule, as the quarter progresses. Readings. Much of the basic work you will be doing outside of class will focus on your readings. For most days, there are two types of readings present on the syllabus: primary source readings and supplemental readings. It is particularly important in this class to focus on the primary source readings when you come to class at the beginning of the week, I expect that you will have read and taken notes for in-class discussion and questions on these assigned texts. Before each session, you must to swanthon@uoregon.edu at least 3 questions about the primary source reading assignment. Page1

2 Assignments: The bulk of your grade for this course will be evaluated based on three assignments: an in-class presentation, a mid-term essay and a final essay written in response to prompts based off your readings, presentations, and lectures. Your in-class presentations will be on primary sources readings in translation assigned in class and consists of two components. The first is the completion of the Textual Analysis Handout due the day of your in-class participation and to be distributed to your classmates and me. The second is a minute, in-class presentation on the source and its historical significance to the modern study and understanding of the Islamic conquests. All written work will serve as your attempt to express your own ideas in a medium-length essay (5 to 7 pages in length, 1.5 spaced, standard font such as Times New Roman or Garamond) on an assigned topic. These topics will require you to draw extensively upon the assigned readings and the ideas discussed in class and will be scrutinized and evaluated on the basis of the criteria of academic writing. Essays should be ed to islamic.history.papers@gmail.com as a Word file by 5:00pm Pacific Standard Time on the due date. Developing and mastering the ability to write critically and to engage historical events and persons with critical acumen is a difficult, but worthwhile, task. Even if you never revisit the topic of this course again, the skills you acquire in writing and improving your essays will serve you well for the rest of your life. I therefore beseech you to take time to write your essays well. Further instructions on class paper assignments can be found on the assignment handouts and course Grading Rubric. Class Participation: 80% of success is showing up. -Woody Allen This class depends on you to function fully. If you do not participate in class discussions, do not present assigned articles, and fail to communicate to me any indication that you ve read the texts (and such indications could be in the form of insightful observations or cantankerous bewilderment), then I will be compelled to give you a low-grade. Grading Scheme Participation 15 % Presentation 25 % Essay 1 30 % Essay 2 30 % Learning Objectives Identify and employ historical methods and terminologies to understand societal and cultural change Page2

3 Develop an historical understanding of the Islamic conquest and the relevance of the transformations they inspired to the modern world Synthesize arguments from historical evidence and express them in formal prose. Other class policies Computers, cellphones, etc. Please, no texting, no checking, no laptop/ipad/netbook usage in class. All of the readings you ll need for class will be available in your course packet, and I d much prefer you interact with your classmates and me rather than a machine. Academic Honesty. All of the regular rules of the university apply. If you are unfamiliar with these, please do consult the Student Conduct and Community Standards at the Office of Student Life: All the work and ideas that you hand in must be your own, and my policy towards plagiarism is one of absolute zero tolerance. If you are unsure of what plagiarism is, an excellent guide exists here at UO: Attendance. This class is taught for your sake and your peers sake, so for Pete s sake, please attend class! The quality of your classroom experience and those of your classmates depends on your commitment. Your grade will suffer if you do not attend, guaranteed. REFERENCE WORKS A selection of basic reference dealing with Islamic history and civilization be found at the Knight Library and accessed via the library s online resources. Below is a list of the most authoritative and useful: Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2 nd edition; the gold standard of Islamic studies and abbreviated as EI 2. It is easily accessed online at : Encyclopaedia of Islam THREE; the third edition of EI 3 is underway but still in its infancy, most including articles falling under the letter A. Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, ed. D. Thomas et al. (Leiden, ) JSTOR: useful for essentially any class you ll take here at Oregon, by logging into jstor.org via Oregon s proxy server and/or at the library, you have access to a wealth of scholarly articles on Islamic history and civilization. If you re looking for a place to find sources on the Internet, this should be one of your first stops (Wikipedia, while useful in some respects, tends to be VERY unreliable and/or ideological for early Islamic history). Page3

4 CLASS SCHEDULE Part I: Introducing the Islamic Conquests Week 1 Tues Apr 01 Course Introduction and Organization Thurs Apr 03 The Islamic Conquests and the Collision of Empires Week 2 Donner, P. Sarris, Empires of Faith: The Fall of Rome to the Rise of Islam, (Oxford, 2011), Tues Apr 08 First Impressions? BL Add. 14,461 in Palmer, 1-4. Part II: The Conquered Thomas the Presbyter (wr. circa 640 CE) in Palmer, The Doctrine of Jacob the Recently Baptized Thomas Sizgorich, Do Prophets Come with a Sword? Conquest, Empire, and Historical Narrative in the Early Islamic World, American Historical Review (2007): Fergus Millar, Empire, Community, and Culture in the Roman Near East: Greeks, Syrians, Jews and Arabs, Journal of Jewish Studies 38 (1987): Thurs Apr 10 Pseudo-Sebeos and John of Nikiû The Armenian History Attributed to Sebeos, trans. R. W. Thomson (Liverpool 1999), 1: John of Nikiû, Chronicle, trans. R. H. Charles (London, 1916) Robert Hoyland, Sebeos, the Jews and the Rise of Islam, in Medieval and Modern Perspectives on Muslim-Jewish Relations, ed. R. L. Nettler (Luxembourg, 1995), Week 3 Page

5 Tues Apr 15 Chronica Minora: First Drafts of Seventh-Century History Melkite Chronicle in Palmer, Maronite Chronicle in Palmer, Jacob of Edessa, Charts in Palmer, Michael Phillip Penn, God s War and His Warriors: The First Hundred Years of Syriac Accounts of the Islamic Conquests, in Just Wars, Holy Wars, & Jihad, ed. Sohail H. Hashim (Oxford, 2012), Robert Hoyland, Jacob of Edessa on Islam, in After Bardaisan: Studies on Continuity and Change in Syriac Christianity in Honour of Professor Han J. W. Drijvers, ed. G. J. Reinink and A. C. Klugkist (Leuven, 1999), Thurs Apr 17 Syriac Chroniclers response to the Islamic Conquests John bar Penkāyē, Rēš Mellē, tr. Sebastian Brock, North Mesopotamia in the Late Seventh Century: Book XV of John bar Penkāyē s Rēš Mellē, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 9 (1987): Theophilus of Edessa, trans. R. Hoyland, Theophilus of Edessa s Chronicle and the Circulation of Knowledge in Late Antiquity and Early Islam (Liverpool, 2012), The Chronicle of Zuqnīn, parts III and IV, AD , trans. Amir Harrak (Toronto, 1999) Week 4 Gerrit J. Reinink, East Syrian Historiography in Response to the Rise of Islam: The Case of John bar Penkaye s Ktābā d-rēš mellē, in Redefining Christian Identity: Cultural Interaction in the Middle East since the Rise f Islam, eds. J. J. van Ginkel, H. L. Murrevan den Berg, and T.M. Vant Lint (Leuven, 2005), Tues Apr 22 Introduction to Christian-Muslim Dialogue Literature in the 7 th -8 th Centuries CE John of Sedra (d. 648), in M. P. Penn, John and the Emir: A New Introduction, Edition and Translation, Le Muséon 121 (2008): John Damascene, De Haeresibus, trans. J. Sahas Averil Cameron, Can Christians do dialogue? Studia Patristica 54 (2012): G. J. Reinink, The Beginning of Syriac Apologetic Literature in Response to Islam, Oriens Page5 3

6 Christianus 77 (1993): Thurs Apr 24 Three Disputations Disputation of the Monk from Bēt Ḥālē, trans. David Taylor The Leo III - ʿUmar II Correspondence, trans. A. Jeffery Disputation of the Monk Abraham of Tiberius, trans. Krisztina Szilágyi in The Orthodox Church in the Arab World ( ): An Anthology of Sources, eds. A. Treiger and S. Noble (DeKalb, Ill., 2014), Week 5 Tues Apr 29 Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature Daniel (NRSV) Oded Irshai, Dating the Eschaton: Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Calculations in Late Antiquity, in Apocalyptic Time, ed. A. I. Baumgarten (Leiden, 2000), John C. Reeves, Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic: A Postrabbinic Jewish Apocalypse Reader (Atlanta, 2005), Thurs May 01 Christian Apocalyptic Responses to the Islamic Conquests Excerpts from The Syriac-Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, trans. S. Brock in Palmer, Excerpt from The Apocalypse of the Twelve Apostles, ed. and trans. J. Rendel Harris (Cambridge 1900) Sermon of Pseudo-Ephrem on the End of the World, trans. J. Reeves 4 H. J. W. Drijvers, Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Northern Mesopotamia in Early Islamic Times: The Gospel of Twelve Apostles and Related Texts, in La Syrie de Byzance à Islam, VIIe-VIIIe siècles, eds. P. Canivet and J.-P. Rey Coquais (Damascus, 1992), 67-74, G. J. Reinink, Pseudo-Methodius and the Pseudo-Ephremian Sermo de fine mundi, in Media Latinitas, eds. R. I. A Nip, H. van Dijk, E. M. C. van Houts, C. H. Kneepkens, and G. A. A. Kortekaas (Turnhout, 1996), Page6 4

7 Week 6 Tues May 06 Apocalyptic Responses to Muhammad s Prophethood The Secrets of Rabbi Shimʿōn b. Yoḥai, trans. J. Reeves The Baḥīrā Apocalypse (East-Syriac Recension), trans. B. Rogemma S. W. Anthony, Who was the Shepherd of Damascus? The Enigma of Jewish and Messianist Responses to the Islamic Conquests in Marwānid Syria and Mesopotamia, in The Lineaments of Islam: Studies in Honor of Fred McGraw Donner (Leiden, 2012), Krisztina Szilágyi, Muḥammad and the Monk: The Making of the Christian Baḥīrā Legend, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 34 (2008): Part II: The Conquerors Thurs May 08 The Succession to Muḥammad Donner, Maʿmar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. and trans. S. W. Anthony (New York, 2014), P. Crone, God s Rule (New York, 2004 ), 2-16 The Origins of Government. Week 7 Tues May 13 The Early Conquest State Donner, Martin Hinds, The Murder of the Caliph ʿUthmān, International Journal of Middle East Studies 3 (1972): Albrecht Noth, Problems of Differentiation between Muslims and Non-Muslims: Re-Reading the Ordinances of ʿUmar (al-shurūṭ al-ʿumariyya), in Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society, ed. R. Hoyland (Burlington, 2004) Page7 5 anist_responses_to_the_islamic_conquests_in_marwanid_syria_and_mesopotamia 6

8 Thurs May 15 ʿAlī and Muʿāwiya Maʿmar ibn Rāshid, Expeditions, Martin Hinds, The Ṣiffīn Arbitration Agreement, Journal of Semitic Studies 17 (1972): Andrew Marsham, The Pact (amāna) between Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿāṣ (656 or 658 CE): Documents and the Islamic Historical Tradition, Journal of Semitic Studies 57 (2012): Crone, God s Rule, The First Civil War and Sect Formation Week 8 Tues May 20 Muʿāwiya and the Umayyads Khaled Keshk, When Did Muʿāwiya Become Caliph? Journal of Near Eastern Studies 69.1 (2010): Clive Foss, Muʿāwiya s State, in Money, Power, and Politics in Early Islamic Syria: A Review of Current Debates, ed. John Haldon (Burlington, 2010), Crone, God s Rule, The Umayyads. Thurs May 22 The Second Civil War: ʿAbdallāh ibn al-zubayr and al-mukhtār al-thaqafī Donner, Robinson, ʿAbd al-malik, Crone, God s Rule, Shiʿites of the Umayyad Period Week 9 Tues May 27 ʿAbd al-malik and the Dome of the Rock Robinson, ʿAbd al-malik, Page8 7

9 Amikam Elad, Why did ʿAbd al-malik build the Dome of the Rock? A reexamination of the Muslim sources, The Isrāʾ and Miʿrāj of the Prophet Muḥammad from Ibn Isḥāq, The Life of Muhammad, trans. A. Guillaume (Karachi, 1978), Thurs May 29 God s Caliphs, Arabization, and the Islamic State Week 10 Walīd II on the Caliphate, tr. P. Crone and M. Hinds Stefan Heidemann, The Evolving Representation of the Early Islamic Empire and its Religion on Coin Imagery, in The Qurʾān in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qurʾānic Milieu, eds. A Neuwirth, N. Sinai, and M. Marx (Leiden, 2010), , Robert Hoyland, New Documentary Texts and the Early Islamic State, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 69.3 (2006): Wadād al-qāḍī, The Religious Foundation of Late Umayyad Ideology and Practice, in Saber religioso y poder politico en el Islam: Actas del simposio internacional, Granada octubre 1991 (Madrid, 1994), Tues June 3 Mawālī and the Problem of Islamization H. A. R. Gibb, The Fiscal Rescript of ʿUmar II, Arabica 2 (1955): Excerpt from The Book of Sulaym ibn Qays, trans. P. Crone Mawālī and the Prophet's Family: an Early Shī'ite View, in Patronate and Patronage in Early and Classical Islam, eds. M. Bernards and J. Nawas (Leiden, 2005), G. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate AD (London, 2002), W. al-qāḍī, Non-Muslims in the Muslim Army in Early Islam: A Case Study in the Dialogue of the Sources, Orientalism: Dialogue of Cultures, ed. S.A. Khasawnih (Amman, 2004), Thurs June 5 The Fall of the Arab Empire: The Hāshimite (or Abbasid?) Revolution Hugh Kennedy, The Decline and Fall of the First Muslim Empire, Der Islam 81 (2009): Patricia Crone, On the Meaning of the Abbāsid Call to al-riḍā, in The Islamic World, Essays Page9

10 in Honor of Bernard Lewis, ed. C. E. Bosworth, e. a. (Princeton 1989), Elton Daniel, The Abbasid Revolution, EI3 Page10