HUMA Memory, Authority and the Transmission of Knowledge in the Muslim World Winter 2015

Transcription

1 1 HUMA 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 (selmaz@yorku.ca) 230 Vanier College (phone: , ext ) Office hours: Tue. and Wed. 1 pm: 2 pm. Administrative secretary: Rita Parente (rita@yorku.ca) 210 Vanier College (phone: , ext ) Course format: Three- hour seminar (Thursday 11:30 a.m. 2:30 p.m. CB 122)

2 2 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.

3 3 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%

4 4 HUMA Memory, Authority and the Transmission of Knowledge in the Muslim World Course Syllabus: I. January 8, 2015: Introduction Winter 2015 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 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 (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): (Moodle) 3. Yusuf H. R. Seferta, The Concept of Religious Authority according to Muhammad 'Abduh and Rashid Ridha Islamic Quarterly 30:3 (1986), pp (Moodle) In-class discussion: Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness (Film)

5 5 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): 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): III. January 22, 2015: The Rise of Authoritative Texts and the Construction of Authority 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): (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), (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 (Moodle) 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 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 (Two Presenters)

6 6 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 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, Madrasa, Mosque and Library 1. Jonathan Berkey. Institutions in The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), pp Johannes Pedersen. Libraries in The Arabic Book (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984): 113: 130. (Moodle) 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): (Moodle) 2. Michael Chamberlain. Madrasa, the production of knowledge and the reproduction of elites in Michael Chamberlain. Knowledge and Social Practice in Medieval Damascus, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp (Two Presenters) (Moodle)

7 7 VI. February 12, 2015: Students, Teachers and Patrons of Learning 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 Alice Hunsberger. Nasir Khusraw: Fatimid Intellectual in Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Islam, edited by Farhad Daftary (London: I.B. Tauris, 2000), pp (Moodle) 1. Jonathan Berkey, "Silver Threads among the Coal": A Well-Educated Mamluk of the Ninth/Fifteenth Century in Studia Islamica 73 (1991), pp York University Library Online sources (JSTOR): 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 ( / ) 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 (Two Presenters) VII. February 14-20, 2015: Reading Week VIII. February 26, 2015: Learning with the Sufis Masters 1. Qamar-ul Huda. Awarif al-ma rif: The Sufi Manual of Shaikh Abu Hafs Umar al-suhrawardi pp and 62-72, in Striving for Divine Union: Spiritual Exercises for Suhrawardi Sufis (E-Book available through York University e- resources).

8 8 2. James Fadiman and Robert Frager. Sufi Teachers in Essential Sufism, Fediman and Frager, editors (New York: Harper One, 1997): (Moodle) Recommended Reading : 1. Spencer Trimingham. The Formation of Schools of Mysticism in Spencer Trimingham. Sufi Orders in Islam, pp (York University e-book) 1. Spencer Trimingham. The Organization of the Orders in Spencer Trimingham. Sufi Orders in Islam, pp (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, pp IX. March 5, The Tradition of Learning in the Ottoman World 1. Ilk Arifin Mansurnoor, Religious Scholars and State: Patterns of Recruitment among the Ottoman Ulama Islamic Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Spring 1992), pp (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 (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!

9 9 IX. March 12, 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 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 (York University online source) 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): (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 (Two Presenters) (York University e-book). IX. March 19, Old Methods, Modern Times 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 (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 (York University e-book).

10 10 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, 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