Required Texts Robert Wilken, The Land Called Holy (Yale, 1992) Most readings will be on d2l (learn.ou.edu)!

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1 How the Holy Land Became Holy (HIST ) Syllabus Instructor Dr. Walker Robins Office Hours 10:30 11:30 MW at Crimson and Whipped Cream (331 White St. on Campus Corner) Introduction It is well known that the Holy Land that oft- contested stretch of land now split between Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Jordan is sacred in differing ways to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. In four units (focusing on Judaism, Catholic/Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and Protestant Christianity) we will explore the centuries- long processes by which this stretch of land became holy to each of these faiths. In particular, we will focus on the interaction between the development of religious approaches to the land and the development of the physical landscape itself, with special attention to the region s most significant religious sites the Haram al- Sharif ( Temple Mount ), Western ( Wailing ) Wall, and Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The course will culminate with a look at how religious concepts and holy sites have been transformed and contested in the midst of the Arab- Israeli conflict. Along the way, we ll explore several thematic questions: - What makes something holy? - How might religious meaning be created and conveyed through sacred structure? - What types of sources textual and material can historians use to understand holiness or religious meaning? - How have seemingly non- religious factors shaped religious approaches to the land? Is religion inextricable from these other factors? - What traditions do the four religious groups we re studying have in common? What are different? What accounts for the similarities and differences? Required Texts Robert Wilken, The Land Called Holy (Yale, 1992) Most readings will be on d2l (learn.ou.edu)! Attendance and Participation I do not take attendance but I do give pop reading quizzes. This does not mean that in- class work is unimportant it is crucial. Although I do not give a traditional participation grade, I do weigh attendance and participation in deciding borderline grade situations at the end of the semester. Effort will be appreciated and rewarded. Electronics Do not use cell phones in class. Disabilities I am of course happy to accommodate students with disabilities. If you need help in this regard, please let me know as soon as possible. Please note, though, that students with disabilities must be registered with the Office of Disability Services to receive proper accommodations. If

2 you need to do this, contact Goddard Health Center at Assignments Grades are not a measure of your worth nor even a measure of the intrinsic value of your work. I view them as a tool in the learning process a tool for identifying areas that we both need to work on over the course of the semester. This course will emphasize writing as a vehicle for expressing critical and creative thinking. When I grade your writing assignments, I will point out what you do well and suggest what might help you improve. I will also give specific grade incentives for you to implement my suggestions on the next assignment. For example, if I think you are making too many arguments without giving specific evidence, I might institute a 10- point grade bonus for fixing this issue on the next assignment. The idea is to improve and grow. Grade Breakdown - Pop Reading Quizzes 10% The goal of these is simple to incentivize doing the reading assignments. If you do them, you will be fine. If you don t, you won t. Your worst two grades will be dropped. - 4 Short Responses - 5% each In each of the first four sections, you will be asked to answer one of the questions listed below in the syllabus with a 2- page response, due before class time on the day the question is listed. - 3 Take- Home Essays 10% each These 4-5 page assignments will ask you to synthesize material from each section of the course in answering a specific question. You will be asked, too, to specifically integrate primary sources into your responses. The goal here is to measure your command of the course content. Your last one will stand in for our final. - Research Project 40% total The goal of this project is to apply the lessons of the course in writing a history of a particular religious site in the Holy Land. While we will be focusing on the big sites in class, I want you to explore some of the lesser- known holy sites and structures that dot the area. Don t worry we ll walk through the process of site and source selection together. As we ll see in class, the meaning and significance of different sites can be quite fluid. Your job will be to account for the origins of your site and trace its evolution up to the present day, accounting for both physical and interpretive changes. To prevent a last- minute scramble, the assignment will be broken up into distinct parts throughout the semester. The end product will be a unique 10- page history. Academic Misconduct Academic misconduct is unacceptable. So we are clear, OU defines academic misconduct as any act that improperly affects the evaluation of a student s academic performance or achievement. This includes plagiarism, submission of work for multiple classes, purchasing work, fabrication of sources and fraud, as well as assisting other students in such acts. Beyond official university policy, personal integrity is extremely important to me. Please do not devalue the work of your fellow students by cheating. Take pride in what you do and what you put your name on.

3 Class Schedule 1/20 What Makes Something Holy? 1/22 Approaches to Holiness and Sacred Space READ: Mircea Eliade, Sacred Space and Making the World Sacred (d2l) Section One Judaism 1/25 Ancient Israel/Judea READ: Sandra Gravett, Space and Time (d2l) 1/27 Covenant READ: Wilken, Ch. 1 ; Genesis 12; Deuteronomy 30; Joshua 24. 1/29 Temple QUESTION: Does what we know about the Temple fit with Eliade s understanding of a sacred space (from the reading last week)? READ: Victor Hurowitz, Tenth Century BCE to 586 BCE: The House of the Lord (d2l); excerpt from Kings. 2/1 Exile QUESTION: How did the Judeans interpret what had happened to them? READ: Excerpts from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Lamentations. 2/3 Second Temple Judaism READ: Lee Levine, Jerusalem in Jewish Tradition, History, and Memory, (d2l); Joseph Patrich, The Temple and its Mount (d2l); excerpt from Ezra. 2/5 Hasmoneans and Herodians DUE: Choice of Site for Final Paper READ: Wilken, 20-37; excerpts from Josephus (d2l) 2/8 Exile II READ: excerpts from Josephus, The Jewish Wars (d2l) 2/10 Interpreting Exile READ: Wilken, 37-45; Levine, Jerusalem in Jewish Tradition, History, and Memory, (d2l) 2/12 Acting Out Exile QUESTION: How do Jews act out their sense of exile? READ: Friedman, Jewish Pilgrimage After the Destruction of the Second Temple (d2l); excerpt from travelogue of Meshullam ben Menachem (d2l); First Rashi (d2l) Section Two Catholic/Orthodox Christianity 2/15 Jesus, Jerusalem, and the Temple DUE: Initial Source List READ: Wilken, 46-52; excerpts from Gospels, Acts.

4 2/17 Interpreting 70 CE READ: Wilken, 52-64; Yoram Tsafrir, The Temple- less Mountain (d2l); excerpt from Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho; excerpt from Augustine, City of God. 2/19 Heavenly or Earthly Jerusalem? QUESTION: Will the New Jerusalem or Kingdom of God be heavenly or earthly, according to the sources? READ: excerpts from Revelation and Hebrews (d2l) 2/22 Constantine READ: Wilken, Ch. 5. 2/24 Christianizing the Landscape QUESTION: How does Eusebius describe the Old Jerusalem? What theological argument is he making? READ: excerpts from Eusebius, Life of Constantine (d2l) 2/26 Pilgrims and Monks READ: Wilken, Ch. 6; Jerome letters (d2l); Egeria excerpts (d2l) Section Three Islam 2/29 Islam and the People of the Book DUE: FIRST TAKE- HOME ESSAY READ: excerpts from the Qur an and Hadiths (d2l); Bosworth, The Concept of Dhimma in Early Islam (d2l) 3/2 Inherited Traditions QUESTION: Going only off of what you see in the photos, what aspects of the Dome of the Rock as a structure could you use to interpret its meaning? READ: Livne- Kafri, Jerusalem in Early Islam (d2l) EXAMINE: Photos of DOTR 3/4 Interpreting the Dome of the Rock READ: Oleg Grabar, Dome of the Rock, (d2l) 3/7 The Sources Fada il and Travel Narratives QUESTION: What is new about Islamic approaches to Jerusalem, as described by Khosraw and Muqaddasi? What is old? READ: Bloom Jerusalem in Medieval Islamic Literature, (d2l); Naser e- Khosraw excerpt (d2l); al- Muqaddasi excerpt. 3/9 Crusade Christian Perspectives READ: Accounts of the Council of Clermont (d2l) 3/11 Re- Interpreting the Dome of the Rock DUE: WRITE- UPS of SOURCES with NEW QUESTIONS (FINAL PAPER) READ: Kedar and Pringle, : The Lord s Temple and Solomon s Palace (d2l) SPRING BREAK

5 3/21 The Counter- Crusade READ: Suleiman Mourad, The Symbolism of Jerusalem in Early Islam, (d2l); excerpts from Imad ad- Din, al- Harawi, and Ibn Taymiyyah (d2l) 3/23 Mamluks and Ottomans READ: excerpts from Evliya Celebi (d2l) Section Four Protestants 3/25 Protestants and the Bible QUESTION: How might the Protestant return to the Bible shape Protestants relationship to the land? READ: Alister McGrath, The Return to the Bible (d2l) 3/28 Encountering Ottoman Palestine READ: Richard Cogley, The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Restoration of Israel (d2l) DUE: FIRST DRAFT of FINAL PAPER 3/30 Missionaries READ: Pliny Fisk, The Holy Land an Interesting Field of Missionary Enterprise (d2l) 4/1 Scholars QUESTION: How is Robinson s method both scientific and Protestant? READ: excerpts from Edward Robinson, Biblical Researches (d2l) 4/4 Pilgrims READ: Nita Rosovsky, Nineteenth- Century Portraits Through Western Eyes (d2l) 4/6 A Protestant Holy Land QUESTION: Why do natural sites appeal to Protestants? READ: Stephanie Stidham Rogers, The Out of Doors Gospel in Palestine (d2l); excerpts from Philip Schaff, Through Bible Lands (d2l) 4/8 Restorationists DUE: SECOND TAKE- HOME ESSAY READ: Ruth Kark, Millenarism and Agricultural Settlement in the Holy Land in the 19 th Century ; the Blackstone Memorial Section Five The Holy Land in the Arab- Israeli Conflict 4/11 Zionism READ: Alan Dowty, Two Worlds Collide and The Jewish Story (d2l) 4/13 Zionism and the Holy Sites READ: Arthur Hertzberg, Jerusalem and Zionism (d2l); excerpt from Herzl, Altneuland (d2l) 4/15 Jewish Religious Opposition to Zionism READ: Ravitzky, Munkacs and Jerusalem (d2l)

6 4/18 Religious Zionism READ: Shlomo Avineri, Rabbi Kook (d2l) 4/20 Catholic and Orthodox Opposition to Zionism READ: Dowty, The Arab Story (d2l); excerpt from Herzl s diary (d2l) 4/22 Islamic Opposition to Zionism READ: Eric Freas, Haj Amin al- Husseini and the Haram al- Sharif (d2l) 4/25 Protestants and Zionism READ: Yaakov Ariel, An Unexpected Alliance: Christian Zionism and Its Historical Significance (d2l) 4/27 The Western Wall in the Arab- Israeli Conflict READ: Avraham Sela, The Wailing Wall Riots as a Watershed in the Arab- Israeli Conflict (d2l) 4/29 The Haram al- Sharif in the Arab- Israeli Conflict READ: Reiter and Seligman, 1917 to the Present: Al- Haram al- Sharif/Temple Mount (Har ha- Bayit) and the Western Wall (d2l) DUE: FINAL DRAFT with UPDATES! 5/2 Discussion of Paper Topics in Light of the Conflict 5/4 Whose Holy Land? Recent conflict over holy sites. 5/6 Review and Prospect FINAL Wednesday, May 11 8am DUE: Third Take- Home Essay