HIME

Introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

Explores the history of the Middle East and North Africa from late antiquity to the rise to superpower status of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. Topics include the formation of Islam and the first Arab-Islamic conquests; the fragmentation of the empire of the caliphate; the historical development of Islamic social, legal, and political institutions; science and philosophy; and the impact of invaders (Turks, Crusaders, and Mongols).

What historical processes that have shaped the Middle East of today? This course focuses on the history of a region stretching from Morocco in the West and Afghanistan in the East over the period of roughly 1500 to the present. In doing so, we examine political, social, and cultural history through the lens of "media" in translation, such as manuscripts, memoirs, maps, travel narratives, novels, films, music, internet media, and more.

This course is designed to introduce students to the economic history of the Islamic World over the duration of roughly 1300 years of history.  We explore ideologies, institutions, and practices of commerce in Muslim society, paying close attention to the actors, artifacts, and encounters, that gave it shape over the course of a millennium, ending with the onset of Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century.

This course explores the dramatic war of 1948 in Palestine from the UN partition resolution of November 29, 1947 to the cease-fire agreements in early 1949. It covers the political, military progression of the war, within international and decolonization contexts, while paying special attention to the two major outcomes of the war and how they came about: Jewish independence and Palestinian dispossession.

Studies Christianity in the Middle East in the centuries after the rise of Islam.

A survey of the history of the Ottoman Empire from its obscure origins around 1300 to 1700, this course explores the political, military, social, and cultural history of this massive, multi-confessional, multi-ethnic, inter-continental empire which, at its height, encompassed Central and Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Rather than a traditional "area studies" approach to Middle Eastern history, we will explore the region's history from its maritime frontiers: the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. We explore how nobles, merchants, slaves, sailors, and statesmen all forged the contours of a shared world, linking the economic and political histories of Arabia, Africa, South and Southeast Asia.

This course seeks to comprehend Israel's origins and development from the rise of Zionism to creation of the State of Israel in 1948. Major topics of discussion include the Jewish national movement; the development of Jewish settlement in Ottoman and British Palestine (the Yishuv); the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict; the emergence of a local Hebrew culture; the struggle for statehood; and the war of 1948.

This interdisciplinary course uses cinema as a vehicle to introduce students without a knowledge of Arabic to the perspectives of Arab peoples on their own history. Includes popular movies on the rise of Islam, Crusades, World War I, colonialism, modern city life, women's liberation,war, terrorism. Students read relevant history and learn critical theory on collective memory, propaganda, modernity, revolution, and gender.

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pages in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

The major colloquium is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topics of the colloquium. Colloquia are most frequently offered in areas of history where access to source materials or linguistic demands make seminars especially difficult. Students in colloquia prepare about 25 pages of written work distributed among various assignments. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

Topics courses are small, discussion-oriented classes available to any student with sufficient background and interest in a particular field of historical study. Offered irregularly, they are open to majors or non-majors. Prerequisite: Instructor permission.

In exceptional circumstances and with the permission of a faculty member any student may undertake a rigorous program of independent study designed to explore a subject not currently being taught or to expand upon regular offerings. Independent Study projects may not be used to replace regularly scheduled classes. Open to majors or non-majors.

World War I set the stage for many conflicts in the 20th-century Middle East. This course examines the last attempt to build a pluralistic, constitutional realm under the Ottoman empire; how that world crumbled in the Balkan wars and Great War; the Young Turks' relations with Germany; Lawrence of Arabia and the Arab Revolt; the Armenian genocide; women and peasants' suffering; the Balfour Declaration and start of the Palestine conflict.

This course explores the practice of slavery in its various forms in the Middle East and North Africa from pre-Islamic times through the abolition of the slave trade in the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire. Topics include: sources of slaves and the slave trade; manumission; the social and legal position of slaves in Islamic societies; the slave-soldier phenomenon; captivity and ransom; gender and race; and the movement towards abolition. Prerequisite: Graduate students and advanced undergraduates with previous study of the Middle East.

Introduces the history and historiography of the medieval Middle East and North Africa (areas from Morocco to Iran) from the period immediately preceding the rise of Islam until the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. Primarily a readings-and-discussion colloquium devoted to political, social, economic, and cultural evolution of the regions and peoples situated in arid and semi-arid zones stretching from Gibraltar to the Oxus River. After surveying the general contours of the field, and isolating the principal scholarly approaches to it, the course proceeds chronologically, starting with the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires in the 6th century and concluding with assessment of the Turkic-Mongolian impact upon the historical configuration of the regions. Prerequisite: HIME 2001.

Introduces the history and historiography of the early modern and modern Middle East and North Africa from the period of the Ottoman and Safavid Empires until the emergence of a system of nation-states in the 20th century. Primarily a readings-and-discussion colloquium devoted to the political, social, economic, and cultural history of the region. Prerequisite: HIME 2001, 2002, or HIME 7011.

Debate on the effects of European colonial rule has been revived in the decade since the United States occupied Iraq. We W engage the debate by studying the effect of foreign rule on one region, the Arab world: French and British colonization of Algeria and Egypt in the long 19th-century; the League of Nations' mandates in Syria and Iraq after World War I; and finally Americans' effort to rebuild the Iraqi state since 2003. Prerequisite: One prior course on colonialism or on Arab history

This tutorial explores the remaking of politics, economy, and ecology in the Middle East from the late 19th century onward. While international relations and corporations play a role in the scholarship of the 20th century Middle East, we seek to understand local dimensions of oil and capital as well, focusing less on the geopolitical context and more on the socioeconomic impacts of changing economic and energy regimes.

This tutorial surveys the historiography of the medieval Middle East and North Africa (broadly construed), from pre-Islamic Arabia through the Ottoman conquest of the Mamluk Sultanate, which reunified the eastern half of the Mediterranean for the first time in a millennium. Readings introduce the major dynasties between Iberia and Central Asia, from the Umayyads to the Ottomans, and the seminal texts that have shaped the field.

This tutorial surveys the history and historiography of the Ottoman Empire from its obscure origins in the fourteenth century up to the period of reforms known as the Tanzimat beginning in the first half of the nineteenth century. Readings introduce the major historiographical debates and trends in the field and cover the political, military, institutional, social, and cultural history of the Empire.

This tutorial surveys the history and historiography of the Ottoman Empire from its obscure origins through the 18th century. Initial readings introduce major historiographical debates and political, military, and institutional history of the Empire, before moving into the historiography of the 16-18th centuries and current trends in multiple sub-fields. Specific works read and discussed will be shaped in part by interests of students enrolled.