The Islamic Studies program allows students to combine relevant courses from a number of fields history, history of art, philosophy, and others with work in Islamic languages and literatures. In choosing elective courses, majors and minors are not limited to the area commonly known as the Middle East, but rather are urged to explore dimensions of Islamic civilization across spatial and chronological boundaries. Many existing and new courses will be added to this course prefix catalog during the 20-21 and 21-22 academic years.
3355 The Early Islamic Conquests (CE 630-750)
Utilizing new historical methods for reading and interpreting the sparse contemporary and near-contemporary testimonies for this historical period, this course explores how these testimonies, both Muslim and non-Muslim, continue to challenge historians to revise the history of the Islamic conquests. In this course a strong focus is placed on reading primary source materials in translation.