Literatures of the Premodern Islamic World

ISLAMCIV 114 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

This course investigates poetry and prose composed from the 7^th to 18^th centuries across contexts influenced by the Islamic tradition. Reading court poetry, love poems, belles lettres, mystical verse, national epics, and travel literature we will ask: What, if anything, makes literature “Islamic” or “Islamicate”, and what continuities in literary practice abided across the diverse cultural contexts in which Muslims composed? What were the criteria of eloquent and beautiful language in the pre-modern Islamic world, and how were these influenced by the language of the Quran? How was this literature shaped by the social contexts of composition and performance, from royal courts to Sufi lodges? Throughout the course we will return to the question: how do literatures of the premodern Islamic world reflect specific attitudes towards what it means to be human in all the complexity and ambiguity this involves? This is a gateway course with no prior knowledge expected. All readings are in English.

This course can be used to fulfill the Foundational or Language & Literature distribution requirement for the undergraduate secondary field in Medieval Studies.