Module Information

This module has three principle aims:

1. 1. To introduce students to the diverse and varied nature of Islam.
As a religion predicated on a sacred text, Islam has a long tradition of interpretation, explanation and commentary which has allowed it to be flexible and relevant to various communities at different times and places. My aim is to introduce Islam as a tradition with an origin and as a tradition that developed beyond this origin as it evolved into a global religion.

1. 2. To illustrate the geographical nature of Islamic diversity.
From as early as 750 AD we begin to see the emergence of different schools of Islamic jurisprudence developing in specific realms of the Islamic empire. This is to say that interpretation has always had a very local and geographic character. Thus, we may explore Islamic mysticism in Egypt, Islamic governance in Iran, Islamic interpretations of gender relations in Africa and Islamic justice in Indonesia.

1. 3. To demonstrate how diversity and variation can support, rather than undermine, community belonging.
This module will explore theoretical ideas that can explain how cultural and religious forms of attachment can inculcate a sense of unity in the imagination even as they allow for diversity in practice.

The module is divided into three main sections

1. Culture and culture regions
This section examines the idea of a culture region. Specifically it draws upon current trends in cultural and political theory, as well as long-standing theories of regional geography, to illustrate how various kinds of social, economic and political flows can facilitate an imagined cultural identity that gives an area a sense of collective belonging even as that area encompasses a wide-range of different ethnicities, languages and traditions.

2. The rise of Islam
This section examines the historical events that lead to the rise of Islam as a potent political and social force in the region. Specifically, it takes an historical geographic perspective by examining the rise of Islam as a phenomenon steeped in a global trading system and unique systems of state formation distinctive to the late-antique world.

3. The emergence of a culture region
This section examines the cultural and political dynamics that managed to transform Asia from a political community ruled by Islamic rulers to a culture region that defined itself by its association with (and investment in) Islamic civilisation. Specifically it looks at the high point of the Islamic empire (the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphate) and examines the dynamics of rule, law and religion that allowed the Islamic rulers to institute not simply a new religion but a new form of identity that would come to define the region.