Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations Courses |
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First Year Seminars The 199Y1 and 199H1 seminars are designed to provide the opportunity to work closely with an instructor in a class of no more than twenty-four students. These interactive seminars are intended to stimulate the students’ curiosity and provide an opportunity to get to know a member of the professorial staff in a seminar environment during the first year of study. Details here. NMC101Y1 Introduction to the archaeology, history and literature of the ancient Near East. The contributions made by the Egyptians, Babylonians and Assyrians to the development of civilization. NMC184H1 An introduction to the history, lands, peoples, religions, and cultures that came under the influence of Islam and that, in turn, contributed to the formation of Islamic civilization. Topics to be covered include an overview of the geographical and ethno-linguistic scope of the Islamic world, the role of the Qur’an and Arabic language, the major Islamic polities, the production and transmission of knowledge, law and society, and literary and artistic expressions. NMC185H1 The place of Islam in world history, its central beliefs and practices. The Islamic contribution to world civilization; the pluralistic community, learning and the arts. Islam and modernity. (Offered in alternate years.)
The Department reserves the right to place students in the language course
best suited to their linguistic preparation. Students found to be too advanced
for the level in which they are enrolled will be requested to remove themselves,
and enroll in a course more suited to their abilities. NML305Y1 Introduction to Old Babylonian. Grammar and the reading of selected texts. (Offered in alternate years) NML405Y1 (Offered in alternate years) NML110Y1 This course is an introduction to the formal variety of Arabic used throughout the Arab world. It is designed for students with no prior knowledge of Arabic language and it follows a teaching approach that places equal emphasis on the development of all language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The fundamental learning philosophy underlying this approach is that proficiency in a foreign language is best achieved through consistent, deliberate, and systematic practice. From the outset, students are strongly encouraged to develop the habit of consistently and continuously practicing learned material. NML211Y1 Students enrolled in this course are assumed to have active knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary covered in the introductory level. After a brief review, the course continues from where NML110Y1 leaves off. Following the same teaching approach and learning philosophy, emphasis is placed on balanced development of all language skills. As the course progresses, students are introduced to the fundamentals of Arabic morphology and syntax. This is achieved through analysis of texts covering a wide range of topics. By the end of the course, students are expected to achieve upper intermediate level of proficiency. NML310Y1 Students enrolled in this course are assumed to have active knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary covered in previous two levels. After a brief review, the course continues from where NML211Y1 leaves off. Following the same teaching approach and learning philosophy, emphasis is placed on balanced development of all language skills. Throughout the course, students are introduced to increasingly complex morphological and syntactic patterns of Arabic. This is achieved through analysis of texts covering a wide range of genres. By the end of the course, students are expected to achieve advanced level of proficiency. NML410Y1 Students enrolled in this course are assumed to have active knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary covered in previous levels. After a brief review, the course continues from where NML310Y1 leaves off. Following the same teaching approach and learning philosophy, the goal of this course is to enable the students to reach a superior level of proficiency in Arabic. To this end, the materials covered are designed to strengthen the students’ reading and writing skills, refine and expand their knowledge of sentence structure, morphological patterns, verb system, and enrich their cultural background. The primary method is analysis of sophisticated authentic texts covering a wide range of genres and drawn from different parts of the Arabic speaking world. Although the main focus remains to be on Modern Standard Arabic, texts from the Classical Arabic literary tradition will be introduced incrementally throughout the course. NML411H1 Directed readings of passages drawn from well-known Arabic newspapers such as: al-Ahram (Egypt), al-Ra’y (Jordan), al-Safir (Lebanon), al-Khalij (UAE), and al-Haya (UK). The course is designed to make advanced students of Arabic familiar with the language, style and topics of the Arabic Press. NML412Y1 Systematic outline of the development, characteristics, and peculiarities of selected genres of classical Arabic literature such as historiography, belles-lettres (adab), philosophy, ethics - Qur’an, exegesis, Literature of Tradition - poetry. Complementary readings, analysis and translation of original text passages are given emphasis. NML413H1 Insights into the history of ideas in Islam. Original texts by Jurjani (d. 1078, literary criticism), Ghazali (d. 1111, philosophy), Ibn Rushd (d. 1196, law), Shahrastani (d. 1153, heresiography), Ibn Taymiyah (d. 1328, dogmatics), and Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406, social history). (Offered in alternate years) NML414H1 This course offers students of Arabic the opportunity to study more closely the text of the Qur’an. The course will focus on the Arabic language of the Qur’an and its function both semantically and aesthetically. Selected Qur’anic passages will be examined in detail. NML415H1 This course is an investigation of the formal properties of Modern Standard Arabic. Its primary goal is to provide the student with an in depth knowledge of the grammar of the language. To this end, the course makes use of concepts and tools of analysis common to contemporary generative linguistics. NML416Y1 This course introduces students to the richness and breadth of modern Arabic literature, covering a wide range of selected texts, including travel accounts, novellas, fiction, prose, poetry, and drama. Texts studied in original Arabic language. Class conducted and tests/assignments written in English. NML220Y1 Introduction to Aramaic grammar. Readings from biblical Aramaic. (Offered in alternate years) NML320H1 An intensive study of various Targumim to the Pentateuch: Onkelos, Pseudo-Jonathan, Neophyti, Samaritan and Fragment Targumim. Differences among them in vocabulary, syntax and verb usage are discussed, as well as their relationship to the Palestinian midrashim. (Offered in alternate years) NML420Y1 The Talmud of the Land of Israel, also called Talmud Yerushalmi or Palestinian Talmud, is written in a mixture of Jewish Western Aramaic and Mishnaic Hebrew. It is the principal document of the Land of Israel in Late Antiquity. The course examines the legal argumentation, terminology and language which differ from those of the Babylonian Talmud. (Offered in alternate years) NML421Y1 (Offered in alternate years) NML230H1 Introduces the student to the last stage of the Egyptian language, written mostly in Greek characters. The course will first concentrate on the grammar of the language and go on to read short texts. NML231H1 A continuation of NML230H1. NML240Y1 Grammar and reading of selected hieroglyphic texts. NML340Y1 Middle Egyptian texts. NML440Y1 Texts of significance for the reconstruction and understanding of Egyptian history will be read in the original, and analyzed for content, style, and grammar. The social and archaeological context of these texts will also receive attention. NML441Y1 Readings, analysis, and comparisons of selections from the Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts, and the New Kingdom mortuary literature; study of cultic, magical, and mythological texts relating to funerary and cultic beliefs and practices. All texts to be read in the original. NML155H1 Introduction to the fundamentals of Hebrew grammar and syntax through classroom and language laboratory practice. Emphasis on the development of oral and writing skills. (Offered in alternate years) NML156H1 Introduction to the fundamentals of Hebrew grammar and syntax through classroom and language laboratory practice. Emphasis on the development of oral and writing skills. (Offered in alternate years) NML250Y1 An introduction to biblical Hebrew prose. Grammar and selected texts. For students with no previous knowledge of Hebrew. NML255Y1 Intensive study of written and spoken Hebrew. (Offered in alternate years) NML350H1 An examination of wisdom literature and themes in the Hebrew Bible and later Second Temple writing; primary emphasis on Hebrew texts but including comparison with themes from non-Hebrew texts such as the Greek Ecclesiasticus, the Wisdom of Solomon, and some early Christian writings. NML351H1 This course examines ancient Israel’s history writers, focusing on the Deuteronomistic History and the Chronicler’s History. Attention will be given to linguistic forms, rhetorical style and goals, and comparison of national or ethnic self-perceptions. NML352H1 An investigation of two closely related types of ancient Hebrew narrative: myth and story. Focus will be equally on Hebrew language, rhetorical style and goals, and when appropriate, the comparative ancient near eastern backdrop for the Hebrew texts. NML353H1 This course provides an introduction to the study of the origin, form and function of ancient Jewish and related apocalyptic literature which flourished betwEEN 200 BCE AND 200 CE, understood in its cultural and literary contexts. NML354H1 Law reflects the way in which society understands and organizes itself through common agreements and forms of restraint. This course examines the different ways religious and ritual legislation was generated in ancient Jewish communities and the different functions such legislation served in these communities. All texts to be read in the original. NML355Y1 Advanced intensive study of written and spoken Hebrew. (Offered in alternate years) NML356Y1 Selections from a tractate in Babylonian Talmud in order to gain facility in the understanding of the dialogic structure of the legal discussions. Practice in the use of classical commentaries and critical aids to allow independent study of the text. (Conducted in Hebrew) (Offered in alternate years) NML357H1 The themes of Eros and Thanatos will be explored in Aggadic texts from Song of Songs Rabbah. This Midrashic text stands halfway in the tradition, both making use of earlier texts and being used by editors of later compilations. These interrelations will be the focus of our study as well as the relationship of work to Scripture. NML358H1 Introduction to Mishnah and Tosefta, two of the three foundational documents of Middle Hebrew. In addition to studying specific features of this level of Hebrew, examining these compositions independently, and analyzing their interaction, students will examine current scholarly literature on these documents and their relationship to each other. (Offered in alternate years) NML450H1 Advanced survey of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of ancient Hebrew. Introduction to the various methods used to investigate ancient Hebrew. NML451H1 Students will be introduced to the problems of text criticism involving variant readings and the redaction of Talmudic texts. Problems of transmission of the text, its relationship to the Palestinian Talmud, Tosefta and other texts will be explored. Use of Medieval Talmudic commentaries will be addressed. NML452H1 This course familiarizes students with the methodology and terminology of the two midrashic systems: Devei R. Akiba and Devei R. Ishmael. Sections of all the midrashic halakha (Mekhiltot, Sifra and Sifre) are studied and compared to other Tannaitic materials. (Conducted in Hebrew) (Offered in alternate years) NML455H1 A study of the poetic works of a major modern Hebrew poet. (Conducted in Hebrew) (Offered in alternate years) NML456H1 A study of an important modern writer of Hebrew fiction. (Conducted in Hebrew) (Offered in alternate years) NML457H1 Advanced language course placing ancient Hebrew within its geographic and typological context. Priority will be given to 1) methods used to reconstruct “proto-Semitic” and ancient Hebrew (versus the Tiberian Hebrew of the Hebrew Bible); 2) classifications of Semitic languages; 3) comparison of phoneme and lexical inventories, morphology and syntax; and 4) dialectal variation and dialect geography. NML458H1 The discovery at Qumran near the Dead Sea unearthed a library of an ancient Jewish community containing manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures, other Jewish literature now called apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, some of which were previously known, many unknown, and writings composed by the community: collections of rules, wisdom texts, scriptural commentaries, as well as liturgical and theological compositions. This course focuses on selected Scrolls with special attention to the language, form and content, and scribal characteristics of these texts. NML459H1 This course provides an advanced investigation of selected issues in ancient Jewish texts stemming from the Second Temple Period (5th cent. BCE – 1st cent. CE), and includes comparative study of biblical writings, apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and writings of ancient Jewish historians and philosophers. The specific topic for the course varies from one semester to another, and can deal with, e.g., language, scriptural interpretation, poetry and liturgy, theology, legal developments, and social and political history. The course has a strong research and writing component. NML260Y1 The fundamentals of modern standard Persian grammar, with emphasis on attaining fluency in reading and writing simple texts. Also serves as a basis for classical Persian. (Offered in alternate years) NML360Y1 This course involves reading, grammatical analysis, and translation of representative samples of contemporary Persian prose of intermediate difficulty. The reading materials are selected from a wide range of sources in order to ensure balanced, yet comprehensive exposure to the different usage of the language. The course serves as preparation for courses on both classical and contemporary Persian literature. NML460Y1 Survey of Persian literature, chiefly poetry, from the 10th to the 15th centuries, based on selected readings at an advanced level from representative authors, including Rudaki, Nizami, Sa‘di, Rumi, and Hafiz, as well as from the Persian national epic, Shah-nameh. Introduction to the Persian prosodial system, and analysis of the rhetorical devices and imagery employed by the classical poets Intended for upper year students. NML461H1 A survey of modern Persian poetry using connected passages of Persian texts. NML462H1 A survey of modern Persian prose using connected passages of Persian texts. NML463H1 Development of Old Persian (551 BC) to Middle Persian (331 BC) to Modern Persian (7th century) with emphasis on word formation and grammar. Discussion is based on texts written by historians, linguists and grammarians who see language as a system which is changed by internal and external factors like politics, religion, immigration, business, etc. NML270Y1 The basic features of modern Turkish grammar. In the second term, Turkish prose and newspapers are studied, with some practice in writing simple Turkish. This course serves as a basis for the study of Ottoman Turkish. (Offered in alternate years) NMC370Y1 Modern texts literary, scholarly and journalistic. Turkish grammar and syntax; the nature of Turkish culture. (Offered in alternate years) NML470Y1 Advanced Turkish language practice designed to enable students to pursue independent work in Turkish and Ottoman studies. Differences between modern Turkish and Ottoman grammar will be pointed out. Elements of Arabic and Persian grammar that occur in Ottoman will be presented.
NMC150H1 An introduction to the critical study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and related literature of ancient Jewish communities (Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls). No prior work in biblical studies or knowledge of Hebrew is required. NMC250H1 This course provides an examination of the historical and cultural context in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were authored and copied, the types of writings included in the Scrolls, and the ancient Jewish groups behind these texts. It also discusses the significance of the Scrolls for understanding the textual development of the Hebrew Bible, ancient scriptural interpretation, and the thought world of the Jews during the period that gave birth to both Rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity. No knowledge of Hebrew or Aramaic is required. NMC251H1 Explores a variety of different genres of ancient Egyptian literature, including wisdom literature, funerary texts, poetry, stories and other literary texts. Prior attendance of an introductory history and culture course such as NMC101Y1 may be helpful, but is not required. NMC253H1 Introduction to various genres of Egyptian texts, with a focus on those writings that provide information about aspects of funerary/religious beliefs and ritual, of history, politics and institutions, and of the Egyptian quest for knowledge of the world, as evinced in astronomical, medical, and mathematical sources. Literary texts will be treated in so far as they relate to the listed topics. No knowledge of the ancient Egyptian language(s) is required; all texts to be read in translation. Prior attendance in an introductory history and culture course such as NMC101Y1 may be helpful, but is not required. NMC254H1 This course will survey Hebrew literature, primarily of the 19th and 20th centuries. After a brief overview of ancient and medieval Hebrew literature, the course will concentrate on the classics of the modern Hebrew revival, studying selected works by Bialik, Tchernikhovsky, Agnon, and Brenner. Students will also be introduced to contemporary Hebrew writers and poets such as Aharon Appelfeld, Yehuda Amichai, Amos Oz, and A.B. Yehoshua. All works will be studied in translation. NMC255H1 Introduces students to the richness and breadth of modern Arabic literature in translation. The course starts with the age of translation in the nineteenth century, then it examines several literary schools and trends that emerged in the twentieth century, such as romanticism, the novel, modernism, free verse, symbolism, and postmodernism. The course covers a wide range of selected texts and genres, which may include travel accounts, novellas, fiction, prose, poetry, and drama. (Offered in alternate years) NMC256Y1 Introduces students to the culture of modern Israel through Israeli literature produced fROM 1948 - present. Focus will be primarily on selected short fiction, poems, plays, songs and films. Some themes explored are: tradition and modernity; traumas of war; the call of history; religion and secularism; and challenges of independence. In English translation. (Offered in alternate years) NMC258H1 Introduction to a millennium of Persian poetry and prose. Selected readings in translation from such classics of Persian literature as the Persian national epic (Shah-nameh), ‘Attar’s Conference of the Birds, Rumi’s Masnavi, and Sa‘di’s Rose Garden. NMC350H1 Selected texts from Syriac literature written between the 3rd and 13th centuries C.E., including versions of the Bible and prominent authors of biblical commentaries, hymns, acts of martyrs, liturgical texts, historiography, grammatical and lexicographical works, as well as translations from Greek. (Offered in alternate years) NMC352H1 An exploration of the relationship of modern Heberw poetry to the Jewish religious tradition. The focus of the course will be to discern whether modern Hebrew poetry constitutes a rebellion against that tradition, or whether it is a source of continuity and revitalization. (Offered in alternate years) NMC260Y1 A general introduction to the archaeology of the ancient Near East including prehistory, Syria-Palestine, and the high civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Organized chronologically to trace the historical development of agriculture, urbanism, and complex state-ordered societies in the region. NMC261Y0 Participation for 4 - 7 weeks during the summer in an approved archaeological excavation in the eastern Mediterranean/Middle East. This experience is then critiqued in a previously assigned essay researched and written under guidance upon return. Departmental permission is required in December-February prior to the fieldwork. NMC360H1 The archaeology of Syria-Palestine from prehistoric times until the end of the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1200 BCE), with a special emphasis on the development of complex society, and inter-relations with the neighboring regions of Egypt and Syro-Mesopotamia. Attention will also be given to the history of archaeological research in the region, current field techniques and methods of archaeological analysis, and the relationship between archaeological evidence and contemporary written records, including the Hebrew Bible. (Offered in alternate years) NMC361H1 The archaeology of Syria-Palestine from the collapse of the Late Bronze Age until the Persian Period, with a special emphasis on the emergence of Israel and the small territorial nation-states of the eastern Mediterranean seaboard. Particular attention will be given to the relationship between the archaeological evidence and contemporary written records, including the Hebrew Bible. (Offered in alternate years) NMC362Y1 Detailed examination of significant sites for the understanding of ancient Egyptian cultural development, encompassing the study of spatial organization, architecture, artifactual material, and archaeological evidence from each site. (Offered in alternate years) NMC363H1 Comprehensive survey class on the origins of complex societies, urbanism and early states in Mesopotamia from the Neolithic period to the end of the Early Bronze Age. Covers the archaeology and material culture of Iraq and surrounding regions (western Iran, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey). NMC364H1 Comprehensive survey class on the state societies of Babylon, Assur, and Elam during the second millennium BC and on the emergence and manifestation of world empires (Assyria, Persia) in the first millennium BC. Covers the archaeology and material culture of Iraq and surrounding regions (western Iran, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey). NMC365Y1 A survey of Islamic archaeology, covering the rise of Islam from 7th century to the end of the Fatimid period in 1171, examining sites in the Middle East, North Africa and Andalusia through the archaeological record, artifacts evidencing history, art history, urbanism and socio-ecology of early Muslim communities. NMC366Y1 An overview of late antique Greek, Arab and Persian material culture, as seen through the archaeological record of Syria, Iraq, and Iran. NMC367H1 Underlines the role of some Egyptian monasteries as active institutions carrying out numerous economic activities, and reveals the forces that enabled their survival and changing function. Exploration of these rich sites of cultural exchange, as manifested in their architecture and religious art and written material. NMC368H1 A survey of Coptic art, archaeology and architecture. The course will cover aspects of the religious, civil and daily life of the Copts: their houses, religious architecture, funerary monuments, art and artefacts NMC369Y1 Materials and technology help define the cultures and civilizations that use them, especially for archaeologists. Focusing on the Near and Middle East, this course is aimed at promoting understanding of the nature of materials used by the peoples of the region from the earliest prehistory until recent times. This course has a hands-on emphasis. (Offered in alternate years) NMC461Y1 Prerequisite: 1.5 courses from NMC360H1/NMC361H1/361Y1/ NMC362Y1/NMC363H1/NMC364H1/363Y/NMC465H1/NMC466H1; two courses from NMC370Y1/371Y1/372Y1/NMC343H1/NMC344H1/NMC346H1/NMC347H1 NMC462Y1 The use of polarized-light microscopy in the examination of ceramics, stone, other materials, and microstratigraphy. Lectures in elementary optical mineralogy and case-studies are followed by lab sessions in which typical thin-sections of pottery, rocks, soils and other materials are studied. (Offered in alternate years) NMC463Y1 Providing students with a solid understanding of the concepts and techniques used in landscape studies as applied to the Near East. The course uses a thematic approach, studying the theories and methodologies of landscape archaeology and case studies, and introduces students GIS and the use of remote sensing data. (One-time only) NMC465H1 A survey of methods of classification and analysis (form, fabric and style) involved in the study of archaeological ceramics, and the use of ceramics to infer patterns of production, distribution, and social organization; linking research questions with appropriate analytical techniques. NMC466H1 An introduction to the basic corpus of Near Eastern ceramics, from the invention of pottery production in the Neolithic until the Persian period, utilizing existing collections at the University and in the Royal Ontario Museum. NMC467H1 The archaeology and material culture of ancient Egypt, with emphasis on the theoretical and methodological issues inherent in interpreting the archaeological record. Students will also work directly with artifactual material from the Egyptian collection of the ROM. NMC468H1 The archaeology and material culture of ancient Egypt, with emphasis on the theoretical and methodological issues inherent in interpreting the archaeological record. Students will also work directly with artifactual material from the Egyptian collection of the ROM. NMC469Y1 This course will use ceramics as the central core to study the material culture of the medieval Middle East and the central Islamic lands. As such they will be the running narrative, to which other materials will be referred, or in turn used to refer to other materials. The same motifs found on ceramics may be found in the contemporary buildings, textiles or woodwork; the same forms are found in metalwork and glass; illustrations on ceramics will survive better than contemporary manuscript paintings, and there are more illustrations of, for instance, medieval swords to be found on pottery than there are actual swords. The course will rely heavily on the collections of the ROM, and provide a thorough grounding on the technical production and typological variability of the various types of materials attested within their archaeological and cultural context. NMC202H1 Overview of the history of the Copts from political, religious, social and economic perspectives. Literary and documentary sources will illustrate these different aspects of Coptic Civilization. The focus on Coptic Monasticism will underline the role of monasteries as conservers of the Coptic Orthodox Church tradition. NMC241H1 This course offers an introduction to the contemporary Middle East from an anthropological perspective. Topics will include gender, kinship, religion, modernity, popular culture, and the study of everyday life. NMC270H1 The course will introduce students to the Christian communities living in the Middle East since the distant past, identified by ecclesiastical and or ethnic terms, including Armenian, Copt, Greek-Melkite, Maronite, and Syriac. The course will discuss the plurality of their cultural, literary, and theological traditions, the social and intellectual roles of their monasteries, the contributions of their top religious authorities in diplomacy between Byzantium and the Sassanians, their position in the Islamic world and contributions to Islamic culture, philosophy, sciences, and theology, interreligious dialogues and polemics with Islam. (Offered in alternate years) NMC273Y1 Features of the pre-Islamic Middle East inherited by Islamic civilization, birth of Islam, life and times of Muhammad, formation of Islamic empire and civilization, political disintegration of the caliphate, emergence of autonomous dynasties, the fall of Baghdad to Mongols in 1258 and the rise of the Mamluks. NMC274Y1 This course will unfold around the eastern and northern frontiers of the Islamic world from Central Asia in the east, to the Black and Caspian Sea steppes in the north, and from these frontiers its focus will move into the lands of the Middle East. For centuries Altaic peoples (Turks and Mongols), originally nomads in the Eurasian steppes (and mountains), played varied and crucial roles in the lands of the Middle East—as raiders, migrants, slave-soldiers, conquerors, and state-builders. Topics to be covered include pastoral nomadism, steppe warfare, clan, tribal and state structures, ethnicity, sedentarization, and the roles of physical geography and ecology. (Offered in alternate years) NMC275H1 An introduction to the encounter between Jews and Muslims in medieval times, when a majority of Jewish people subsisted under Muslim rule. An overview of religious/political/intellectual settings of the Judeo-Muslim experience is followed by exploring cultural cross-pollination, the Jews’ legal status under Islam, and interfaith politics. Source materials in translation. NMC277H1 Topics vary from year to year, depending on instructor. NMC278H1 Historical survey of the principal countries of the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries. Themes include the interplay of imperial and local interests, the emergence of national movements, and the formation of modern states. NMC342H1 Presents an historical overview on the origins of Egyptian monasticism based on written sources. Comparison of written sources with archaeological artifacts reveals the relation between spiritual and material aspects of monastic life. Literary sources produced for different monastic orders -- such as sermons, canons and biographies -- will be studied. NMC343H1 The political and cultural history of Egypt from the later predynastic period through the Middle Kingdom; the use of both archaeological and literary evidence. NMC344H1 The political and cultural history of Egypt from the Second Intermediate Period through the Middle Greco-Roman Period; the use of both archaeological and literary evidence. NMC346H1 The political and cultural history of the peoples of ancient South-Western Asia fROM 3000 BCE to the destruction of Babylon by the Hittites ca. 1600 BCE. (Offered in alternate years) NMC347H1 The political and cultural history of the peoples of ancient South-Western Asia from ca. 1600 BCE to the conquest of Babylon by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE (Offered in alternate years) NMC348Y1 The political history and cultural legacy of the Sasanian empire before the Arab conquests of Iran in the 7th-8th centuries, with a focus on the transmission of Persian concepts of kingship, administration, and social organization into Islamic civilization. The rise of native Iranian dynasties in the eastern Islamic world and the creation of the Perso-Islamic cultural synthesis under the Samanids in the 10th century. The history of greater Iran (including Central Asia and Afghanistan) under the rule of Turkic and Turko-Mongolian dynasties, such as the Ghaznavids, Seljuqs, Ilkhanids, and Timurids, with special attention to the interaction between nomadic and sedentary cultures. The emergence of the Safavid state in the 16th century, a watershed in the political and religious history of Iran, to the early modern period in the 18th century. NMC355H1 The last phase of the Ottoman empire has long been viewed by Orientalists and Middle East nationalists as a period of inevitable decline. More recently, cultural historians of the Middle East have framed the long 19th. century as a period of grand reforms - or Tanzimat. This course seeks to critically examine the notions of ‘reform of the state’ and ‘reform of the individual’ between Sultan Mahmud II’s accession and the defeat of the Ottoman empire in World War I. Focusing largely on Istanbul and the Ottoman capital’s political relations with the Arab provinces, we will relate economic, social and intellectual transformations to state laws and policies, Mediterranean capitalism and the rise of sectarianism and nationalism in the Middle East. NMC370H1 The political and cultural history of ancient Israel from the origin of the Hebrews to the exile and restoration in the Persian period. (Offered in alternate years) NMC373H1 Situated within a world historical context, this course offers a critical history of modern Iran from the establishment of the Safavid Empire in 1501 to the Islamic Revolution of 1979. While focusing on institutional and political reforms and revolutions, it also explains the making of modern Iranian political, literary, and visual cultures. NMC374H1 A survey of the history of Egypt under Islamic rule from the Arab to the Ottoman conquest (1517 C.E.), including the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties. Issues treated thematically include conversion and inter-communal relations, relations with Syria, militarization of the political structure, including the military slave (mamluk) institution, religious currents, the impact of the Crusades and Mongol invasions, commercial and diplomatic relations, the emergence of Cairo as the centre of the later mediaeval western Islamic world. (Offered in alternate years) NMC376H1 Muslim conquest of North Africa and Spain, history of Spain under Muslim rule to 1492. Attention given to institutional and cultural development, Islamic Spain’s relations with the Islamic east and neighbours in Europe. (Offered in alternate years) NMC377Y1 History of the emergence of the Ottoman state and its evolution from a border principality in Asia Minor into an empire. Ottoman expansion into Europe, Asia and Africa. The empire at its height under Süleyman the Lawgiver. The development of important administrative and military institutions. First military and diplomatic setbacks. NMC378H1 A thematic treatment of the Arab lands of the Middle East and North Africa fROM 1700 onward, focusing on the Ottoman and colonial periods. NMC451H1 Explores competing narratives of the Constitutional Revolution (1906–1911), particularly the transformation of public and private spheres and their corresponding modes of collective and personal self-presentation. Students explore revolutionary legacies, and the ways in which competing political, religious and ideological forces have attempted to shape the Revolution’s memory. (Offered in alternate years) NMC471H1 A seminar organized around readings on a topic selected by the instructor. Possible topics might include authority and power in medieval Islamic society in the Middle East, slavery, women, taxation, landholding, iqta’ and payment of the military, waqf, etc. Intended for upper year students. (Offered in alternate years) NMC472H1 Examines current theoretical and methodological trends in the study of the Near/Middle East. A seminar course, it consists of presentations, discussions, lectures, guest speakers, and documentaries. No previous knowledge of methodology required. Special attention will be paid to the politics, culture, political economy, gender, and ethics of various research practices. Intended for 4th year students only. NMC473H1 The course is designed to re-examine the role of intellectuals in the Arab world and political events that shaped their thinking. It introduces the life and thought of some leading thinkers of the Arab world and relates their thought to the lived experience of political, social, economic and cultural change in the Middle East. Intended for upper year students. (Offered in alternate years) NMC475H1 This course probes the contemporaneous formation of modern Oriental Studies in Europe and the emergence of discourses on Europe (Ifranj/Farang) in the Middle East from the eighteenth century to the present. Special emphasis will be devoted to encounters between scholars in Western Europe, Iran, India, and the Ottoman Empire. This seminar-style course explains that Orientals gazed and returned the gaze, and in the process of “cultural looking,” they, like their Occidental counterparts, exoticized and eroticized the Farangi-Other. In the interplay of looks between Orientals and Occidentals, there was no steady position of spectatorship, no objective observer, and no “aperspectival” position. Intended for upper year students. NMC478H1 A seminar built around thematic readings of social and economic history of the modern Arab world. Offered every other year. NMC479H1 A seminar organized around readings in selected topics. The topics are related to the instructor’s research interests. (Offered in alternate years)
NMC284H1 Explores the interaction between Jewish religious and secular movements and feminism. Investigates Jewish law (halakha) and the Jewish legal (halakhic) process in terms of feminist critique. Marriage, divorce, Torah study, bat mitzvah, other ceremonies, female rabbinic ordination and women’s prayer groups are some of the topics considered. (Offered in alternate years) NMC285H1 Concern is mainly with the sacred character of the Qur’an (koran), its preeminence in Islam. Topics include: the idea of the sacred book, the Qur’an and the Bible, the influence of the Qur’an on Islamic spirituality, literature, theology, law, philosophy, and the various apporaches taken in interpreting the Qur’an. Knowledge of Arabic is not required. (Offered in alternate years) NMC286H1 This course is a continuation of NMC285H1F. Students will be required to engage directly with the text in English or French translation, to discuss and write on major and minor quranic topics and themes and to study the works of other astute readers of the text. Arabic is not required or expected. NMC380Y1 Religious belief and practice in Mesopotamia and Syria (Ugarit). (Offered in alternate years) NMC381H1 Survey of major intellectual trends in the Islamic tradition, particularly those identified with Middle Eastern Muslim thinkers, from the early 19th century to the present. Topics include reformism, modernism, hermeneutics, feminism, Islamism, and liberal and progressive trends in contemporary Muslim thought. Readings in English translation. NMC382Y1 Religious belief and practice in ancient Egypt. The course will focus on gods and mythology, which will be studied through primary sources in translation. (Offered in alternate years) NMC384H1 Jewish attitudes to various personal status issues, such as the foetus, the minor, the pubescent child, and the mentally and physically challenged adult from biblical and rabbinic sources to modern Jewish positions. (Offered in alternate years) NMC387H1 Mysticism and spirituality in Islam: the Qur’an; doctrine; prayer; Sufism; Irfan (Shi’i mysticism). Themes include love, knowledge, authority, being, interpretation. NMC388H1 Subjects covered include the rise and development of the Shi’i version of Islamic “orthodoxy” from the mid-7th to the mid-13th centuries CE. Distinctive Shi’i interpretations of the Qur’an will be examined. NMC389H1 This course continues the study of Shi’ism fROM 1258 to the present day and will include the history and teachings of the various members of the Shi’i family of Islamic religion. NMC481H1 This course will present for study a different prominent figure each year: Hallaj, Ghazali, Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi, Rumi, Mulla Sadra, and so on. Attention will be given to their respective social and historical milieux, their modes of expression and experience, and the nature of their literary productions. There is no Prerequisite, but students must be advanced undergraduates in the Humanities. NMC484H1 Abortion, rape, family violence and similar topics from the perspective of historical and legal development, scientific theory, socio-ethical attitudes and anthropological comparison in the Bible and other ancient Near Eastern sources, through Jewish legal texts to modern responses. (Offered in alternate years)
NMC392H1 Monumental architecture, whether for secular or religious purposes, played a special role in Muslim societies, particularly in major centres such as Isfahan, Samarkand and Delhi. Beginning with the Taj Mahal (1632) the best-known elements of Islamic architecture the double dome, the pointed arch, glazed tiles are traced retroactively in Iran, Central Asia, and India, and their social context is studied. (Offered every three years) NMC393H1 A survey of the arts of the Islamic world from the 7th century to the Mongol conquest in the mid-13th century. Studying objects in the ROM collections of Islamic art. NMC394H1 A continuation of NMC393H1, covering art and material culture in the eastern Islamic lands from the late 13th century CE to the modern period. Studying objects in the ROM collections of Islamic art.. NMC396Y1 Architectural studies, historical sources and archaeological research are used to examine the physical and social morphology of the pre-industrial Islamic city from Central Asia to North Africa and Spain, from the 7th to the 17th centuries. NMC299Y1 Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. Details here. NMC399Y0 An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. Details here. NMC495Y1 Prerequisite: Permission of Department NMC496H1 Prerequisite: Permission of Department NMC497H1 Prerequisite: Permission of Department NMC499Y1 A course of study tailored to the individual needs or interests of advanced undergraduate students. A selection of readings chosen by the student, under the supervision of a faculty member on which the student may be examined serves as background preparation for the writing of a research paper. |