Assistant Instructorships
The Qur’ān
(Fall 2011)
Department of Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Course Description
This course examines the religion of Islam through its sacred text, the Qur’ān. To this end, the course entails extensive reading of the Qur’ān itself along with other texts. In our studies, we focus on the following themes of the Qur’ān: cosmology (e.g. God, human nature, satan, and the afterlife), ethical principles, ritual prescriptions, and legal injunctions. We also examine some of the prominent symbols, images and rhetorical structures of the Qur’ān. Through the reading of prophetic narratives, this course lends the opportunity to compare Qur’ānic and Biblical accounts of the major prophets shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The syllabus also includes an inquiry into the role of the Qur’ān in Muslim devotion and as a medium for artistic expression. The last third of the class concentrates on contemporary readings of the Qur’ān that delve into the themes and verses that engender the most controversy in the world today—verses related to inter-communal politics, warfare, and gender.
Sample Lecture Presentations & Documents*
Lecture 1: Introduction
Lecture 2: Aesthetic Reception
Lecture 3: Pre-Islamic Arabia
- For Lecture 3: Qur’ānic Verses
Lecture 4: Style, Structure, and Basic Features of the Text
(Lecture 5 is audio samples of Qur’ānic recitations)
Lecture 6: Life of Muhammad: From Birth to Prophethood and the Meccan Period
Lecture 7: Human Nature and Life of the Prophet: The Medinan Period
Lecture 8: History of Revelation and Scripture: Assembly and Promulgation of the Text
Lecture 9: Critical History of the Mushaf
- For Lecture 9: Behnam Sadeghi and Uwe Bergmann article
- For Lecture 9: Hossein Modarressi article
Reformists and Revolutionaries in the Islamic Republic of Iran
(Summer sessions I & II, 2010)
Advanced Persian Summer Language Institute,
Department of Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Course Description
This intensive 6-week Persian langauge course is a theme-based class. The weekly topics covered are: hermeneutics and commentary, transition to democracy, feminism, the Green Movement, and nationalism and identity. This course studies post-revolutionary philosophical theology while looking into the works of relevant reformists in the post-revolutionary political arena, which will also be gauged against the original revolutionary cadre. Although part of an intesive language program, this class does not short-change students in terms of content. The assumption is that, by the time the class is over, students will have the confidence to tackle political tracts from the philosophical and theological to the rhetorical and polemic.
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