HIST 3906A: Topics in History: Arab Intellectual History, 19th and 20th centuries
Winter 2024
Instructor: Professor Hussam Ahmed
Course Description:
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries brought massive transformations to the Arab world: Ottoman reforms, growing European threats, anxiety following the collapse of the six-hundred-year-old Ottoman Empire after the First World War, the rise of popular nationalist movements and the creation of new states, decolonization and the birth of postcolonial states. These transformations were accompanied by a rich intellectual production as elites and ordinary people tried to make sense of these changes and imagine alternate futures. In this course we will explore the history of the modern Arab world by focusing on its intellectual history. We will also attempt to rethink some of the stereotypes associated with this region as a place of conflict and violence. We will pay particular attention to Egypt and the Levant, but we will also look elsewhere, to Morocco for example, as we explore ideas of reform, institutions, political representation, as well as debates around the role of women, religion and education in society. We will read a wide-range of sources across a variety of genres in which those ideas and debates were articulated, such as newspaper articles, novels, and revolutionary texts.
Organization:
This class will meet in person. The class will be organized into lectures twice a week, but we will also discuss images, films, songs, as well as the readings.