Learning objectives
A) Knowledge and Understanding: Students will study the historical roots of the Islamic world, its cultural nature, its current value both in countries of origin and in the western settlement.
B) Applying knowledge and understanding: Students will be able to apply the fitting interpretative categories connected to the cultural dimension of Islam
C) Making judgements: Students will acquire the conceptual and categorical tools useful for a first qualification about the religious phenomena, the Islamic world's political and social.
D) Communication skills: students will
be able to convey information, ideas, problems and solutions to
specialists and non-specialists of this issue.
Students can make conclusions clearly and through the support of their
knowledge ot the cultural and historical context. They will also be able to explain the reasons for their
conclusions.
E Learning skills: at the end of the course, students will manage the basics to analyze and evaluate international cultural institutions, Italian and, if possible, Arabs, so as to make them as independent as possible and objectives of research and study.
Prerequisites
None
Course unit content
The course is divided into three parts.
The first introduces the elements of the history of the Islamic religion and its subsequent development; the second illustrates the elements of the Arabic language and its impact on culture and socio-political institutions of Islam; the third examines some "applied institutions" of contemporary Islam, for example, tribal and kinship networks, negotiating and economic practices, fundamentalism, the state and religious law.
Full programme
Introduction of the course and the program: terminology and useful concepts: religion, culture, institutions.
Part one:
History of Islamic Religion and its global development.
The other secularization, the colonial worlds, the post-colonial legacy, the contemporary Islamic reformism.
Second part:
Religion, language and Muslim culture.
Islam anthropology, ibadat and Muamalat, the right, the Arab state, tribalism.
Part Three:
contemporary institutions of the Muslim world.
Political Islam, Muslim women and feminism, religious minorities in Islamic countries, the Islamic economy, fundamentalism, al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Bibliography
- Giorgio Vercellin, Istituzioni del mondo musulmano, Einaudi, Torino, 2002, pp. 419.
Teaching methods
The frontal teaching is the main method of teaching, plus some seminars dedicated to specific issues. The course is divided into three thematic blocks. Each block includes theoretical lessons and practical activities in the final balance of the block. The latter activity is not mandatory. Activities will be: analysis of texts (random groups), presentation of papers (volunteer groups) and lecture simulation (individual work).
Assessment methods and criteria
A) Students are invited to take part of the class. This activity is not mandatory but it can be positively used to evaluate the interest to investigate of the student and her/his capability to express concepts and contents.
B) Non attending students are expected to discuss arguments of the lessons considering the different blocks of issues. Students can begin the oral exam discussing a paper previously submitted by email to the professor.
The evaluation consists of an interview aimed at verifying the knowledge and concepts, the capability to express concepts and contents of the teaching, the interest in scientific investigation.
Other information
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