Introduzione all'Islam RA0304

General Objectives: To understand Islam in the light of its foundational texts and sources, as well as through the ways in which these texts and sources have been interpreted in history.

Course Outlines: 1. Introduction. Why study Islam today? Conceptualizing Islam. 2. Islamic origins. Pre-Islamic Arabia and the Near East. Muḥammad: Prophet and statesman. Understanding the Qurʾān. Islamic universalism and expansionism. 3. Islamic thoughts and institutions. Introduction to Islamic Law. Islamic theology and philosophy. Islamic spirituality and Sufism. 4. Islam and modernity. Cultural encounter and reform. Islam and modernity. Christian-Muslim dialogue.

Textbooks: Brown, Daniel. 2017. A New Introduction to Islam. New York: Wiley & Son. Bibliography: Aal al-Bayt Institute. 2009. Common Role of Muslims and Christians in Building up a Developing World. Jordan: Aal al-Bayt Institute; Ahmed, Shahab. 2017. What is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic. Princeton: Princeton University Press; ʻAṭṭār, Farīd al-Dīn. 2018. The Conference of the Birds. Translated by Sholeh Wolpe. New York: W.W. Norton; Barlas, Asma. 2006. “Women’s Readings of the Qurʾān.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Qurʾān, edited by Jane McAuliffe, 255-271. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Bearman, Peri, ed. 1998. Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill; DeLong-Bas, Natana. 2018. Islam: A Living Faith. Minnesota: Anselm Academic; Fitzgerald, Michael. 2011. “Universal Foundations of Islam.” In Universal dimensions of Islam: Studies in Comparative Religion, edited by Patrick Laude, 18-38. Indiana: World Wisdom; Griffith, Sidney. 2008. The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam. New Jersey: Princeton University Press; Ibrāhīm, Ayman. 2018. The Stated Motivations for the Early Islamic Expansion (622-641): A Critical Revision of Muslims’ Traditional Portrayal of the Arab Raids and Conquests. New York: Peter Lang; Isḥā q, Muhammad Ibn. 2013. The life of Muhammad. Translated by Ibn Hishām’s Sīrat Rasūl Allāh, which was based on Ibn Isḥā q’s lost Sīrah. Introduction and notes by Alfred Guillaume. New York: Oxford University Press; Lauzière, Henri. 2010. “The Construction of Salafiyya: Reconsidering Salafism from the Perspective of Conceptual History.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 42, no. 3 (August): 369-389; Naiem, Girgis. 2018. Egypt’s Identities in Conflict: The Political and Religious Landscape of Copts and Muslims. North Carolina: McFarland & Company; Pasha, Said Halim. 2008. “The Reform of Muslim Society.” Journal of Islamic Studies 47, no. 3 (September): 379-404; Rahman, Fazlur. 2013. Major Themes of the Qurʾān. 2nd Edition with a New Foreword of Ebrahim Moosa. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; Saeed, Abdullah. 2006. Islamic Thought: An Introduction. New York: Routledge; The Qurʼān: The Eternal Revelation Vouchsafed to Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets. Arabic text with a new translated by Muhammad Zafrulla Khan. New York: Olive Branch Press, 2003; Troll, Christian. 2009. Dialogue and Difference: Clarity in Christian-Muslim Relations. New York: Orbis Books; Vroom, Hendrik. 2010. “Hermeneutics and Dialogue Applied in the Establishment if a Western Department of Islamic Theology.” In Interreligious Hermeneutics, edited by Catherine Cornille and Christopher Conway. Eugene: Cascade Books.