MENA160A2

Middle Eastern Humanities introduces students to the values, traditions, and development of Middle Eastern (largely Islamic and Arab) culture and civilization. This course is designed to familiarize students with achievements in art, architecture, literature and popular culture of the Middle East, to help students understand these achievements in their social and cultural contexts, and to consider the historical evolution of our knowledge and understanding of these achievements. Students exiting this course should have gained a sound understanding of the geographical extent and variety, historic significance, cultural contributions, and ongoing importance of this region of the world. The introduction to the course focuses first on pernicious stereotyping of the Middle East, as well as physical and human geography of the region from North Africa to Iran. Part One explores agriculture and food traditions as a neglected area of the humanities. Part Two considers the rise of Islam in the context of Judaism and Christianity as well as tribal paganism. Part Three considers the aesthetic and cultural traditions of the region (literature, art, architecture, urbanism, music and dance) in the context of Islamic and traditional values. Part Four introduces nationalism and secularism and new communication technologies to the arena to frame the politicization of religion and cultural values.