Eleni Kondyli

Associate Professor

ekondyli[at]turkmas.uoa[dot]gr

3 hours per week

Course Objectives

Understanding of the intertwining of an exceptionally influential culture for the entire world where Islam has spread.

The sacredness of the language of Islam linked the expansion of the Islamic religion to Arabic language and culture. Islam identified itself with the most luminous expression of the Arab culture and gave to Arabs an immense platform (and substratum) for development during the Middle Ages. In this sense, the aim of the course during this semester is to examine the development of the Arab-Islamic world, together with its relationship to the thriving cultural substratum on which it expanded. Hence, the objective is to obtain the information of the historical and ideological dimensions of the relationship of Islam and the common cultural framework that expanded in the Middle East and the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages.

Course Structure

The Arab-Islamic world: the development of the community of the devotees and traditional politics. Religions in the Arab world, relationship of Islam with other religions. The dynasty of The Umayyads and The Abbasids. The Arab Mediterranean before the Ottomans: North Africa, Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Southern Italy. Ideological trends of classic Arab culture in relation to the development of Islam, and historical review of the so-called ideological divergences.

Characteristic cultural achievements of the Arab world: dissemination of sciences, the translation movement in the East and the West (Baghdad and Andalusia);

Art: its development in the Arab-Islamic world, fine arts, architecture, music etc.

Elements of Arab language and literature.

Assessment

Final written examination (multiple-choice, justification questions). Students should be able to recognise terminology words in Arabic.

Bibliography

Μπαντάουη, Χάσαν, Εισαγωγή στην Ιστορία του Ισλαμικού Κόσμου, Α’ και Β’, εκδόσεις Βάνιας, Θεσσαλονίκη 2003, 2011.

Lewis, Β. Οι Άραβες στην Ιστορία, εκδόσεις Γκοβόστη, Αθήνα 1996.

Κονδύλη, Ελένη, Αραβικός Πολιτισμός, εκδόσεις Συμμετρία, Αθήνα 2011.

Abulafia, D., Mediterranean Encounters, Economic, Religious, Political, 1000-1500, Ashgate, Aldershot 2000.

Endress, G., ISLAM - Μια εισαγωγή στην ιστορία του (μετάφραση Σαλακίδη), Εκδόσεις Μεσόγειος / Ελληνικά Γράμματα, Αθήνα 2004

Hawting, G.R. The First Dynasty of Islam, 2nd ed. London and New York, Routledge, 2000.