HIST 258 - The "Islamic" City:Places,Pasts and Problems

Institution:

Trinity College

Subject:

Description:

This course studies, across time, the notion of the Islamic city from its invention in the French colonial period, through its debunking in the 1980s, to its revival and appropriation by urban planners, social scientists and architects in the Islamic world today, ranging from Rabat, Morocco to Ahmadabad, India. Issues to be explored include public and private space, gendered space, notions of real estate and ownership, and various social and public institutions that were thought to characterize a city as Islamic. We will first examine how these topics were conceived by medieval and early modern Muslim scholars in different geographical places and different historical periods. Then we will study how French and British colonial scholars developed a set of criteria for evaluating the "Islamicness" of a city as they worked alongside and within colonizing projects. Finally, we will see how these issues and criteria have been re-interpreted and embraced as a vernacular urban planning style. The course will draw upon passages from translated Arabic texts that discuss and describe historical cities, writings by historians on cities in the Middle East and the Islamic world, and critiques of the concept of the Islamic city. Throughout the course references will be made to the other conceptions of the urban environment that existed alongside the so-called Islamic city in any specific region under consideration. (Also offered under History.) 1.00 units, Lecture

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.Trincoll.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 297-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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