Basic historical knowledge.

General knowledge of rituals, doctrines, beliefs, and internal divisions of Islam, their historical evolution, and their civilizational context.

The course is structured in six interlocking thematic cores, each roughly corresponding to 1 CFU, that is, approximately 5 teaching hours and 20 individual study hours.

1) The Prophet and the origins of Islam.

Arabia, South West Asia, and the Eastern Mediterranean before Islam.

Prophet Muhammad's revelation and predication.

The concept of Umma. The conquests and the 'Rightly Guided' Caliphs.

2) The Qur'an

Revelation and historical collation.

Notes on Qur'anic sciences.

3) Basic doctrinal elements of Islamic faith

The 'Five Pillars'.

Basic belief ('Aqidah).

4) Diversity in Islam

The succession to the Prophet.

The divisions of the Community and Shi'a Islam.

The Caliphate and its fracturing.

5) Doctrine, Law, Mysticism

Theological debates: free will and creation of the Qur'an.

Shari'a, Fiqh, legal schools. Notions of environmental and social ethics in Islam.

Sufism.

6) Modern Islam

Reform movements. Wahhabism.

Islamic modernism.

Modern political Islam. Salafism. Jihadism.

Neo-reformism and Islamic Feminism.

(A) Hillenbrand, Carole. 2016. Islam. Una nuova introduzione storica. Einaudi, Torino.

Or

(A) Hillenbrand, Carole. 2015. Islam. A New Historical Introduction. Thames & Hudson.

The course is accessible for students who not know Arabic, but knowledge of discipline-specific technical terms in Arabic will be required.

Attendance is not compulsory, but highly recommended.

The textbook indicated will be supplemented by some additional integratory material by the teacher, which is part of the required program.

• Frontal teaching,

  Interactive discussion and seminarial activity.

  Use images, slides, audio-visual tools.

• Oral examination.

  
  

  Students will be asked to demonstrate general knowledge of beliefs, rituals, major traditions of thought, and institutions discussed during the course. Students may be asked to recflect critically on the basis of the issues studied in the course.

  
  

  For attending students, a written test can be taken at the end of the course hours. This will test historical, geographical, and terminological fundaments of the discipline as studied. The same fundaments may be verified in the oral examination for non-attending students.

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