141192 VU Islam: Phänomene, Entwicklungen, Analysen I (2025W)

This course is the first out of two Phenomena courses in 2025/2026, envisioned as an advanced introduction to the scientific study of Islam as a global religion, intellectual tradition, lived practice, and a social and socio-anthropological fact. Designed as a foundation for MA students in Islamic Studies and related fields, it explores Islam’s formative moments, its diverse institutions, and its ongoing negotiation with modernity. The first part of the course covers early and late medieval period and the gradual establishment of Muslim canons, as well as how this history has been seen in modern and contemporary times. In the following semester (2016), Phenomena II will cover early modern and modern topics against the background of intensifying interaction between Islam and Orientalism, reflected in debates that remain present in social discourse today. Participants are able to independently join each of the two modules.

Rather than presenting Islam as a fixed object, the course emphasizes how Islam has been defined, debated, and practiced across time and place. Students will engage critical secondary scholarship, while developing skills in reading, interpretation, and historiographical analysis. The intent of the course is to make participants aware of the multiple debates – historical, theological, and methodological – that shape our understanding of Islam as religion, culture, and intellectual tradition.

The approach is explicitly critical and dialogical. The course follows Islam from its beginnings in 7th-century Arabia through the rise of empires and institutions, and into the challenges of colonialism, reform, and global modernity. At each stage, we ask how Islam has been defined, who has the authority to define it, and how those definitions change across time, space, and circumstance. Students will be introduced to central scholarly controversies: revelation and its interpretation; the figure of Muhammad and early authority; the rise of law and sectarian difference; Sufism and popular piety; empires and bureaucracy; colonialism and Orientalism; reform, jihad, and modernity; Islam in today’s global and digital contexts.

By the end of the course, participants will ideally:
1. Recognize the diversity of interpretations of Islam across history and geography.
2. Gain awareness of the key debates in Islamic Studies—on scripture, law, mysticism, authority, and modernity.
3. Develop the ability to identify how methodological positions (insider/outsider, faith/history, Orientalism, reformist critiques) shape the study of Islam.
4. Acquire the capacity to critically reflect on concepts such as jihad, ulama, orthodoxy (etc.), or “what is Islam” itself.
5. Demonstrate independent research skills in engaging with relevant literature.