070243 UE Readings in the History of Historiography (2025S)

Course Title: Writing Eastern Christian Hagiography Under Islam.

The spread of Islamic cultural, political, and religious hegemony in the Middle East from the seventh century onward presented a transformative period of change for Christian communities living throughout the region. Their lived environment was reshaped and re-ordered into a system of new overlapping regional and local administrations in a qualitatively new socio-administrative structure; changes that were accompanied by the re-organisation of existing land patterns, the implementation of new fiscal, legal, and religious policies, the establishment of new centres of power, and the emergence of new cultural-intellectual activities. Some Christian communities met these changes with resistance, others saw opportunity.

This course will introduce students to this transformative period in the history of the medieval Middle East through the lens of one of the most popular and widespread forms of literature composed by the Christian communities that witnessed these changes: Hagiography. The course will present students with the historical and literary perspectives of hagiographical sources written in Greek, Armenian, Arabic, and Syriac composed by Christian communities living throughout the Middle East during a period of Islamic rule stretching from the seventh to the ninth century and provide students with comprehensive knowledge and skills in the study and analysis of hagiography as a source for the history of the medieval Middle East.

Learning outcomes:

Through the study of hagiographical textual sources produced by Eastern Christian communities between the seventh and ninth century, students will: be able to identify and analyse the textual conventions and models of hagiographical literature; become aware of textual and material evidence for Christian communities living under Islamic rule; contextualise the production of Christian hagiographical literature within an Islamic social, cultural, and political context; and interpret and apply hagiographical literature for the study of the legal, social, political, economic, intellectual history of Christian communities living under Islam.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to: demonstrate a detailed and critical command of the selected texts and primary sources and an understanding of their historical and cultural contexts; analyse and reflect critically upon the primary source material at the core of this class, relevant scholarship concerning it, and conceptual discussions related to it; understand and apply research skills, techniques and practices considered in the course, including textual criticism and literary analysis; develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form utilising relevant evidence considered in the course

The course will be taught in English.