Universität Wien

141192 VU Islam: Phenomena, Developments and Analyses I (2023W)

4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 14 - Orientalistik, Afrikanistik, Indologie und Tibetologie
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 30 participants
Language: German

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 10.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 17.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 24.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 31.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 07.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 14.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 21.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 28.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 05.12. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 12.12. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 09.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 16.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 23.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27
  • Tuesday 30.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum Arabica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-27

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Deepening the understanding of the history of Islam and of phenomena to be described as Islamic in historical, contemporary, and transnational perspectives. The field discussed is global Sufism.
In this course, we will discuss the development of Sufism from the medieval period onwards. First sessions will be committed to locating possible definitions of the phenomenon and briefly discussing various schools of thought, both among the historical agents that helped the spread of Sufism over space and time, and various scholarly approaches to Sufism in later periods.
During the following weeks, we will look at the processes through which Sufism became an institutionalized practice from the medieval period and throughout early modernity. Studying these topics will also help understand various aspects of state- and religious institutions in various historical Muslim states. We will briefly review the institutional practice of various Sufi orders, discussing certain beliefs that prominent Sufis encouraged, such as the various cults of saints, numerous types of thaumaturgical activities (wonder-working) and differing approaches to occult sciences in Islam. In addition, we will also look at the historical opponents to Sufism, from Ibn Taymiyya's time to the modern period, discussing certain schools of thought which contributed to the development of Muslim fundamentalism, which is today often referred to as salafism.
In the later sessions of the course, we will discuss the extent of reforms applied by certain Sufi orders after the rise in popularity of Birgivi's work "The Muhammadan Path," which also inspired present scholarly theses about "Neo-Sufism." The last session will discuss the changes in practical links of Sufi orders to various Muslim institutions after the advent of modernity.

Assessment and permitted materials

Attendance and active participation in class will be required. Each student will be asked to prepare one (or more, depending on the time, number of students, or personal eagerness) presentations which may (although this is not obligatory) include handouts or powerpoint presentations. Most importantly, these presentations will serve for the students to actively engage the reading material - they will be tasked with coming to class with critical questions regarding the reading content, its scientific approaches and method, and ask these questions to the class, acting as discussion leaders with the support of the course instructor.

At the end of the semester, students will be asked to submit a 15-pages final paper on a topic of their choise which is directly related to the reading material. Papers can be either theoretical, or research-focused (or both), and ideally, will tackle a good percentage of the reading material provided in class. Their purpose is to convey a hypothesis, a theory, or a critical analysis which the author conducted and took with them as their concluding thoughts about the course.

All submissions should be completed in English. For this purpose, I will gladly reserve some time of the course to help with academic writing principles in English language for those students who have not had much experience with it before.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Attendance and active participation are key to finishing this course successfully. In case a presentation is missed, or if there are too many absences, submission of weekly class journals may be requested to demonstrate engagement with the learning material.

Examination topics

no examination

Reading list

We will read selected chapters (or parts of chapters) from a number of books that deal both with theoretical approaches to Sufism and particular case studies. The very first session in October will serve as an introductory opening, with no readings assigned. We can use it to discuss further the requirements of the course, its topics, and to exchange information about our own research interests - in some cases this may lead to the slight modification of reading materials so that they correspond to the work of the enrolled students. Reading materials will then be assigned each week for the following one(s), with introductory words from the course instructor.

After the first week, we will start with (only certain chapters, once again):

Nile Green, Sufism: A Global History
Alexander Knysh, Sufism: A New History of Muslim Mysticism
Eric Geoffroy, Introduction to Sufism: The Inner Path of Islam

Later on, we will read excerpts from the works such as (the list may vary),

Erik Ohlander, Sufism in an Age of Transition: 'Umar al-Suhrawardi and the Rise of the Islamic Mystical Brotherhoods
Joseph W. Meri, The Cult of Saints among Muslims and Jews in Medieval Syria
Christopher S. Taylor, In the Vicinity of the Righteous: Ziyara and the Veneration of Muslim Saints in Late Medieval Egypt
Hüseyin Yılmaz, Caliphate Redefined: The Mystical Turn in Ottoman Political Thought
Dina le Gall, A Culture of Sufism: Naqshbandis in the Ottoman World 1450-1700
Derin Terzioglu, "How to Conceptualize Ottoman Sunnitization," Turcica 44 (2012/13)
Katarina Ivanyi, Virtue, Piety and the Law: A Study of Birgivi Mehmed Efendi's al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya
Marc David Baer, Honored by the Glory of Islam: Conversion and Conquest in Ottoman Europe
Madeline C. Zilfi, The Politics of Piety: The Ottoman Ulema in the Post-Classical Age (1600–1800)
David D. Commins, Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria
Rex S. O'Fahey, Enigmatic Saint: Ahmad Ibn Idris and the Idrisi Tradition
Rex O'Fahey&Bernd Radtke, "Neo-Sufism Reconsidered", De Gruyter (2009).

We will agree on the particular chapters or excerpts during our course sessions.

Association in the course directory

RP-1, WM-18 (alt)
Neu WM-17

Last modified: Tu 05.09.2023 14:27