Already One State

Much like me, Yoav Peled and Horit Herman Peled don't see much future for the two-state solution in the Arab-Israeli conflict. They argue, however, that a single state already exists:

"Instead of pursuing the mirage of a two-state solution, would-be peace makers should recognize the fact that Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in fact constitute one state that has been in existence for nearly forty-five years, the longest lasting political formation in these territories since the Ottoman Empire. (The British Mandate for Palestine lasted thirty years; Israel in its pre-1967 borders lasted only nineteen years). The problem with that state, from a democratic, humanistic perspective, is that forty percent of its residents, the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, are non-citizens deprived of all civil and political rights. The solution to this problem is simple, although deeply controversial: establishing one secular, non-ethnic, democratic state with equal citizenship rights to all in the entire area between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River."

What's striking is how intuitive this is. U.S. Presidential Rick Santorum recently committed a gaffe by saying that all the inhabitants of the West Bank were Israelis because they lived under Israeli rule. The Israeli government refuses such a formulation because giving Palestinians in the Occupied Territories citizenship would, in fact, mean that Israel is no longer "the Jewish state" as that has usually been defined. However, the fact that Santorum's is a mistake commonly made tells you a lot about the political configuration in practice on the ground.

(Crossposted to American Footprints)

Tower of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is planning a go at building a new world's tallest building:

"The Azerbaijani developer Avesta plans to stick the 1,110-meter-high (about 3,642- feet-high ) building on a chain of artificial islands off Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea shore. Completion date: by 2019. The tower -- named, not surprisingly, 'Tower of Azerbaijan' -- is expected to house hotels and business centers. It may not compensate for endemic corruption, a spotty civil rights record or any other of the Azerbaijani government's oft-cited deficiencies, but it surely will attract gaping onlookers and tourism money."

Over the summer, I read about the "Guggenheim effect," by which cities gain world renown on the basis of an iconic building bringing attention and business in its wake. The effect is named for the global reputation of Bilbao, Spain in the wake of the building of its Guggenheim Museum. Azerbaijan, which is starting to act like the smaller Persian Gulf states in its quest for superlatives, could be hoping for a similar effect for Baku, since building the world's tallest building is an artistically easy way to get a landmark.

Blind Salafis

Marc Lynch posts on the fact that the "sleeping salafi" from an Egyptian parliamentary picture making the rounds is actually blind. While I know nothing about the specific case of Dr. Wageeh el-Sheemy, that an Islamist party would produce Egypt's first blind MP is unsurprising. In the Middle East, and I believe this is generalizable to other Islamic cultures, blindness has often been associated with religious learning.

For most of Islamic history, learning by hearing and repetition has been the ideal form of education, and often the only one recognized. Real knowledge was in your head. Even when written texts became more available, it was assumed that without someone to check you, you could introduce errors or misunderstandings. The Qur'an itself isn't just a text, but a text meant for recitation, which the blind could do just as well as anyone else. I don't remember where I read this, but I think in the Middle Ages there were even scholars who hoped they might one day become blind as a sign of their religious status.

This continues into the culture today, where the Arab world has produced a number of "blind shaykhs." I once saw a row of blind men sitting in the Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo, Syria. They were people who had memorized the Qur'an, and whom others would therefore come and consult on religious matters. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that a religious career is still encouraged for blind young people in Arab society, as one in which their lack of vision could actually assist rather than impair them.

Shippensburg in Iraq

I don't intend to become my university's new publicist, but this month saw the beginning of an initiative to have Shippensburg assist with the development of business education in Iraq:

"The two-year grant has three components and different individuals will work on the components simultaneously. Their initial visit will be to assess the present situation. Kooti has no illusions about the state of colleges and universities in Iraq as 'higher education has suffered significantly since the 1980s and it has continued to decline until recently.'

"The first component will be to conduct a feasibility study on establishing a center for excellence in finance and banking. 'We will work with the government, the ministry of higher education in Iraq, as well as the private sector banking and financial (businesses) to see how we will be able to establish the center in Baghdad.'

"The second component will be to establish a center for excellence for Iraqi colleges of management and economics. 'The objective is to improve the business programs in selected universities to improve their curriculum to update and upgrade their programs. We will look at capacity building, working with their faculty and their staff to determine what resources are needed. It will be a center for teaching excellence.'

"The third component will be to use the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) standards to assure quality of the programs, the development of administrative capacity and guidance. Grove College has long held AACSB accreditation. By employing the process that AACSB provides, Kooti believes Iraqi colleges and universities will provide a high caliber education, which will be needed as Iraq transitions into a new government, economy and way of life."

(Crossposted to American Footprints)

Ship Student Watch

Another student from our applied history graduate program is out benefiting society:

"(Michael) Fauser, a graduate student in Shippensburg’s applied history, spent the recent semester break as part of the prestigious Lipper Internship Program Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Lower Manhattan. He was one of 16 interns who learned how to teach 20th Century Jewish history and the Holocaust to young people.

"During his time in New York, he studied the museum’s exhibitions, heard testimony from Holocaust survivors and attended seminars led by the museum’s scholars. Having completed the initial program, he will visit high school classrooms to discuss the museum’s offerings and pave the way for the young learners to visit the museum in New York. Since the program started in 1998, interns have worked with more than 50,000 students from around the Northeast, according to museum information."

Rafsanjani Falling

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who served as Iran's president from 1989-1997, lost to Ahmadinejad in 2005, and was a behind-the-scenes mover of Mir Hussein Musavi's 2009 campaign that led to the Green Movement, has been taking major political hits for at least a year, possibly as payback for his 2009 actions. Tehran Bureau reports:

"Two websites connected to Ahmadinejad and the security forces claimed that when the current term of the chairmanship of the Expediency Discernment Council expires next month, Khamenei will not reappoint Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as its Chair. Bultan News, a website linked with the security forces, speculated that Hassan Rowhani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator during the Khatami administration, will be the new Chair of the Council. Rowhani is a member of the Council, as well as the head of its Center for Strategic Studies.

"Then Shabestan News Agency, run by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, analyzed the possibility that Rafsanjani might be assassinated, but dismissed the notion, pointing out that he is no longer an influential figure after losing the Chairmanship of the Assembly of Experts and control of Islamic Azad University. He also no longer serves as the Friday prayer Imam of Tehran. It then speculated that he will not be reappointed as the Chairman of the Council.

"Since the June 2009 presidential election, the hardliners' pressure on Rafsanjani has increased tremendously. In addition to losing all his influential posts, the website that reflected his views has been blocked, his daughter Faezeh Hashemi has been sentenced to six months in jail, and his 16-year-old grandson is under investigation. The family of one his sons has also been barred from leaving Iran.

"As a result of a quasi-coup, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has finally succeeded in taking control of the Islamic Azad University, Iran's largest university system, one of the largest of its kind in the world. It happened at the end of a meeting of the board of trustees of the university, which Rafsanjani leads. After the former president and his supporters left the meeting, the representatives of Ahmadinejad's camp on the board announced that Farhad Daneshjoo, a brother of the Minister of Science, Research and Technology, which overseas the universities, has been elected by the board as the new president of the university, replacing Rafsanjani's ally Dr. Abdollah Jasbi, who has led the university since its inception in 1982. Rafsanjani said that he will not sign the order for Daneshjoo's appointment, but Daneshjoo has said that he will not back down because the Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution, an extra-constitutional body that control cultural affairs, has confirmed him as the new president of the university."

Some of that is unconfirmed or still being battled over, but the trend is clear. Leadership of Islamic Azad University is a big deal financially as well as politically, as it has well over one million students. It has been the scene of political fighting for several years.

(Crossposted to American Footprints)

Mesha'al's Withdrawal

Khaled Mesha'al will not seek another term as leader of Hamas:

"he Palestinian militant group Hamas announced Saturday that its political leader, Khaled Meshal, would not seek re-election, opening the door to a possible leadership contest and adding to the uncertainty enveloping Hamas at a time of regional turmoil.

"Mr. Meshal, who has led the group’s political bureau since 1996 and is the face of Hamas’s leadership, told the Shura Council, the group’s highest decision-making authority, that he preferred not to run in elections scheduled in the coming months, Hamas said in a written statement. There was no immediate comment from Mr. Meshal, who is based in Damascus, the Syrian capital."

The Damascus-based Mesha'al said his decision was to allow for a rotation of power within the movement. He recently stirred interest and uncertainty with his call for Hamas to move toward a strategy of popular protest against Israel, and Ha'aretz mentions Palestinian analysts as speculating that their opposition to this led the Gaza Hamas leadership to prevent him from retaining the leadership. The New York Times, however, focuses on the Syrian context:

"Hamas has been unwilling to express support for the beleaguered Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, despite pressure from its Iranian backers to do so, and relatives of many of Hamas’s leaders are reported to have already left Damascus for reasons of personal safety.

"An analyst close to Hamas, speaking on the condition of anonymity, suggested that Mr. Meshal, who has Jordanian residency documents, might want to quit so that he could return to Jordan because the situation in Damascus had become unbearable. Jordan has said that Hamas leaders who hold Jordanian papers can return to its territory as long as they refrain from conducting any political activities there."

Some combination of these factors could be in play, but I have no particular insight into the balance. The fact Hamas's leader would step down voluntarily, however, shows a key reason why Islamist movements are popular in the Arab world.

Islam and the Desert

One book I've been reading lately is James Howard-Johnston's Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century. The book's scope is vast and dense, and I don't aspire to take it all in until I have more time to focus on it, but here's a paragraph from pages 450-451 revisiting old ideas about Islam and the desert:

"Paradoxcially, the greatest appeal of Muhammad's monotheist message lay in its bleakness, in his clear-eyed view of a universe governed by a single divine autocrat. This made far better sense of the world in which his listeners lived than a polytheistic belief system. For local deities, even those associated with astral bodies, could not protect their votaries from nature's brute force in the desert. The affairs of men were evidently governed by some higher, impersonal irresistable force, hitherto vaguely defined as time or fate. They would live through years of plenty and years of dearth. The best among them would be distinguished by courage, powers of endurance, open-handed hospitality, generosity. But death awaited all, rich and poor alike, its coming unpredictable. There was a heroic hopelessness about life in the midst of threatening, invincible nature. Fate held away, fleeing human lives its sport. It was as if the Arabs had long been dimly aware of the overarching presence of God, but had never been able to bring him into focus before and it was Muhammad who first instilled a proper understanding of his role, no longer remote and detached, but taking a close judicial interest in the behavior of his creatures."

I see similar arguments used to explain the rise of Wahhabism in the 18th century. In the paragraph before this, Howard-Johnston references the Qur'an's lack of saints and holy men such as characterized Byzantine Christianity, and Wahhabism arose primarily as a reaction to the veneration of Muslim holy men and local animistic practices.

These are ideas about Arabian change which, as far as I can tell, hold no water whatsoever. For one thing, surely a bunch of somewhat capricious demigods do, in fact, represent a better explanation for the chances of life in the desert than a God who wishes to reward the good and punish the evil? If this is such a good explanation for the rise of Islam, why didn't Judaism, which was going through a period of proselytization, make larger inroads in the peninsula? Most importantly, why did Arabians either continue with or later return to a religious culture involving holy men and animistic practices, thus upsetting Ibn Abd al-Wahhab? I don't know why Islam spread so quickly, but this isn't it.

Hamas and Popular Resistance

Nathan Brown analyzes Hamas's rhetorical embrace of "popular resistance":

"alk of popular resistance is hardly evidence that Hamas leaders have been reading Gandhi. First, Hamas leaders make clear that they still regard armed action as legitimate. And they have even suggested that the cease-fire does not mean an end to efforts to capture Israeli soldiers in order to force an exchange for Palestinian prisoners excluded from the last deal for Gilad Shalit. Then, Israel released over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit, an Israeli soldier held by Hamas for over five years.

"Second, this step away from violence is not breaking much new ideological ground. Hamas leaders have never rejected the idea of some sort of suspension of armed action in principle; indeed, they have held their fire for a prolonged period.

"Finally, popular resistance is not quite the same as nonviolence, though there is considerable overlap. When Palestinians speak of popular resistance they often do so to distinguish it from what they call the 'militarization' of the second intifada. And sometimes they do so nostalgically to recall the first intifada, characterized by strikes, demonstrations, founding of grassroots organizations—and restricted largely to fairly low-level violence, like stone throwing. Popular resistance means involving the entire society in the effort rather than allowing a small number of hardened fighters to dominate the political field."

As I've said before, I can't picture any major Palestinian group denying the legitimacy of something called "armed resistance," since to do so could be seen as accepting the legitimacy of Israel's occupation of the West Bank, at the very least.

al-Qaeda and Syria's Uprising

Nicholas Blanford examines the question of whether al-Qaeda is involved in Syria's uprising:

"The Assad regime insists that the opposition protests that have rocked the country since March are being driven by 'armed terrorist groups' and 'Islamic militants.' It has blamed Al Qaeda for three suicide bomb attacks over the past month against security offices in Damascus, which left 70 people dead.

"Analysts say there is little proof – at least for now – that suggests that Al Qaeda, or its militant affiliates, are seeking to play an active role in the Syrian uprising...

"(However,) as the violence has steadily worsened, some commentators on jihadist websites are openly calling for waging a jihad against the Assad regime. In November, Osama al-Shehabi, the leader of Al Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam in Lebanon, called for an armed struggle in Syria.

"'The regime’s brutal oppression of the Syrian people proves that it is time to change direction and use real weapons against the regime,' he wrote in an article that was published by the Shumoukh al-Islam online forum. 'The revolution is a jihad; it is a war; prepare for jihad for God; scrutinize your intentions and take up arms, for they are your obligation.'

"Last month the jihadist website Minbar al-Tawhid Wa al-Jihad posted a fatwa, or religious edict, by an influential Salafist cleric, in which he sanctioned the use of violence against the Assad regime.

"'Why do you insist on confining yourselves to peaceful protests?' wrote Sheikh Abu Mundhir al-Shinqiti. 'Is it a disgrace to kill those who kill us?... It has come to a stage where nothing will avail except taking up arms.'"

The answer to the question probably depends on the meaning of "al-Qaeda." The intelligence coup from the Bin Laden raid revealed that al-Qaeda central did have a larger coordinating role over al-Qaeda branded groups than most scholars had previously suspected. However, all these local groups still had their own levels of affiliation, as well as favored local causes. The Libyan Islamic Fighters Group was always primarily interested in their struggle against Qadhafi, and now that he's gone, there's been no evidence of their attacking other topics. It sounds like Lebanon's Fatah al-Islam has an interest in the Syrian cause, as well. Even then, however, if Syria did rank high on the agenda of the al-Qaeda movement as a whole, I'd expect to see more happening in Aleppo, which as I recall had an underground jihadist community which supported foreign fighters en route to Iraq.

(Crossposted to American Footprints)

The Tempest in Tucson

Arizona these days has a law on the books banning in public educational institutions courses which "promote resentment toward a race or class of people, are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group, or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." Pedagogically, of course, hardly any courses meet the middle requirement, as teachers of, say, African-American history would often love it if more White students took an interest in that subject. I'm also not sure what the last part of that even means, since any course takes as its units groups, such as "American literature."

The real tell is the first clause, that courses are banned which "promote resentment toward a race or class of people." You see, often in history, majorities have oppressed minorities. It continues to happen today, albeit usually in more subtle ways than a century ago. A course that focuses on such a minority will therefore cover that oppression, which might cause them to resent being oppressed. Oh, and don't forget that these minorities tend to be people who were forced into the minority role by the majority as much as anything else. Race and ethnicity are socially constructed. Southern Europeans and Irish did not always count as White, while Arabs usually did.

Today, certain Tea Party types are feeling culturally anxious. They live in a world of certainty, and don't want that certainty rattled by new perspectives from other cultural groups. Their solution then, as seen in the law, is to eliminate the troubling voices:

"As part of the state-mandated termination of its ethnic studies program, the Tucson Unified School District released an initial list of books to be banned from its schools today. According to district spokeperson Cara Rene, the books 'will be cleared from all classrooms, boxed up and sent to the Textbook Depository for storage...'

"Other banned books include 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' by famed Brazilian educator Paolo Freire and 'Occupied America: A History of Chicanos' by Rodolfo Acuña, two books often singled out by Arizona state superintendent of public instruction John Huppenthal, who campaigned in 2010 on the promise to 'stop la raza.' Huppenthal, who once lectured state educators that he based his own school principles for children on corporate management schemes of the Fortune 500, compared Mexican-American studies to Hitler Jugend indoctrination last fall.

"An independent audit of Tucson’s ethnic studies program commissioned by Huppenthal last summer actually praised 'Occupied America: A History of Chicanos,' a 40-year-old textbook now in its seventh edition. According to the audit: 'Occupied America: A History of Chicanos is an unbiased, factual textbook designed to accommodate the growing number of Mexican-American or Chicano History Courses. The auditing team refuted a number of allegations about the book, saying, ‘quotes have been taken out of context.’'"

These banned books even include a staple of the Western literary canon:

"Another notable text removed from Tucson’s classrooms is Shakespeare’s play 'The Tempest.' In a meeting this week, administrators informed Mexican-American studies teachers to stay away from any units where 'race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes,' including the teaching of Shakespeare’s classic in Mexican-American literature courses."

Got that? Whatever you do, don't make the White people look bad by talking about oppression! Why would Shakespeare's The Tempest come up? Most scholars believe the play's setting was inspired by European voyages to the Americas, and the magician Prospero's enslaved servant Caliban was created as an archetype of the Native Americans. That portrayal itself is clearly demeaning, but Shakespeare was not afraid to give Caliban a perspective, and in Act I, Scene ii we see him complain that Prospero has stolen his land and made him but a servant, but also given him knowledge to understand his predicament. Shakespeare, in other words, saw the resentment of the colonized as a perfectly natural outgrowth of the processes of colonialism and the making of subject populations, both the Spanish in Mexico, which gave rise to the Mexican population, and later the Americans in Arizona, after the war of conquest which Abraham Lincoln and other vehemently opposed. And what certain people in Arizona now want to do is try and prevent high school students in Tucson from sharing in Shakespeare's insight.

Hadarat Nashim

I knew the ultra-Orthodox were becoming a more powerful social force in Israel, but am still shocked at the emergence of a full-blown public battle over women's rights:

"In the three months since the Israeli Health Ministry awarded a prize to a pediatrics professor for her book on hereditary diseases common to Jews, her experience at the awards ceremony has become a rallying cry...

"Not only did Dr. Maayan and her husband have to sit separately, as men and women were segregated at the event, but she was instructed that a male colleague would have to accept the award for her because women were not permitted on stage...

"The list of controversies grows weekly: Organizers of a conference last week on women’s health and Jewish law barred women from speaking from the podium, leading at least eight speakers to cancel; ultra-Orthodox men spit on an 8-year-old girl whom they deemed immodestly dressed; the chief rabbi of the air force resigned his post because the army declined to excuse ultra-Orthodox soldiers from attending events where female singers perform; protesters depicted the Jerusalem police commander as Hitler on posters because he instructed public bus lines with mixed-sex seating to drive through ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods; vandals blacked out women’s faces on Jerusalem billboards."

There has always been underlying resentment of the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox) in Israel because the community does not have to serve in the army and mostly lives off government aid while the men study in yehsivas so that they can learn the proper Judaism they think everyone else should follow. This resentment and the clash with Israel's largely secular liberal culture is boiling over as they become a higher share of the population due to birthrate differentials, and thus expand the areas where they seek to impose their ways.

Medieval Islamic World Survey

Here is my syllabus for what is usually the first half of the Middle East survey sequence. I ditch the anachronistic "Middle East" framing mainly to get at India and highlight the fact that Islam isn't just or even primarily a Middle Eastern thing. The end date is also fairly arbitrary, but picking a couple of dates sounder better than "From Muhammad to the Gunpowder Empires."

HIS 390: The Central Islamic Lands, 500-1600
204 Dauphin Humanities Center, MWF 8:00 a.m.
Dr. Brian J. Ulrich

Office: 201 Dauphin Humanities Center, ex. 1736
Office Hours: 11-11:50 a.m. MWF, 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. W, also by appointment
E-mail: bjulrich@ship.edu

“For any branch of knowledge to exist, it must be derived from history. From it all wisdom is deduced, all jurisprudence is elicited, all eloquence is learnt. Those who reason by analogy build upon it. Those who have opinions to expound use it for argument. Popular knowledge is derived from it and the precepts of the wise are found in it. Noble and lofty morality is acquired from it and the rules of royal government and war are sought in it. All manner of strange events are found in it; in it, too, all kinds of entertaining stories may be enjoyed. It is a science which can be appreciated by both the educated and the ignorant, savoured by both fool and sage, and much desired comfort to elites and commoners. The superiority of history over all other branches of learning is obvious. The loftiness of its status is recognized by any person of intelligence.”

-al-Masudi, 10th century

Required Texts:

A History of Islamic Societies, 2nd Edition, Ira Lapidus
The Formation of Islam, Jonathan Berkey
Islam and the Muslim Community, Frederick Denny
Women in Islam and the Middle East: A Reader, Ruth Roded

Electronic reserves found on Blackboard

Course Overview:

This course will cover the regions where Islam was a significant presence either culturally or politically from its origins until the period of the “Gunpowder Empires” in the 16th and 17th centuries. Key themes will involve the origins of Islamic doctrines and institutions, the development of Islamic polities and high culture, the spread of Islam and diversity of Islamic societies, and the interaction of economics, politics, culture, geography and societies in history. Its contribution to an integrated history curriculum includes an awareness of issues in approaching premodern primary sources, the nature of premodern polities, and the way time periods and regions are often bounded in ways contingent on particular themes and questions.

This course will feature two exams combining IDs and essays. On February 6, students will take a map quiz. On March 30, groups will present posters on aspects of Islamic science in the Fishbowl. Students will also complete a study of an academic monograph as a project from conception to impact. Details on this assignment will be forthcoming; however, the final paper is due April 20 regardless of when you present. Pop quizzes will occasionally check reading, and short writing assignments will occasionally ask you to engage with readings, especially the primary sources found in Roded. Quizzes and some short writing assignments cannot be made up, but the lowest grade in that section will be dropped from the final calculation. Attendance in class is mandatory, and 5% will be deducted from students’ participation grades for each class missed over three. Missing 12 classes will result in a failure in the course. Participation, however, is more than just attendance, and will reflect your asking and answering of questions and participation in discussions.

Grading:

Quizzes and Reading Thoughts: 10%
Participation: 10%
Map Quiz: 7%
Science Presentations: 10%
Book Study: 18%
Midterm Exam: 20%
Final Exam: 25%

Syllabus Changes:

Occasionally I find I want to make minor changes to the syllabus. These are usually substitutions of different readings or additional short news items, and will not result in much increased work or changes in the dates of exams and major assignments. These will be announced in class, and it is the student’s responsibility to learn of them.

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is bad, and you should not do it. The minimum penalty for plagiarism is failure on the plagiarized assignment, along with a notice of your perfidy becoming part of your record.

Disability Accomodation:

If you feel you may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability, you should contact me privately to discuss your specific needs at least 72 hours prior to the activity which requires the accommodation. If you have not already done so, you must contact the Office of Disability Services. This office is responsible for determining reasonable and appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities on a case-by-case basis, and more generally, for ensuring that members of the community with disabilities have access to Shippensburg’s programs and services. They also assist students in identifying and managing the factors that may interfere with learning and in developing strategies to enhance learning. I cannot approve an accommodation without you registering.

Schedule of Readings and Major Assignments

January 18 – Course Intro
January 20 – Denny, pp. 5-17; Lapidus, pp. 3-9; Berkey, 3-9; Marshall Hodgson, “The Confessional Empires,” The Venture of Islam, Vol. I, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), pp. 137-142. (Late Antiquity I)

January 23 – Berkey, pp. 10-39; Chronicle of Zuqnin, Part III, pp. 94-99. (Late Antiquity II)
January 25 – Lapidus, pp. 10-17; Berkey, pp. 39-53; James Lindsay, “Traditional Arabic Naming System,” Daily Life in the Medieval Islamic World, (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2005), pp. 173-178 (Pre-Islamic Arabia)
January 27 – Berkey, pp. 57-60; Denny, pp. 18-37; Chase F. Robinson, “The Emergence of Genre,” Islamic Historiography, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 18-30; Gregor Schoeler, “The Relationship of Literacy and Memory in the Second/Eighth Century,” The Development of Arabic as a Written Language, ed. M.C.A. Macdonald, (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2010), pp. 121-126. (Historiographical issues)

January 30 – Lapidus, pp. 18-30; Berkey, pp. 61-9; Roded, pp. 32-47 (Muhammad)
February 1 – Denny, pp. 40-64; Roded, pp. 27-31 (Islam I)
February 3 – Denny, pp. 77-88, 98-106; Asma Afsaruddin, “The Concept of Jihad,” The First Muslims: History and Memory, (Oxford: Oneworld, 2008), pp. 108-120; Ethar El- Katatney, “To Mecca and Back Again” (web link) (Islam II)

February 6 – Lapidus, pp. 31-47; Berkey, pp. 70-76 (Rashidun Caliphate) (map quiz)
February 8 – Lapidus, pp. 47-51; Berkey, pp. 76-90 (Early Umayyads)
February 10 – Roded, pp. 58-73; Tabari, Vol. 19, pp. 65-74 (Shi’ism)

February 13 – Berkey, pp. 91-101; Oleg Grabar, “The Symbolic Appropriation of the Land,” (web link) (Religious change)
February 15 – Lapidus, pp. 51-55; Berkey, pp. 102-110; Tabari, Vol. 27, pp. 61-70 (Abbasid Revolution)
February 17 –Lapidus, pp. 56-74; Berkey, pp. 113-123; Roded, pp. 84-91 (Abbasid Empire)

February 20 – Lapidus, pp. 99-102; Berkey, pp. 125-9; Ira M. Lapidus, “The Separation of State and Religion in the Development of Early Islamic Society,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 6 (1975): 363-85. (Religious authority)
February 22 – Denny, pp. 64-70; Lapidus, pp. 81-90; Berkey, pp. 141-151; Roded, pp. 48-57 (Sunnism and hadith)
February 24 – Wael Hallaq, “The Formation of Legal Schools,” The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 150-177. (Shari’a)

February 27 – Denny, pp. 71-76; Lapidus, pp. 90-94; Berkey, pp. 152-158; Roded, pp. 128-134 (Sufism)
February 29 – Berkey, pp. 159-175; Michael Morony, “The Age of Conversions: A Reassessment,” Conversion and Continuity: Indigenous Christian Communities in Islamic Lands Eighth to Eighteenth Centuries, ed. Michael Gervers and Ramzi Jibran Bikhazi, (Toronto: PIMS, 1990), pp. 135-150 (Non-Muslims and Conversion)
March 2 – Exam I ID Section

March 5 – Exam II Essay Section
March 7 – Lapidus, pp. 103-111, 125-132; Berkey, pp. 130-140 (Regional states and “Shi’ite Century”)
March 9 – Lapidus, pp. 112-125; Michael Chamberlain, “Military Patronage States and the Political Economy of the Frontier, 1000-1250,” A Companion to the History of the Middle East, ed. Youssef M. Choueiri, (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 235-53 (Seljuqs)

SPRING BREAK

March 19 – Berkey, pp. 179-202 (Characteristics of “High Middle Period”)
March 21 – Lapidus, pp. 142-146; Berkey, pp. 203-223 (Military patronage states and Islam)
March 23 – Berkey, pp. 224-230; Roded, pp. 131-134, 140-158 (ulama)

March 26 – Lapidus, pp. 156-166; Berkey, pp. 231-247 (Sufism)
March 28 – Lapidus, pp. 177-182; Berkey, pp. 248-257; Roded, pp. 168-180 (Muslim mass culture)
March 30 – Islamic Science Presentations

April 2 – Guest Speaker, Richard Bulliet
April 4 – Andre Wink, “The India Trade,” Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Vol. I, (Leiden: Brill, 1990), pp. 25-64. (Big picture time)
April 6 – Lapidus, pp. 356-368, 382-384; Richard M. Eaton, “Sufi Folk Literature and the Expansion of Indian Islam,” History of Religions 14 (1974), pp. 117-27 (JSTOR); Richard M. Eaton, “The Political and Religious Authority of the Shrine of Baba Farid,” Essays on Islam and Indian History, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000),
pp. 203-24. (South Asia)

April 9 – Lapidus, pp. 400-416, 432-438, 443-449 (Africa)
April 11 – Lapidus, pp. 226-247 (Ilkhans and Safavids)
April 13 - Lapidus, pp. 248-275 (Ottoman Empire)

April 16 – Berkey, pp. 261-269; Lapidus, pp. 368-381 (Mughals)
April 18 – Book Study Presentations
April 20 – Book Study Presentations (paper due)

April 23 – Book Study Presentations
April 25 – Book Study Presentations
April 27 – Book Study Presentations

Final Exam: Friday, May 4, 8 a.m.

World History II

Posted below is my new syllabus for World History II. The list of themes seems weaker to me than it does in my World History I class, but that may be because specific events and developments become more important in this one. The biggest experiment is the "U.S. and the World" theme, which I'm developing in response to the particular situation of Shippensburg University, where few students who are not history majors take U.S. history. I'm actually enthusiastic about developing this as an aspect of world history education, however. Our department is built for it.

HIS 106: World History II
204 Dauphin Humanities Center, MWF 9:00 a.m.
Dr. Brian J. Ulrich

Office: 201 Dauphin Humanities Center, ex. 1736
Office Hours: 11 – 11:50 a.m. MWF, 1-3:00 p.m. W
E-mail: bjulrich@ship.edu

“History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future.”
-Robert Penn Warren

“I want to start discussions. Arguments. Preferably a bar fight or two.”
– J. Michael Straczinski

Required Texts:

Voyages in World History, Vol.II, Valerie Hansen and Kenneth R. Curtis
The Origins of the Modern World, 2nd Ed., Robert Marks
America in the World: United States History in Global Context, Carl Guarneri

Electronic reserves found on Blackboard

Course Overview:

World History I is specifically required under the “Required Skills and Competencies” category of the Shippensburg University general education program. As such, educational objectives reflect not only historical content, but skills important for success at Shippensburg University and after graduation. In addition, it means that to ensure there are enough seats for future students, any student who drops this course may not be able to enroll in it again during a spring or fall semester at this institution.

In this course we will frequently revisit the following themes:

1.) Identity construction – People have many different identities, which can include national, religious, and ethnic. An understanding of how these are formed is among the most important elements of core curricula around the United States, and is crucial to understanding many developments in history over the past few centuries, which have seen the rise of countries and political movements and the outbreak of wars based on such identities.
2.) Economics – Making a living is among the most basic human activities, and during the last 500 years, the world has come to be dominated by monetized market economies shaped by economic principles. In addition to covering basic concepts such as credit and commodity markets, we will introduce major economic philosophies such as mercantilism, laissez-faire capitalism, and socialism in their historical context.
3.) Technology – Technology impacts societies in many ways, from new forms of communication actualizing new communities to affecting how goods and services are produced and delivered and hence how people go about making a living. Examples of technological change will occur from time to time in this course, including the critical developments associated with the Industrial Revolution.
4.) The United States – The United States is often considered alone, but it is part of the larger world. This course will explore the American experience and the idea of American exceptionalism by relating American history to broader global trends and developments.

With these themes as our focus, assignments will ensure you develop a foundational understanding of world history since 1500, an ability to write clearly and think critically about world history since 1500, an ability to analyze historical events and trends effectively, and the cognitive tools of inquiry-based research. There will be three exams during the course of the semester, which will not all have the same format. The final exam will emphasize the last section of the course, but still have a cumulative component. On March 19, you will also hand in an “Identity Construction Essay.” You will receive an assignment guide for this essay in mid-February. Deadlines and exam dates are noted on the “Schedule of Readings and Major Assignments” below. Attendance and participation are mandatory. Students are allowed to miss three classes. After that, your total participation grade will be lowered by 5% for each additional absence. Late papers will be accepted only if we do not discuss the assignment in class in a substantial way, and then with a penalty usually amounting to one full letter grade. Late take-home exams are acceptable only under extraordinary circumstances. Any student who has a reason for missing an exam must make inform the professor as soon as possible.

Students should complete all readings for the course on the date listed. You will not be allowed to make up reading quizzes. Pages include primary sources found in the “Visual Evidence” and “Movement of Ideas” sections. The insets on “World History in Today’s World” are handled separately and are indicated by the abbreviation “WHTW.”

Grading:

Quizzes and Reading Thoughts: 15%
Identity Construction Essay: 15%
First Exam: 15%
Second Exam: 20%
Final Exam: 25%
Participation: 10%

Schedule of Readings and Major Assignments

January 18 – Course Introduction
Part I – The Early Modern World
January 20 – Marks, pp. 1-16; Guarneri, pp. 1-12; Hansen and Curtis, p. 767 WHTW, p. 966 WHTW (historiography)

January 23 – Marks, pp. 21-39; Guarneri, pp. 12-22 (agrarian societies)
January 25 – Marks, pp. 67-74; Hansen and Curtis, pp. 541-5; Guarneri, pp. 24-35 (polities of 1500)
January 27 – Marks, pp. 43-66; Hansen and Curtis, pp. 431-36, 559 WHTW (European expansion)

January 30 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 450-60; Michael Pearson, “Europeans in an Indian Ocean World,” The Indian Ocean, (London: Routledge, 2003), pp. 113-30 (Europeans in the Indian Ocean)
February 1 – Marks, pp. 74-79; Hansen and Curtis, pp. 418-20, 436-47; Guarneri, pp. 56-67 (Conquest of Americas)
February 3 - Marks, pp. 79-82; Hansen and Curtis, pp. 463-8, 472-6, 568-79, 590-5, 577 WHTW (Far East)

February 6 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 460-3, 462 WHTW, 471-2; John F. Richards, The Mughal Empire, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 190-8. (Mughal Empire)
February 8 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 480-90, 503-7 (Ottoman and Safavid Empires)
February 10 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 468-71, 490-5; Tridentine Creed; Martin Luther, “The Three Walls of the Romanists”; Westminster Confession, “Of Good Works,” “Of the Lord’s Supper” (Reformation)

February 13 - Marks, pp. 84-89; Hansen and Curtis, pp. 498-503 (Rise of European states)
February 15 – Benedict Anderson, “The Origins of National Consciousness,” Imagined Communities, New Edition, (London: Verso, 2006), pp. 36-46 (nationalism)
February 17 – Exam – The Early Modern World

Part II – Transformations and Connections

February 20 – Marks, pp. 82-4; Hansen and Curtis, pp. 538-40, 545-56, 564-5; Guarneri, pp. 42-50, 69-79 (Slavery and plantation economy)
February 22 - Hansen and Curtis, pp. 510-534, 426 WHTW; Guarneri, pp. 79-87 (American societies)
February 24 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 598-608; James E. McClellan III and Harold Dorn, Science and Technology in World History, 2nd Ed., (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), pp. 227-33, 249-56 (Scientific Revolution)

February 27 – Marks, pp. 90-101; Hansen and Curtis, pp. 579-90, 608-25 (18th Century India)
February 29 - Hansen and Curtis, pp. 561-3, 628-36; Guarneri, pp. 95-103; U.S. Declaration of Independence; Edmund Burke’s “Address to the British Colonists in North America (American Revolution)
March 2 - Hansen and Curtis, pp. 637-44, 655-7; Guarneri, pp. 103-7; Declaration of the Rights of Man; Maximilian Robespierre, “On the Festival of the Supreme Being” (French Revolution)

March 5 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 644-57, 656 WHTW; Guarneri, pp. 108-12 (Latin American independence)
March 7 - Mark Pendergrast, “The Coffee Kingdoms,” Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World, (New York: Basic Books, 1999), pp. 21-41 (Plantation economies and societies)
March 9 – Guarneri, pp. 115-36; Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 20-36 (Early U.S.)

SPRING BREAK

March 19 – Marks, pp. 101-12, 131-5; Hansen and Curtis, 660-67 (identity construction essay due) (Industrial Revolution)
March 21 - Marks, pp. 135-42; Hansen and Curtis, pp. 668-87 (effects of Industrial Revolution)
March 23 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 720-39; Guarneri, pp. 136-48, 166-75 (American nation-building)

March 26 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 740-9; Guarneri, pp. 148-63 (Slavery and emancipation)
March 28 - Marks, pp. 112-8, 123-30; Hansen and Curtis, pp. 690-701, 709-714 (Late Qing China, British Raj)
March 30 – Marks, pp. 142-51; Hansen and Curtis, pp. 752-69, 773-7 (Scramble for Africa)

April 2 – Guarneri, pp. 209-31; Thomas Bender, “Being the Whale,” A Nation among Nations: America’s Place in World History, (New York: Hill and Wang, 2006), pp. 192-206 (American Empire)
April 4 – Exam ID Section – Transformations and Connections
April 6 - Exam Essay Portion – Transformations and Connections

Part III – The World in Which We Live

April 9 - Hansen and Curtis, pp. 782-802; Guarneri, pp. 231-5 (World War I)
April 11 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 802-09; Vladimir Lenin, “What is to be Done?”; Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited Peoples” (communism)
April 13 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 702-9, 714-7, 826-34, 707 WHTW (new nationalisms)

April 16 – Guarneri, pp. 175-99 (Early 20th century American society)
April 18 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 812-28, 834-40; Guarneri, pp. 199-207 (Great Depression)
April 20 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 844-66; 860 WHTW; Guarneri, pp. 235-42; Holocaust testimonies (World War II, Holocaust)

April 23 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 866-70, 874-87, 882 WHTW, 911-8; Guarneri, pp. 247-62 (Cold War)
April 25 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 887-905; Guarneri, pp. 262-74; Vietnamese Declaration of Independence (decolonization)
April 27 – Hansen and Curtis, pp. 930-8; Guarneri, pp. 274-96 (globalization today)

Final Exam: Monday, April 30, 8 a.m.

Assad and the Circassians

Sufian Zhemukhov reports that Circassion voices in Syria are increasingly opposing the regime:

"President Bashar al-Assad is increasingly losing the support of the Circassian community many of whose members serve in his army and police. Such is the case of Yaser Ali Abaza, a Syrian Circassian lieutenant who, in a video posted to the Internet on December 29, openly established that he had defected from the Syrian Interior Ministry political units and joined the rebellion battalion under the command of General Khalid Ibn al Waleed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwU85ahlyxk)...

"In the middle of December, 115 Syrian Circassians signed an open letter to Russia asking for 'help and rescue,' stating that 'there is no hope for stabilization and peace in Syria.' Two days later, another 57 people joined them (www.echo.msk.ru/blog/cknot/844270-echo). The letter stated: 'The Syrian Circassians are in a desperate position. Every day, we are risking our lives' (www.aheku.org/page-id-2771.html). The Syrian Circassians dared to make the open statement after Russia’s criticism of Damascus in a draft United Nations resolution on December 15 prompted hundreds of thousands of Syrians to take the streets the next day against President Bashar al-Assad (www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/16/)."

Russia expelled Circassian Muslims in a series of ethnic cleansing campaigns in the 19th century, and the Ottoman government settled the refugees in uncultivated areas of Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. The Circassian population in Syria and Jordan today are their descendants.