HISTORY OF ARAB COUNTRIES
STORIA DEI PAESI ARABI
| A.Y. | Credits |
|---|---|
| 2019/2020 | 8 |
| Lecturer | Office hours for students | |
|---|---|---|
| Anna Maria Medici | Professor can be reached at the end of the lesson; you may request an appointment via email. |
| Teaching in foreign languages |
|---|
|
Course with optional materials in a foreign language
French
This course is entirely taught in Italian. Study materials can be provided in the foreign language and the final exam can be taken in the foreign language. |
Assigned to the Degree Course
| Date | Time | Classroom / Location |
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| Date | Time | Classroom / Location |
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Learning Objectives
After reading and studying for this course, students should be able to:
Discuss who the Arabs were, identify the major events of Arab history, and articulate the internal and external forces that led up to and shaped these events.
The factors that drove the spread of Islam.
How the Muslims governed their vast conquered territories.
Have knowledge of complexity (ethnic, cultural, religious) within the Arab societies, as well as the dynamics of formation of the contemporary Arab States.
Explain the current cultural and political challenges facing Arab peoples.
Program
In the first part of the course the Classical Age of Arab History will be presented (some theoretical concept about power, religion, social institutution will be presented too). In the second part of the course Contemporary History of the Arab States will be analyzed. Students will be invited to apply the theoretical concepts to some concrete cases.
Part 1. Classical Age. Early Arab civilization. Arabs before and after Islam. The Caliphate and the Quran. From Tribe to Dynasty. From "Conquest State" to Islamic legitimization of power. Cities and deserts. From Damascus to Baghdad to Cordoba. Dynasties and regions in the Abbaside Era. The fall of the Caliphate.
Part 2. Contemporary History. The Arabs in and outside the Ottoman Empire. Territorialization of the State and sedentarization. The studies about the role of "weak" areas in the Arab world. MENA History 1744-1881. MENA History 1881-1918. History of Arab Nationalism in the first half of XX c. Arab independences before and after the IIWW North Africa 1945-1978. Middle East 1945-1978. MENA since 1970's.
Learning Achievements (Dublin Descriptors)
Knowledge and understanding: at the end of the course, students should demonstrate to have acquired knowledge about: Critically analyze the main historical political events in the Arab History; Critically analyze the main political and social institutions in the Arab History;
Applying knowledge and understanding: students should be able to apply theoretical concepts on some concrete cases proposed by the Professor. Methodically explain the main themes and issues that shaped the modern Arab Countries and are contemporarily at play;
Capacity of judgment: students should be able to properly discuss and compare the history of different Arab countries anche analyze the consequences of the competing and convergent interests of the different regional areas.
Teaching Material
The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it
Supporting Activities
Teaching material can be found, together with other supporting activities, inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it (http://blended.uniurb.it)
Teaching, Attendance, Course Books and Assessment
- Teaching
Lessons, seminars, discussions.
- Attendance
Students are required to know the details of the course program and have in-depth study of examination texts (contact the Tutor for any need to study the program).
- Course books
Student are requester to study:
1) Philip K.Hitti, Storia degli Arabi: dall'antichità al Novecento, Odoya, Bologna 2015 (some parts of the volume are assigned only in reading; the sections will be communicated during the course).
2) A.M. Medici, A. Pallotti, M. Zamponi, L'Africa contemporanea, Mondadori-Le Monnier, Milano, 2017 (chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 31 e 32 ). Some additional papers will be distributed during lesson time.
- Assessment
Assessment of learning is done in writing (20%) and oral (80%).
A short written multiple-choice test (20%) precedes the oral discussion and verifies the basic skills acquired. The test focuses on the main topics of the course and is evaluated with quantitative judgment (number of exact answers on the total of multiple-choice questions).
The oral examination (80%) allows to verify:
- the knowledge gained in the framework of the study program,
- the acquisition of the appropriate vocabulary and the basic skills needed to discuss the themes of Arab history. It also allows to evaluate the student's synthesis capacity , aptitude to analysis and comparison, communicative and expressive skills,
- the participation in the discussions during the lessons and the in-depth seminars envisaged during the course.
The examination is judged by a thirty-plus vote.
- Disabilità e DSA
Le studentesse e gli studenti che hanno registrato la certificazione di disabilità o la certificazione di DSA presso l'Ufficio Inclusione e diritto allo studio, possono chiedere di utilizzare le mappe concettuali (per parole chiave) durante la prova di esame.
A tal fine, è necessario inviare le mappe, due settimane prima dell’appello di esame, alla o al docente del corso, che ne verificherà la coerenza con le indicazioni delle linee guida di ateneo e potrà chiederne la modifica.
Additional Information for Non-Attending Students
- Attendance
Students are required to know the details of the course program and have in-depth study of examination texts (contact the Tutor for any need to study the program).
- Course books
Student are requester to study:
1) Claudio Lo Jacono, Il Vicino Oriente. Da Muhammad alla fine del Sultanato mamelucco, Einaudi, Torino 2003.
2) A.M. Medici, A. Pallotti, M. Zamponi, L'Africa contemporanea, Mondadori-Le Monnier, Milano, 2017 (only chapters on North Africa: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 31 e 32 ).
3) Marcella Emiliani, Medio Oriente. Una storia dal 1918 al 1991, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2012 (only chapters n. 2, 3, 4).
- Assessment
Assessment of learning is done in writing (25%) and oral (75%).
A short written multiple-choice test precedes the oral discussion and verifies the basic skills acquired. The test focuses on the main topics of the course and is evaluated with quantitative judgment (number of exact answers on the total of multiple-choice questions).
The oral examination allows to verify:
- the knowledge gained in the framework of the study program,
- the acquisition of the appropriate vocabulary and the basic skills needed to discuss the themes of Arab history. It also allows to evaluate the student's synthesis capacity , aptitude to analysis and comparison, communicative and expressive skills.
The examination is judged by a thirty-plus vote.
- Disabilità e DSA
Le studentesse e gli studenti che hanno registrato la certificazione di disabilità o la certificazione di DSA presso l'Ufficio Inclusione e diritto allo studio, possono chiedere di utilizzare le mappe concettuali (per parole chiave) durante la prova di esame.
A tal fine, è necessario inviare le mappe, due settimane prima dell’appello di esame, alla o al docente del corso, che ne verificherà la coerenza con le indicazioni delle linee guida di ateneo e potrà chiederne la modifica.
Notes
N. B. - Course with optional material in a foreign language: The student can request to sit the final exam in French with an alternative bibliography. / On peut soutenir l'examen final in Langue française, en utilisant une bibliographie alternatives.
Alternative programs for "free choice" exams can be agreed upon with the teacher.
A note on Wikipedia: We realize that many of you use this tool. On many topics the authors are generally reliable, of course. But to deal with Islamic history is not a reliable tool: it is full of mistakes. In recent years, many of the students who have had difficulty with their exams have acknowledged that they have used Wikipedia for major definitions and synthesis. Plagiarism cases from those pages were often - very easily - detected. So a useful note: It's very easy to spot when students rely on Wikipedia for an exam or a paper. Avoid this tool. Learning to know reliable tools to deepen the subject's topics is part of the academic skills to be acquired. The professor is at your disposal to encourage this acquisition and to provide clarification, even during the weekly office hours for students.
To facilitate the study of the history of Arab countries, the students may use some tools (atlas, historic atlas, available in libraries or on the web):
- Anne-Laure Dupont, Atlas de l'Islam dans le monde. Lieux, pratiques et idéologies, Autrement, Paris 2005 (63 p.)
- Jean Sellier, Atlante dei popoli dell'Africa, Il ponte, Bologna 2009.
- Gerald H. Blake, John Dewdney, Jonathan Mitchell, The Cambridge Atlas of the Middle East & and North Africa,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1987.
- Andreas Birken, Atlas of Islam, 1800-2000, Brill, Leiden-Boston 2010.
- Malise Ruthven e Azim Manji, Historical Atlas of Islam, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA) 2004.
http://www.mideasti.org/ http://afriquepluriel.ruwenzori.net/atlas-total.htm
For students interested in readings or alternative programs for course sections, we recommend some texts to choose from:
Antonino Pellitteri, Introduzione allo studio della storia contemporanea del mondo arabo, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2008.
D. Della Ratta, Al Jazeera. Media e società arabe nel nuovo millennio, B. Mondadori, Milano 2005.
M. Torri (a cura di), Il grande Medio Oriente nell'era dell'egemonia americana, Mondadori, Milano 2006.
B. De Poli, I musulmani del terzo millennio. Laicità e secolarizzazione nel mondo islamico, Carocci Editore, Roma 2007.
G. Calchi Novati, Storia dell'Algeria indipendente, Bompiani, Milano 1998.
M. Al-Rasheed, Storia dell'Arabia saudita, Bompiani, Milano 2004.
R. Di Peri, Il Libano contemporaneo. Storia, politica, società, Carocci, Roma 2009.
R. Redaelli, L'Iran contemporaneo, Carocci, Roma 2009.
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