INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ISLAMIC SOCIETIES

The course contributes to the attainment of the teaching goals of the "Vicino e Medio Oriente " curriculum of the Corso di Laurea in "Lingue, Culture e Società dell'Asia e dell'Africa Mediterranea" in the area of historico-sociological and cultural skills.
The main goals of the course are: to provide a general overview of the history of some Islamic institutions that define Muslim societies.

At the end of this course the students, having acquired familiarity with the vocabulary of the sociological field in relation to the topic of the course, will be able to orientate themselves at a general level in scholarly theoretical literature and to contextualize the fundamental social and political institutions that characterize Islamic societies.

No specific qualifications are required.

The course will begin with a general introduction to the concept of "istitution" and to the sociological debate on the matter. The subsequent analisys will focus on the historical changes happened in said institutions and on their traceable differences among Muslim societies.
The program will address the following points:
al-imama
al-imara
al-wizara
al-saltana
al-ta'rikh
al-madrasa
al-'alim.

S. Miller, Social Institutions, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2011 (available on-line at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-institutions/ ).

A. Cavalli- M. Douglas, Istituzioni, Enciclopedia delle scienze sociali, Treccani, 1996.

G. Vercellin, Istituzioni del mondo musulmano. Milano: Einaudi, 2002.


Further readings (not mandatory):

M. Tillier, The Mazalim in Historiography, The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law, edited by Anver M. Emon and Rumee Ahmed.

P. Bourdieu, La parola e il potere (1982), tr. it., Napoli: Guida Editori, 1988.

M. Foucault, Microfisica del potere. Milano: Einaudi, 1977.

Other articles and texts will be provided during the course.

The exham will consist in an oral test focused on the indicated texts.

Frontal lectures.

Italian

Students not attending the lectures should contact the teacher via e-mail.

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development