TRADITIONS, CULTURAL HERITAGE AND RELIGION IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD

The course in "Tradition, Cultural Heritage and Religion in the Islamic World" is part of the training activities of the Degree Course in "Religious Sciences" (SDR).
The teaching contributes to the fulfillment of the educational objectives of the CdS in the area of cultural and humanistic skills.

The aim of the course is to provide students with a general survey of the main cultural and religious dynamics characterizing the origins and expansion of Islam, and its diversified religious and political trends and movements that shaped the history of the Islamic civilization.

The course is primarily intended for students of the Degree Course in "Religious Sciences", and also for students keen to understand the complex political and religious history of the Near and Middle East.

Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:

1. Knowledge and Understanding
● Know the history of the rise of Islam in the areas of its initial historical diffusion throughout the world in Late Antiquity;
● Know the specialized vocabulary related to the historical-religious analysis of the main political-religious currents in Islamic history;
● Appropriately contextualize in historical-religious terms certain political manifestations of popular Islamic religiosity, such as the revolts of the Abbasid era.

2. Ability to Apply Knowledge and Understanding
● (Knowledge of the history of the rise of Islam in the areas of its initial diffusion.) Be able to correctly place in diachronic terms the main events that characterized the spread of Islam in Late Antiquity;
● (Knowledge of the specialized vocabulary related to the historical-religious analysis of the main political-religious currents in Islamic history.) Ability to
adequately communicate, lexically, hypotheses and/or analyses relating to specific religious contexts and their historical evolution;
● (Adequately framing of certain political manifestations of Islamic popular religiosity in historical-religious terms.) Ability to correctly place significant social and political phenomena connected to the application of Islamic popular religiosity in historical and religious terms.

3. Judgment Skills
● Ability to formulate and argue simple hypotheses, also developing a critical approach to evaluating alternative hypotheses.

4. Communication Skills
● Ability to communicate the specifics of historical-religious analysis, using appropriate terminology;

5. Learning Skills
● Ability to critically consult reference texts and the bibliography contained therein.

No specific prerequisites are required beyond working skills with Italian, English and French study materials.

Sources and methodology for the study of the origins of Islam in Late Antiquity Near and Middle East.
“Orthodoxy” and religious dissent (8th-11th centuries).
Forms of Iranian religiosity in Islamic popular devotion: Nayrūz/Nowruz and Mihrijān/Mehrgān festivals.
Sadhaq/Sada festival and the winter festival cycle in the Sirian-Anatolian region: Mār Jirjīs (St. George) and Khiḍr-Ilyās.

S. CRISTOFORETTI, San Giorgio in Levante. Il culto del santo cavaliere nella regione di Antiochia.
La città del Sole (in the library: EURASI - OR CRI 45)

Additional ibliography will be given in class. The student will have to choose some of these and agree with the teacher on the list of materials he will use to prepare for the final exam.

Propedeutical reading:
J. WIESEHOEFER, Ancient Persia, I.B. Tauris

The oral exam will be a 25-30 min. discussion with 5-6 questions on the subject of the course and on the texts chosen by the student among the suggested bibliography available in the moodle webpage of the course.

oral

During the exam, will be assessed:
1) the student's presentation skills and knowledge of the texts chosen (10 points)
2) the ability to correlate the topics studied through the chosen texts with previous knowledge and/or with other similar topics (10 points)
3) and knowledge of the methodologies adopted by the authors of the chosen texts (10 points).

Regarding the grading scale, scores will be assigned according to the following criteria:
A. Scores in the 18-22 range will be awarded in the presence of a sufficient knowledge of the topics covered in the syllabus and ability to correlate them with broader knowledge acquired through reading additional materials agreed with the teacher;
B. Scores in the 23-26 range will be awarded in the presence of a fair knowledge of the topics covered in the syllabus and ability to correlate them with broader knowledge acquired through reading additional materials agreed with the teacher;
C. Scores in the 27-30 range will be awarded in the presence of a good or excellent knowledge of the topics covered in the syllabus and ability to correlate them with broader knowledge acquired through reading additional materials agreed with the teacher;
D. Honors will be awarded in the presence of an outstanding knowledge of the topics covered in the syllabus and ability to correlate them with broader knowledge acquired through reading additional materials agreed with the teacher.

The course is comprised of fifteen classroom-taught lectures.