ARTH 259
Bilad al-Sudan and Beyond: Arts of the Afro-Islamic World
Last Offered Spring 2020
Division I
Cross-listed ARAB 259 / AFR 259
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

From the Swahili stone houses of East Africa to the massive earth and timber mosques of the Sahel, the story of Islam in Africa is one of cultural and spiritual hybridity expressed through material form. In this course, students will explore how artistic forms and traditions in Africa have functioned as vehicles of access and integration for Islam, enabling it to assimilate itself with numerous African contexts towards becoming the dominant religious force on the continent. In addition, students will investigate how the forms, functions, and meanings of Afro-Islamic objects across the continent reflect not just one African Islam, but many different iterations, each shaped by the specific frameworks of its cultural context. The contemporary component of the course will examine how modernity in the form of globalization, technology, and Westernization has affected Afro-Islamic artistic traditions, and how these shifts reflect larger evolutions within understandings of Islam in Africa in the contemporary period.
The Class: Format: lecture
Limit: 25
Expected: 15
Class#: 3256
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: three reading response papers (2 pages each), class journal, a mid-term exam, and a final exam
Prerequisites: none, although an introductory course in art history or Islamic studies would be useful
Enrollment Preferences: students who have declared a major in Art History or Africana Studies
Distributions: Division I
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
ARAB 259 Division I AFR 259 Division II ARTH 259 Division I
Attributes: GBST African Studies

Class Grid

Updated 9:11 am

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