REL 232
The Texting of the Divine: Language and Imagination in Islamic Thought Spring 2013
Division II Writing Skills
Cross-listed ARAB 232
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

This course will be an introduction to Islamic intellectual history with a focus on the themes of God’s speech, the relation of reason and revelation, and the vision of a good and just society. The course will begin with a survey of the legacy of Neoplatonic thought in the early Islamic period and the interreligious polemic of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, philosophers and Muslims. Out of this arose two separated movements in Islam: theology (kalam) and philosophy. In the first portion of the course we will trace the rise of the Mu’tazila movement, their views on ‘divine speech’ and the Asharite and Maturidi response. We will then turn to the key figures of the classical Islamic tradition, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Ibn ‘ufayl. In the final portion we will examine the rise of Islamic mystical thought (Sufism) and the complicated interrelations of that rich movement with theology and philosophy in the figures of al-Ghazali, Suhrawardi, Ibn ‘Arabi, Mulla Sadra and finally Muhammad Iqbal, “the father of Pakistan.”
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 10
Class#: 3682
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: three 6- to 8-page papers
Prerequisites: none
Distributions: Division II Writing Skills
Notes: meets Division 2 requirement if registration is under ARAB
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
ARAB 232 Division II REL 232 Division II
Attributes: ARAB Arabic Studies Electives

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