REL 332
Scholars, Philosophers, and Mystics: Knowledge and Its Transmission in the Islamic Tradition Spring 2014
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

This course will explore the significance of knowledge, its sources, its production and its transmission in the Islamic tradition. We will begin with an in-depth examination of the primary epistemologies, or modes of knowing, classically elaborated in the Islamic tradition, which were principally categorized into three: transmitted (or scholarly), intellectual (or philosophical), and spiritual (or mystical). These were the roots of all the distinct disciplines that Muslims developed, each with its own methodology, such as QurĂ¢’anic interpretation, Hadith studies, jurisprudence, dialectical theology, philosophy, and practical and theoretical Sufism (Islamic mysticism). We will closely examine how knowledge was defined, derived, and produced in these disciplines and the myriad ways that Muslim scholars, philosophers, theologians, and mystics sought to understand God, the world, humanity, and religion, through their lens. We will conclude with seeing how knowledge and its production have been transformed in the modern period, from the emergence of Muslim modernism to various puritanical reformisms to the “democratization” and globalization of knowledge through modern means of communication, to various paths of Muslim resistance to hegemony in the postcolonial world.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 15
Expected: 12
Class#: 3970
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: active engagement, several short writing assignments, three small projects, final paper
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: Religion majors
Distributions: Division II
Attributes: ARAB Arabic Studies Electives
REL Contemporary Critical Inquiry Courses

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