REL 141 - Islam: An Introduction

This course seeks to provide a broad introduction to Islam. The class is divided into four sections. The first section will focus on early and medieval Islam. In this section, we begin with pre-Islamic Arabia and Muhammad’s life and career. In the second section of the course, we take up topics such as theology, law, worship and ritual, war and peace, and gender. Our concern in this section of the class is the diversity of the Islamic tradition. In the third section, we will also take up different manifestations of Islam, such as Sufism and Shi’ism, and examine their claims to authority. In the fourth section of the class, we shall examine how these issues give rise to different, and often competing, understandings of Islam and what it means to be a Muslim in contemporary society and the impact of modernity on the development of Islam. No prerequisite. Group III (Diversity)