Islamic Central Asia

3 points · University catalogue

Explores the cultural landscapes of Islamic Central Asia up to the 18th c. Russian conquests, introducing the wide and changing array of meanings that both Islam and Central Asia could take on in this context. Against the association of Central Asia with a periphery, this course restores the centrality of Central Asia to the spheres of exchange that held together a broader Islamic imaginary, including Persian literatures, Sufism, political thought, and the visual arts. Focuses on the empires of the Ghaznavids (977-1186), Mongols (1206-1370), Timurids (1370-1507), and early Mughals. Readings are English translations of primary sources, and modern scholarship to contextualize and theorize these sources. Central questions include: how these texts reflect and shape community, how they mark and make sense of difference, the ways in which they understand and relate to their past(s), and the values that they hold to be most central. No prerequisites.