Intro to the Middle East

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The gateway course will provide students with initial preparation and acquaint them with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). More specifically, the course will introduce students to the historical milieu of MENA cultures and societies as well as the various dynamics that continue to shape them. It will survey the history of the region from the end of late antiquity to the present. Themes will include the rise of Islam; Muslim-Christian interactions; the caliphate; the age of gunpowder empires; engagements with modernity; encounters with European expansion; Islamic and secular reform movements; nationalism and revolution.