Empire and Memory: Approaches to Islamic Historiography (ca. 800-1250)

3 units

The subject of this course is an in-depth study of medieval Arabic historiography from the 8th through the 13th centuries, when the Mongols run over the remnants of the Abbasid caliphate, established their own rule over Eurasia, and thereby sparked new questions about the past. After the initial survey of medieval Islamic history as background, we will focus on the development of historiographical writing in its socio-political context and examine one by one the most major historiographical traditions and philosophies from the 8th through the 13th centuries: prophetic traditions, belles-lettres, annals, biographical dictionaries, and genealogical literature.