2010-11 academic year

Modern and Contemporary History of Islamic Countries (20088)
Degree/study:Degree in Humanities

Year: 3rd
Term:1st (this year it corresponds to the subjects of "Islam History" and "Islam History B" for students of the 4^th year of the "llicenciatura").
Number of ECTS credits: 5 credits
Hours of studi dedication: -
Teaching language or languages: catalan
Teaching Staff: Jaume Torras Elias

1. Presentation of the subject

Study and interpretation of the fundamental episodes, as well as the assumptions and consequences of "Islamic world" history from 1500 to 2000. The program focuses on the diversity of cultural and political forms that they have developed, despite keeping the same juridical and religious community.

2. Competences to be attained

General competences

Specific competences

•- Being able to deal with information from diverse sources, which might be contradictory, and to synthesise it.

•- Being able to explain very general processes, which have diverse manifestations in different moments and territories.

•- Being able to interpret the "fundamental episodes" indicated in the presentation taking into account cultural parameters which differ from the ones that we are used to.

•- Being able to identify and interpret the diversity that lies behind the apparent uniformity that terms such as "Islam" or "Islamic" impose to differentiated realities in connection with origins and history.

3. Contents

Introduction
- What do we mean when we use the term "Islamic countries"?
- The Islam of the Ulemas and the "lived" Islam
- Political Islam
The era of "gunpowder empires"
- Three Islamic empires: Mongol, Safavi, Ottoman
- Governing in diversity: infidels in the Islamic state
- El "oriental despotism": discourses and images
The era of dependency
- The collapse: what went wrong?
- Variety of colonial experiences
The experience of the subordination; reflection and reactions
The independences
- Case studies
- Islamisms