History, Anthropology, Religions

LEONARDO CAPEZZONE
LEONARDO CAPEZZONE

The course aims to provide knowledge and understanding of the methodological, critical and applicable aspects of the Discipline; it proposes geographical areas and sectorial perspectives in which related projects are activated; it shows the variability of fields of interest; it enables the student to master the specific topics in order to use them and apply them in other fields of study while using the correct specific language. With the acquired knowledge the student will be able to develop autonomous ability of connections with other disciplines in the various historical epochs and cultural contexts.

The course provides students with the basic tools for understanding the phenomenon of Islam as a complex historical process, both in its religious and historical, political, and intellectual dimensions.
Students will develop the ability to contextualize the founding processes and subsequent developments of Islamic societies, both viewed in terms of continuities and fractures in relation to the global and regional historical contexts that shaped them and with which they were confronted.
To this end, it is of primary importance to guide students, even before addressing the major themes that have informed the history of Islamic societies, in deconstructing the centuries-old burden of prejudice that has built a misleading narrative. By the end of the course, students will have developed familiarity with 1) a conception of world history; 2) a continuous practice of relating and connecting with similar historical dynamics characterizing the surrounding worlds. Finally, they will have acquired the ability to apply in an interdisciplinary manner skills and discursive practices derived from other courses of the Degree Course, especially medieval, modern and contemporary history, the history of religions, and cultural anthropology.

No prerequisites are required.

The course aims to introduce a) the historical-critical issues that the study of the origins of Islam entails and the fundamental traits that characterize this religious tradition in its so-called classical form; b) identify the main thematic axes along which the medieval, modern and contemporary history of the Muslim world has unfolded both in consonance with the common roots (religious, economic, structural, cultural) shared with the West, in autonomy and - in the most recent period - in subordination to the Western world. The themes addressed in this course aim to show - starting from its origins, perfectly understandable if inserted in the broader framework of the evolution of the Judeo-Christian monotheistic tradition in Late Antiquity - how the study of the history of Islam must be started, in each of its periods, within a global key to understanding the phenomena that have characterized the historical development of the Mediterranean and Eurasia.
The course is chronologically divided into three parts:
- Formative age (VII-IX century): tools for understanding the birth of the Islamic religion, the Arab conquests in the Near and Middle East and in North Africa, phenomena framed in a broader historical landscape such as Late Antiquity, will be provided; the characteristics of the formation of the first internal divisions, of a political order and subsequently of a religious order, and of the foundation of the first two caliphal dynasties will be outlined, within which there will be room for in-depth studies on the Arab-Islamic society of the first centuries, the formation of Shiism, the legal conditions of coexistence and autonomy of religious minorities (Christianity and Judaism), the enduring multi-ethnic definition of the Muslim empire, women history, the regional variants that have innervated the history of the first centuries of the Muslim world.
- Middle period (10th-14th century): tools for understanding the historical development of Islamic societies during the so-called classical period will be provided, with insights into continuities - trans-regional phenomena - but above all into the fractures that have characterized the political, legal and cultural evolution of Muslim societies, moving from the ideal of the universal empire to the reality of regional empires.
- Modern and Contemporary Ages (15th-20th century): more than ever in the treatment of this period, students will have the opportunity to compare the skills acquired in other courses of the Degree Course and to develop the ability to connect and link with the discursive practices of subjects such as anthropology by facing the issues that mark the history of Islamic countries in this period: the clash with the West, colonialism, nationalism, the development of new ideologies and practices to contrast Western hegemony.

L. Capezzone, Medioevo arabo. Una storia dell'islam medievale (VII-XV secolo), Milano, Mondadori, 2016.
B. Scarcia Amoretti, Il mondo musulmano. Quindici secoli di storia, Roma, Carocci, 1998, da p. 131 in poi.
Laura Guazzone, Storia contemporanea del mondo arabo. I paesi arabi dall'impero ottomano ad oggi, Milano, Mondadori, 2016, cap. I.

Any in-depth study of a topic of personal interest both from the medieval period and from the modern and contemporary period, with readings that accompany the basic program, must be agreed with the teacher.

Further bibliography is given as the course progresses, and is based on the in-depth studies requested directly by students.

Since the course is aimed at acquiring new knowledge, lessons will be held in traditional frontal teaching. Ample room will be devoted to the discussion of the topics covered, to verify the ability of critical thinking and connection between transversal skills.

Attendance is not mandatory. However, it is an important evaluation criterion at the time of the exam. To aspire to the maximum grade, an attendance of at least 70% of the lessons is required. The teacher will record attendance randomly during the course.

The criteria for evaluating the knowledge acquired are in line with the expected learning outcomes. However, it should be added that attendance at the course, although not compulsory, is another criterion for positive evaluation, given the importance attached by the teacher to the active participation of the audience in the discussions that characterise the progress of the course.

Students will prepare a topic of their choice, as broad as possible, to provide the lecturer with elements for assessing their critical sense and historical approach to the phenomenon of Islam, which may be followed by in-depth questions to verify the study of the entire examination programme. Any further reading must be agreed with the teacher.

• Presentation of the course: topics, texts, goals.


• The Late Antique historical and religious context of the Nea East


• Muhammad's preaching in Mecca


• Muhammad's preaching in Medina and the first community of believers. The Constitution of Medina.


• The Arab conquests: non islamic and Arab sources


• THe impact of the Arab comquests


• Ali's caliphate and the first civil war.


• The Omayyad caliphate and the second civil war


• The battle of Kerbela' and the birth of a proto-shiiite religious feeling.


• The Omayyad age


• The abbasid age and the formative period of the Islamic urban culture.


• Orthodoxy and dissent in Islam


• Muslim al-Andalus


• Shiite islam


• The XIth century: a turning point in Magheb and Mashreq


• Literary and scientific production of knowledge in premodern islam


• Crusades: the Arab point of view


• The Mongol invasion, the end of the caliphate, and the new geopolitical order.


• Tge Ottoman empire


• The XXth century: the partition of the Ottoman empire, cooonialism, nationalism, and the Palestinian question:colonial narratives and historiographicval approaches.


• Iran: from the Safavid dynasty (XVth century) to the Islamic revolution in 1979.