Giorgio Vercellin, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia

Islam, one of the three monotheistic faiths, is followed today – fourteen centuries after its revelation to mankind – by more than one billion human beings all over the world. Yet Islam is not only the spiritual faith in a Unique God called Allah in Arabic, but it has also become the base of societies formed and shaped by the believers in that faith. The course will introduce the undergraduate students of VIU to the principal issues and problems related to Islam as a religion and as a social ideology from its beginning up to today. To attain this twofold objective, the first part of the course will be dedicated to the theoretical bases of Islam. Then we will briefly examine the historical evolution of the Muslim world. The final, more detailed section will discuss the Islamic societies and their institutions, particularly as they are organized today.

Aim of the course
The course will discuss first of all the origins if Islam, the prophet Muhammad and the Qu’ran. Subsequently it will analyze a number of manifestations of that religion, such as the so-called ‘five Pillars of Islam’, but also local customs such as saint-worship. Then special attention will be given to the law, both in its Islamic elements (shari’a and figh) and in its actual achievements through the qanun of the sovereigns, the traditional customs and the positive law of contemporary States. One lesson will be dedicated to the historical evolution of the Islamic lands. A special set of lessons will also deal with the position of women, both in the normative text and in the actual practices. Attention will be dedicated to contemporary issues, principally to the relations between Muslims and the West.

Evaluation
The final grade will be based on a written midterm exam (30%), a written final exam (40%) and class participation (30%).

Week one
a) What is Islam: faith, religion, law and norms.
b) Muhammad the Prophet. The Qu’ran. The shari’a.
Week two
a) From Islam to the Muslim worlds: the beginning of the Islamic society.
b) From Islam to the Muslim worlds: the formative period.
Week three
a) The historical evolution of the Muslim worlds: a very short survey, part one. b) The historical evolution of the Muslim worlds: a very short survey, part two.
Week four
a) Shari’a, the Law of God, and fiqh: the law(s) of the Muslim worlds: part one.
b) Shari’a, the Law of God, and fiqh: the law(s) of the Muslim worlds: part two.
Week five
a) What is an Islamic institution?
a) The basic religious duties of the faithful: profession of faith, prayer; fasting; pilgrimage and charity.
Week six
a) What is an institution of the Muslim world?
b) Circumcision and saint-worshipping in Islam and in the Muslim world.
Week seven
a) Tolerance and intolerance in the words of God.
b) Tolerance and intolerance as institutions in the evolution of the Muslim worlds: dhimma and jihad.
Week eight
a) Islam and gender.
b) The Muslim worlds and gender issues.
Week nine
a) Institutions regulating the relations between sexes in the Muslim worlds, part one: marriage.
b) Institutions regulating the relations between sexes in the Muslim worlds, part two: concubinage, polygamy, temporary marriage.
Week ten
a) Institutions of power in the Muslim worlds.
b) Islam and modern states.
Week eleven
a) The institutions of the Muslim worlds and the impact of European colonialism.
b) The institutions of the Muslim worlds and globalization.
Week twelve
a) The clash of civilizations: Islam in non Muslim lands.
b) The clash of civilizations: threat from Islam or threat to Islam?

Readings
A course pack will be available.
AHMED, Leyla, Women and Gender in Islam. Historical Roots of a Modern Debate, New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 1992.
ALDEEB Abu-Sahlieh, Sami A., Male and Female Circumcision: Among Jews, Christians & Muslims, Shangri-La Publications, 2001.
COOK Michael, The Koran: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
ENDRESS, Gerhard, An introduction to Islam, Columbia University Press, 1988.
ESPOSITO John L. (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, 4 vols (all the relevant entries indicated during the lessons).
HALLIDAY, Fred, Islam & the myth of confrontation. Religion and Politics in the Middle East, London, 2003.
MALLAT Chibli & Jane CONNORS (eds.), Islamic Family Law, 1991.
RUTHVEN Malise, Islam. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 1997.
SCHACHT, J., An Introduction to Islamic Law, Oxford, 1964.
WATT, W. M., Islamic Creeds. A Selection, Edinburgh University Press, 1994.

Biography
Laurea (Ca’ Foscari). Full Professor in History of the institutions of the Near and Middle East at Ca’ Foscari. Was Professor in Afghan and Iranian Language and Literature and Chairman of the School of Oriental Languages and Literatures at the same University. Carried out extensive research in Iran, Afghanistan and USSR. Lectured at Columbia, SUNY and Georgetown University. Already taught at VIU in Spring 2000 and Spring 2001. He is author of Afghanistan 1973-1978: dalla Repubblica Presidenziale alla Repubblica Democratica, Venezia 1979; Asia occidentale, Istituto Geografico De Agostini, Novara 1983; Iran e Afghanistan, Editori Riuniti, Roma 1986; Istituzioni del mondo musulmano, Einaudi, Torino 1996; Tra veli e turbanti. Uomini e donne nei mondi dell’Islam, Marsilio, Venezia 2000. Publications in English include: A guide to the "Documents of the Nest of Spies", in "The Afghanistan
Forum (New York), Occasional Papers n. 26", August 1986; Transitions in cultures: Gharbzadegi versus Orientalism - and after?, in "Annali di Ca Foscari" (Venezia), 1986, n.XXV, 3, (s.o. 17), pp. 159-167 (also in Transitional Periods in Iranian history, Actes du symposium de Fribourg-en-Brisgau, 1987, pp. 253--254.); The Perception of History In A Buffer State: The Afghanistan Case, in "The East and the Meaning of History, International Conference, (23-28
november 1992)", Roma 1994, pp. 381-395; Hisba: Religious Duty or Practical Job? Some Considerations on an Islamic Institution Between Morals and Markets, in "Annali di Ca’ Foscari", XXXVII, 3 (s.o. 29) , 1998, pp. 67-96.