Course Description
A survey of religious, intellectual, cultural, and social interactions between Christians and Muslims from late antiquity to the present, exploring forms of encounter, conflict, and cultural exchange — from the transmission of ancient knowledge and scholastic debates to humanist scholarship, imperial encounters, and contemporary interfaith dialogue.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will write a research paper on a topic chosen in consultation with the professor and will be responsible for delivering a presentation on a work of secondary literature in class.
Athena Title
Christian-Muslim Relations
Prerequisite
Third- or fourth-year student standing
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- By the end of this course, students will be able to identify major historical periods and key turning points in the development of Christian-Muslim relations from late antiquity to the present.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to analyze how theological and philosophical exchanges between Christians and Muslims have informed ethical reasoning in both traditions.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to compare and contrast Christian and Muslim perspectives on shared figures, texts, and religious concepts.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to analyze how historical contexts shaped the arguments, rhetoric, and strategies employed in Christian-Muslim polemical and apologetic literature.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to evaluate how cross-cultural and interreligious exchanges of ideas contributed to the development of shared intellectual traditions that shaped the modern world.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to construct clear, evidence-based arguments about Christian-Muslim encounters based on close analysis of material artifacts such as manuscripts, architecture, art, and objects of daily life.
Topical Outline
- 1. Late Antiquity
- 2. Early Christian anti-Islamic Polemics and Apologetics
- 3. Crusades
- 4. Religious Exchange across the Mediterranean
- 5. Al-Andalus
- 6. The Mongol Empire
- 7. After 1453: Europe and the Ottoman Empire
- 8. Oriental Studies in Europe
- 9. Christians and Muslims in Safavid Iran
- 10. Religion at the Mughal Court
- 11. Christians in the Ottoman Empire
- 12. The Harem: Real and Imaginary
- 13. Responses to Colonialism
- 14. Islamic Modernism
- 15. Orientalism
- 16. Religious Minorities and Imperial Decline
- 17. Islamic Anti-Westernism
- 18. Postcolonial Critique
- 19. Islam and European Secularism
- 20. Sharia in Europe
- 21. Islamophobia
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
