HUM 102 -- Humanities II

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul [link]

Expanded course description

Humanities integrates a number of academic disciplines -history, literature, philosophy, religion, art, and architecture- in the study of the world's cultures. The middle term of the course treats the "Middle Ages," a period when religion played an especially important role almost everywhere. In Europe the period is often thought of as the "Christian Middle Ages," but from Spain all the way to India it was also a golden age of Islam. A prominent feature of the period is the tension among the three "Abrahamic" religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam - think of the Crusades. These tensions are obviously still with us. Our news is dominated by the wars among these three religious groups - in Israel, in the whole of the Middle East, and around the world. This course examines the deep history of these relations. If the assignments in this course sometimes seem esoteric or "academic," as assignments often do, remember that they're in fact urgently relevant to our historical moment. Everyone should know Ibn Ishaq's Life of the Prophet, for example, even if 8th century Arabia seems distant.

Group: A&L

Offered 200602.

Syllabus

Although syllabi can change from term to term, a syllabus may provide further information about typical instances of this course.