Category Archives: Teaching Resources

The Quran in East and West: Manuscripts and Printed Books

Conferences and Talks, Islam and Christianity, Qur'an, Teaching Resources


Burke Arabic MS 1, unsigned and undated (Iraq or Iran, before 1300 CE)

The following is a nicely done website about a Quran exhibition held at the Burke Theological Library of Columbia University in 2005 and curated by the historian Dagmar A. Riedel.

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims commemorate the revelation of the Quran to the prophet Muhammad. In Fall 2005, from October 4 until November 2, Burke Library exhibited some of its Qurans to explore during Ramadan 1426 AH how attitudes toward Islam are reflected in the books that give readers access to its revelation.

Since Burke Library was founded as a Protestant research collection, the study of Islam is not often associated with its holdings. But its small collection of Near Eastern manuscripts includes five Qurans which represent the regional esthetic traditions of Quran illumination between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries CE. Furthermore, Burke Library owns many of the seminal works of Quran scholarship published in early modern Europe, documenting how non-Muslim Europeans translated the Arabic Quran first into Latin and then into European vernaculars. The exhibition traced the process, stretching from the twelfth to the nineteenth century, by which the European approach to the Quran was transformed from an angst-ridden defense against yet another Christian heresy to the investigation of another strain of monotheism.

The 2005 project was made possible by Michael Boddy’s enthusiastic support which in turn ensured the permission of Sara J. Myers, the director of Burke Library, to go ahead with an exhibition that in the middle of the term occupied space in the Burke’s conference and reading rooms. I am also indebted to Jean W. Ashton, the director of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, for lending a Quran from the David E. Smith Collection of Oriental Manuscripts for the exhibition. In the winter of 2011, Burke Library director John B. Weaver generously sponsored the web adaptation of the original brick-and-mortar exhibition.

Exhibit Curator
Dagmar A. Riedel

Emory Ph.D. in Islamic Civilizations Studies

Islam: Introduction, Islamic History, Scholars, Teaching Resources


A folio from the Akhlaq-i Nasiri, a philosophical treatise written by one of Iran’s greatest medieval intellects, Nasir al-Din Tusi.

Emory approves new Ph.D. in Islamic Civilizations Studies

By Elaine Justice, Emory News, May 2, 2012

A new Ph.D. program in Islamic Civilizations Studies (ICIVS) has been approved by Emory University’s Board of Trustees for the university’s Laney Graduate School.

“Faculty have come together from several Emory schools and departments to establish a comprehensive approach to research and scholarship in this vital area, a pattern which is a hallmark of the Laney Graduate School,” says Lisa Tedesco, dean of the Laney Graduate School and vice provost for academic affairs–graduate studies.

The program will offer an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the global impact of Islam, says Vincent Cornell, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Middle East and Islamic Studies and chair of the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies.

“Demand for specialists in the Islamic world and Islamic studies is high and is expected to remain so for the next decade at least,” he says. “The program in Islamic Civilizations Studies will be a place for graduate students who are interested in the interface between the histories, languages, literatures and societies of the Islamic world.”

The new independent and interdisciplinary program is designed to complement and cooperate with Emory’s current Ph.D. programs in the Graduate Division of Religion (GDR), anthropology, comparative literature, Spanish, history, political science, philosophy and the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts. It also is designed to complement and cooperate with current and future programs in Jewish studies. Continue reading Emory Ph.D. in Islamic Civilizations Studies →

Letters from Abbottabad

Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, Teaching Resources


The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point has just issued a report on the letters found at Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. This is: Letters from Abbottabad: Bin Ladin Sidelined?
The authors are Don Rassler, Gabriel Koehler-Derrick, Liam Collins, Muhammad al-Obaidi, and Nelly Lahoud. Here is the description and it can be downloaded here.

This report is a study of 17 de-classified documents captured during the Abbottabad raid and released to the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC). They consist of electronic letters or draft letters, totaling 175 pages in the original Arabic and 197 pages in the English translation. The earliest is dated September 2006 and the latest April 2011. These internal al-Qa`ida communications were authored by several leaders, most prominently Usama bin Ladin. In contrast to his public statements that focused on the injustice of those he believed to be the “enemies” of Muslims, namely corrupt “apostate” Muslim rulers and their Western “overseers,” the focus of Bin Ladin’s private letters is Muslims’ suffering at the hands of his jihadi “brothers”. He is at pain advising them to abort domestic attacks that cause Muslim civilian casualties and focus on the United States, “our desired goal.” Bin Ladin’s frustration with regional jihadi groups and his seeming inability to exercise control over their actions and public statements is the most compelling story to be told on the basis of the 17 de-classified documents. “Letters from Abbottabad” is an initial exploration and contextualization of 17 documents that will be the grist for future academic debate and discussion.

The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World

Conferences and Talks, Miniatures, Photography, Saudi Arabia, Teaching Resources, Tihama, Yemen



Slave Market in Yemen, 1237
Al-Maqamat, folio 105. Author: al-Qāsim ibn Alī al Harīrī al-Basrī. Illuminator: Yahya ben Mahmud al-Wasiti. Bibliothèque nationale de France. 021, an enslaved Ethiopian, Najah, seized power in the city of Zabid. This image represents the slave market at Zabid—at the time the capital of Yemen—in 1237. The illustration is part of “Al-Maqamat” (Assemblies), a genre of rhymed prose narrative. Both the author and the illuminator of this work were born in Iraq.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has posted online a very nice exhibition on the African diaspora in the Indian Ocean World with illustrations and scholarly text. Continue reading The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World →

Study this Spring in Qatar

Anthropology/Sociology, Development, Islam: Introduction, Qatar, Teaching Resources, Travel


Qatar: Religion, Economy, and Sustainability

A course offered in Qatar for the Spring Term 2012 (Travel: March 24 — April 5, 2012)

Led by: Tugrul Keskin, PSU — International and Middle Eastern Studies Middle East Studies Coordinator (INTL)

Over the last twenty years, with the emergence of the global economy, Qatar has become a center of an economic boom in the Persian Gulf. This economic transformation has also shaped the social and political characteristics of Qatar. In the Gulf region, Qatar has one of the fastest growing education systems, increased levels of women’s participation in education and the workplace, and more open media and communications systems. Therefore, Qatar uniquely represents a new trend in the Middle East. In this study abroad course, we will explore and try to understand these changes based on our interactions with Qatari organizations, politicians, citizens, educators and etc.

Study abroad in Qatar offers students the unique opportunity to understand religion, economy and sustainability from the perspective of course materials in addition to discussion with community members and leaders, and visits to historical venues. This will help to contextualize the inter-relationships between contemporary Qatari society, and its historical, economic and geo-political underpinnings. It will enable students to interact with and directly explore issues that are core to the Muslim Societies. Continue reading Study this Spring in Qatar →

The Conference on Islam in America

Anthropology/Sociology, Conferences and Talks, CyberOrient, Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Teaching Resources


The Conference on Islam in America is a collaboration of diverse Muslim individuals and groups whose mission is to clarify and to further define the modalities for Muslim life in the pluralistic society of America.

The Conference on Islam in America will:

• facilitate dialogue, debate and consensus-building among the diverse theological, ethnic, class-based and political elements of the Muslim community here in the United States on the complex array of social, political, cultural and moral issues that confronts us as Americans;
• facilitate informed civic participation of by American Muslims through conversations with American policy-makers, educators, civic leaders and shapers of public opinion;
• promote the application investment of Muslim resources and talents, through the utilization execution of demonstration-projects and best practices in directed attempts to address on selected American societal issues.

The mechanism for reaching achieving these objectives is an annual conference, webinars and accessible community initiatives.

We hope that you will join us to participate in this exciting and stimulating dialogue on the future of Muslim voices and lend a hand in contributing to this powerful and beneficial event. To register for the conference, please click here to be directed to the registration page or contact Trent Carl at tcoiamerica@gmail.com for more information. We look forward to seeing you in September.

NYPD Blues…

Anthropology/Sociology, Film and Video, Islam in America, Teaching Resources


The NYPD: Islamophobia in Blue

by Deepa Kumar, Empire Bytes, February 6, 2012

NEW YORK City police officers were shown a movie called The Third Jihad which warns that ordinary Muslims are part of an age-old conspiracy to dominate the world. The police chief and his spokesperson participated in this “counter-terrorism training,” and then lied about their involvement. And Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who touts himself as a champion of religious tolerance, doesn’t plan to do anything about it.

This latest series of events that unfolded in late January only sheds more light on the depth of anti-Muslim racism in New York City. Home to about 800,000 Muslims, as well as the world’s largest police department, the Big Apple has become the crucible of entrenched Islamophobic policies enacted by the state since September 11.

“This is not stereotyping,” Talat Hamdani said at a January 26 press conference at City Hall.

Talat’s son Salman died on 9/11 as a first responder, but his sacrifice has never been officially recognized because police initially viewed him as a suspect in the attacks. “This is legal persecution of American Muslims,” Talat said. “This is our city, our state, our country.”

Almost a year ago, in January 2011, Tom Robbins of the Village Voice broke the story about the NYPD showing this racist film to its officers. At the time, police spokesman Paul Browne claimed the movie was only screened a few times, and that the clips of Ray Kelly in it were from old footageand not the police commissioner’s direct participation with right-wing filmmakers.

But when police were forced to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request from the Brennan Center for Justice, it came to light that the movie was a regular part of training for months, that more than 1,500 officers had viewed the film, and that Kelly had given a 90-minute interview for the pseudo-documentary.

After a year of denials and evasions, the truth was out, and it received some attention in the mainstream media. Yet this is only the tip of the iceberg. Continue reading NYPD Blues… →