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Islamic Studies Major Program Description

The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (NELC) coordinates an interdisciplinary major in Islamic Studies. The Islamic Studies program allows students to combine relevant courses from a number of fields with work in Islamic languages and literatures. In choosing elective courses, majors are not limited to the area commonly known as the Middle East, but rather are urged to explore dimensions of Islamic civilization across spatial and chronological boundaries. They may, for example, study the Hellenic and Iranian past, which serves as a background to the rise of Islamic civilization, or the Muslim societies that have emerged in Central Asia, South Asia, Africa, and Europe over the 14 centuries of Islamic history.

Course Requirements

Students who major in Islamic studies are required to complete a program of 60 credit hours in courses related to the field, of which at least twenty must be at the 300-level or above. Courses may be drawn from the Departments of NELC, Comparative Studies, History, History of Art, Philosophy, and Political Science, the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (MRS), and the Undergraduate International Studies Program. The program is composed of four components, as follows:

1. Language (10 cr hrs). Students must complete at least ten credit hours of instruction in an Islamic language (Arabic, Persian, or Turkish) beyond 104.

2. History (10 cr hrs). Students must take either History 340 (Islam, Politics, and Society in History) or MRS 214 (Golden Age of Islamic Civilization), and one of the following History courses:

3. Basic Research and Culture (25 cr hrs). Students must take NELC 680 (Basic Bibliographic and Reference Tools in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures); NELC 372 (Literatures and Cultures of the Islamic World); and either Arabic 626 (Introduction to the Arabic Qur’an) or Arabic 671 (The Qur’an in Translation). Students must select at least one of the following 200-level courses:

In addition, students must select at least one of the following 300-level courses:

4. Electives (15 cr hrs). Majors must complete at least fifteen credit hours in elective courses related to some special aspect of Islamic cultures and institutions, to be selected in consultation with the faculty adviser. A representative list of such courses follows:

NELC Courses

Representative Courses in Allied Fields