Społeczeństwo arabskie

The course will introduce students to the study of Arabic society by exploring a variety of interrelated social, political and religious topics. It will be based on theory and methods from the study of society in general (e.g. sociology, political science, cultural studies and psychology of religion), as well as Islamic studies in particular, while not excluding other approaches, such as anthropology, law and gender studies, where appropriate. The course also will examine the structure of Arab society, culture, family, political structure, women’s role, minorities, media and the impact of religion on these elements in contemporary Arab society. Special attention will be paid to unity and diversity of modern Islam. Separate topics of this course will be illustrated by literary works of outstanding modern Arab writers (Taha Hussein, Tawfiq al-Hakim, Naguib Mahfouz, Ghassan Kanafani and others), which will be studied carefully at the classes of the Arabic language, so this course is closely linked with the course of Arabic. The main goal of the course is to reveal the shared features that have distinguished Arab society under the aegis of Islamic civilization, as well as the varieties of experience that have endowed the region with so much cultural diversity.

CLASSES

PART 1 (the 1st term). Arab society: formation and development (V–XIX centuries)

1. Introduction: Description of the course and review of the syllabus. Distinguishing the key terms: society, state, civilization, nation, Arab society and Muslim society, public and private spheres. Social structure and institutions.

2. Ancient Arab society in V–VI centuries: tribal structure and culture

3. Value system in ancient Arab society; manners and traditions

4. The Arabic language in Arab society: a unifying factor and a tool of culture

5. Islam as the creation of a community and a state

6. Arabization and Islamization in the Middle Ages; riddah in Islam

7. Islam as ideological system: trends and differences

8. Islam, law and political culture: state system, administration and laws

9. Islam and private sphere: family, marriage, inheritance

10. Economic sphere in Islamic state: property, finance and taxes

11. Urban and nomadic Arab society in the Middle Ages

12. Knowledge transfer, documentation, scribes and booksellers

13. Minorities in medieval Arab society

14. The beginning of printing and formation of Arab press

15. Modernization of Arab society in XVIII–XIX centuries; an-nahda and its influence on the society

Suggested reading:

- Arberry, Arthur J., Sufism – An Account of the Mystics of Islam, London, Unwin Hyman Ltd., 1979.

- Arnold, Thomas W. The Preaching of Islam. A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith. With an introduction by Reynold A. Nicholson. — London, 1935.

- Barakat, Halim, The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State, University of California Press-Berkley, 1993

- Beginnings of modernization in the Middle East. The nineteenth century. Ed. by W.R. Polk and R.L. Chambers. — Chicago: Center for Middle East studies, 1968.

- Gibb H. A. R., Bowen H. Islamic Society and the West. A study of the impact of Western civilization on Moslem culture in the Near East. Vol. 1. — London: Oxford univ. press, 1950. Vol. 1. Islamic society in the eighteenth century.

- Goldziher, Ignaz. Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law, Eng. tr. Princeton, 1981

- Grunebaum G. E. von. Medieval Islam. A study in cultural orientation, Univ. of Chicago, 2nd edition, 1953.

- Grunebaum G. E. von. Modern Islam. The search for cultural identity. — Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1962.

- Hourani, Albert Habib. Islam in European Thought, Cambridge, 1991.

- Hourani, Albert Habib. A History of the Arab Peoples, Harvard University Press, 2010.

- Kepel, Gilles, The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West. Cambridge, 2004.

- Lane, Edward W. Arabian society in the Middle Ages, Routledge, 1995.

- Lane, Edward W. Arab society in the Time of the Thousand and One Nights, Courier Dover Publications, 2004.

- Lane, Edward W. Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, Cosimo Inc., 2010.

- Lewis, Bernard. The Muslim Discovery of Europe, London, 1994.

- Lewis, Bernard. The Arabs in History. 5th ed. — New York, 1967.

- Lewis, Bernard. The Middle East and the West. — Bloomington: Indiana univ. press, 1964.

- Mez, Adam, The Renaissance of Islam. Patna: Jubilee Printing & Publishing House, 1937. Arab Societ: Class, Gender, Power, and Development.

- Nicholas S. Hopkins and Saad Eddin Ibrahim. Arab Society: Class, Gender, Power, and Development. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

- Said, Edward. Orientalism, London, 1978.

- Zayani, Mohamed. The Al-Jazeera phenomenon: Critical Perspectives on New Arab Media, Pluto Press, London, 2005.

Further Reading

- Almond, Gabriel and Verba, Sidney. Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations, Sage Publication, London-New Delhy, 1963.

- Ende W., Steinbach U. Der Islam in der Gegenwart. Entwicklung und Ausbereitung, Staat, Politik und Recht, Kultur und Religion. — München, 1991.

- Giddens, Anthony, Sociology, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001.

- Huntington, Samuel. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World order, Simon & Schuster, 1996.

- Toynbee, Arnold J. A Study of History, Thames & Hudson, 1972.

After learning the course the students will know

- different approaches to social studies

- structure and elements of Arab society

- dynamics of institutions of Arab society

- structure and participants of political processes in modern Arab society

- control technologies of political processes in modern Arab society

- the relationship of religion and politics in Arab world

After learning the course the students will be able to

- carry out socio-political researches

- make a forecast for the development of many processes in the Arab world