Winter 2009

History - 302.001

Topics in History: Islam and Armenians

Instructor: Libaridian, Gerard	Hours: 3
Level: Undergraduate	Language: None

Armenia came into contact with Islam within two decades after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. A Christian nation since the 4th century, Armenians in historic Armenia have since then lived with peoples of Islamic faith as neighbors, subjects, and co-citizens. In the 16th century Armenia was divided between the Ottoman Turkish/Sunni and Safawid Persian/Shi'i empires. Three of the four neighbors of contemporary Armenia, independent since 1991 - Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey - are Muslim nations. Furthermore, important Armenian Diasporan communities have lived among predominantly Muslim peoples throughout the wider Near East and Asia, communities whose significance in numbers and impact increased following the First World War. These continuing and deepening relations over time and space with major Muslim peoples--such as the Arab, Persian and Turkic--provide a unique window to understand both Islam and Armenia through their contacts. The course will study 1.)the enduring and deepening religious, economic, political and cultural relations between Armenia and Armenians, on the one hand, and Islamic peoples and civilization on the other; 2.)the different institutional contexts within which these relations have flourished; 3.)the impact each has had on the other; and 4.)variations in the response each has had to the challenges of modernization and Western influence.

Meets With:

• Arabic, Armenian, Persian, Turkish, & Islamic Studies 291.002
• Political Science 389.009