January 22- May 1, 2008
Today estimates suggest that there are over one billion Muslims spread throughout the globe. Despite this large number of adherents, Islam from the Western perspective continues to be one of the most misunderstood religions of the world. One of the earliest popular Western ideas about Islam is one of its first misconceptions--the notion that Islam is a violent religion. This perception arose from Christian awareness of the similiarities, rather than the differences, between Christendom and Islam. Christians recognized in Islam a rival--a world faith, with a sense of mission much like their own, whose adherents also believed that they were the possessors of God's final revelation, with the duty to bring it to all humankind. In time the Muslim came to be seen by westerners as the infidel par excellence, and the Islamic world, a region intent upon the complete destruction of the West and Christendom. The tension between the two world systems came to a head with the Turkish capture of Constantinople in 1453 CE., and the Christian reconquest of southern Italy and the Iberian peninsula in the late 15th century CE. This tension was, and continues to be reflected in the fictional, historical, and geographical works of Western authors, scholars, artists, cartographers, and filmmakers. Beginning in the mid-15th century and ending with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century, this course explores the complex political, economic, and cultural engagement between the West and Islam.
The Newberry Library has a wealth of sources that will provide students with insight into Western perceptions of Islam. For example, extant Papal Bulls issued in the sixteenth and seventeenth century excommunicated any Christian engaged in trade relations with "Saracens, Turks, and other enemies of the Christian name." The Library's world renowned map collection affords a unique perspective on the transformation of Europe's political and economic perspective from one centered around a unified Mediterranean world that included Muslim-controlled lands, to one increasingly fragmented along national lines, and ultimately, along ethnographic and racial lines. A broad variety of prints and maps from the 16th century detail the famous Seige of Malta while the sheer quantity of depictions of the 17th century "Turkish War" serve as early examples of political propaganda.
Some of the most colorful records of western understandings of Islam can be found in historical travel literature, a genre well represented in the Newberry Library collections. For example, Sir Richard Burton's Personal Narrative of Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Mecca offers an account of the mid-19th century British explorer's journey to Islam's holiest sites. The Library also houses copies of travel narratives by women such as the influential Gertrude Bell, who traveled extensively in the Middle East, and the less well known Emmeline Loft, an English governess who wrote admiringly of Harem Life in Egypt and Constantinople (1866) and Mohaddetyn in the Palace: Nights in the Harem (1866). Captivity narratives of westerners held by the "Barbary Pirates" of northern Africa constitute yet another rich source of first hand accounts of western encounters with Islam.
The expansion of European colonial control over Muslim lands in the nineteenth century brought with it increasing opportunities for exposure of Europeans to Islamic art, architecture, and music. We will be looking at western-made images of Muslim culture ranging from Romantic Era paintings of harems and of historic battles between Muslims and Christians to Impressionistic works that incorporated Islamic decorative patterning and calligraphy. Finally, we will explore the image of Islam in western film through well known works like "Lawrence of Arabia" as well as lesser known works such as "Khartoum," "Four Feathers," and "Mountains of the Moon" in an effort to understand Western perceptions of Islam in the contemporary period.
The seminar, which carries the credit of two courses, will meet at the Newberry Library, 60 West Walton Street, on Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons 1:30 pm-4:30 pm, January 22 through May 1, 2008.
How to ApplyIf you are a student at one of the participating institutions and would like more information on the seminar, send a message to research@newberry.org, call (312) 255-3666, or contact the NLUS Advisor on your home campus: