HIST 282 The Muslim World in Modern Times
The term "Muslim World" is often criticized as imprecise. After all, Muslims constitute a fifth of humanity and live on six different continents. Nevertheless, Muslims often describe themselves as constituting a single community with shared sets of concerns. This class engages these differing views through an examination of the lives of Muslims over the past two centuries of globalization, colonialism, post-colonialism, nationalism, and ever-changing technologies of transportation and communication. Our inquiry will concentrate on how Muslims were caught up in, and reacted to, and, in turn, influenced the Great Transformation that reshaped the entire world over the past two centuries. Dealing with issues from state building to women's rights to radical militancy, this class considers the various features of what we might call Muslim Modernity.