Abstract
This chapter explores the theory and practice of teaching undergraduate courses on Islam and modern Middle Eastern history. General education requirements offer an opportunity to raise open-ended questions about representations of the past and the ways they impinge on the present. Reading religious and transregional history as the practice of critical thinking affords an opportunity to advance analytic techniques in decoding primary sources while questioning the conceptual basis of underlying assumptions. Coursework on the modern Middle East, Muslim Spain and Islam allowed students to sift through the multilayered past and trace the making of the conflicted present. Locating the empty spaces—the unsaid—in dominant narratives enabled a critique of accounts that suggest perpetual conflict rather than common understanding. In reorienting regional geography from fixed categories based on the nation states of West Asia and North Africa, these courses re-envisioned the region from the perspective of the Mediterranean, Arabian and Red Seas, enabling observers to chart the flows of people, goods and ideas. The notion of connected histories, in relation to the reconquista of Muslim Spain and the colonization of the Americas, illuminated how relations of power have impinged on knowledge formation in the transition to “modernity”. The contributions of al-Tabari, Ibn Khaldun and al-Mas‘udi figured as alternative traditions of historical writing that predate colonialism. Al-Jabarti furnishes an example of how an indigenous historian recorded the French presence in Egypt. Finally, examining the Convivencia of Moorish Spain as historical conjuncture raised questions about how the study of history contributes to notions of coexistence. Critical thinking intrinsic to historiography provides a means to reassemble the past and provincialize Europe, while building connections that bridge the knowledge divide.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
“[…] we don’t do body counts.” General Tommy Franks, Bagram Air Base. As quoted by: Epstein (2002).
- 3.
Pfau et al. (2004), pp. 74–88.
- 4.
Ankersmit (1988), p. 210.
- 5.
Braudel (1982), p. 38.
- 6.
Lynch (2016).
- 7.
Fisk (2009).
- 8.
Herman and Chomsky (2012).
- 9.
- 10.
Becker and Scott (2012).
- 11.
“The global literacy survey asked 1203 young adults 75 questions about geography, current events, and economics and trade. Among 18-to-26-year-olds who attend or have attended a 2- or 4-year college in the United States, the average score on the survey was just 55%—a failing grade in most U.S. classrooms.” Appeared in: Young (2016).
- 12.
“Based on the discussion with military analysts, Rumsfeld tied Iran and Iraq. ‘Iran is the concern of the American people, and if we fail in Iraq, it will advantage Iran’, he wrote in his April 2006 memo. Rumsfeld declined to comment, but an aide said the points in that memo were Rumsfeld’s distillation of the analysts’ comments, though he added that the secretary is known for using the term ‘bumper stickers’.” Appeared in: Wright (2007).
- 13.
- 14.
Mamdani (2004).
- 15.
- 16.
Asad (1973), pp. 18–19.
- 17.
Malcolm X (1965), p. 18.
- 18.
Said (1979), p. 86.
- 19.
Abu-Lughod (2013).
- 20.
Said (1979), p. 86.
- 21.
Bonine (2012).
- 22.
Daragahi (2018).
- 23.
Bhambra et al. (2018).
- 24.
Wallerstein (1991).
- 25.
Chakrabarty (2000).
- 26.
Dussel (1995).
- 27.
Khaldun (1989), p. 30.
- 28.
Grosfoguel (2013), pp. 79–80.
- 29.
Carew (1992), p. 15.
- 30.
Gibson (1992), pp. x–xi.
- 31.
Chesworth (2017), p. 193.
- 32.
Cantor (1996), pp. 138–153.
- 33.
Olsen (2011).
- 34.
Moyn and Sartori (2013).
- 35.
Khaldun (1989), p. 11.
- 36.
Talib (2009), p. 591.
- 37.
Ruiz (2009), pp. 261–284.
- 38.
Ibid, p. 265.
- 39.
Breitman (1967), p. 37.
- 40.
Malcolm X (1965), p. 184.
- 41.
Malcolm X (1990), p. 20.
- 42.
Angelou (1987).
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Rasiah, H. (2020). Making Global Connections: Critical Pedagogy and the Decolonization of History. In: Hensold, J., Kynes, J., Öhlmann, P., Rau, V., Schinagl, R., Taleb, A. (eds) Religion in Motion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41388-0_11
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