The physical, emotional and imagined spaces in which we live can be both intensely fulfilling and profoundly alienating. This course seeks to investigate these opposed responses and the shades of gray that lie between them within the context of diverse Muslim societies and the landscapes which they have inhabited. As our readings and discussions range across history and geography we will ask the following: What does it mean to dwell, and how are our practices of dwelling constructed by the material and social conditions of our existence? Is this patterned by shared belief systems and transmitted across time and space?

The various landscapes which we will examine each week provide us the object of a broadly construed archaeological investigation of social relations, political organization, religious and ethical values, as well as the emotional and symbolic parameters through which Muslim societies are formed. I consider this an archaeological project not simply because we will be dealing with specific sites, but also because our attention will primarily be concentrated on practices of dwelling as expressed in the architecture, landforms, pathways, ornamentation, site lines, and general embodied experiences (via the senses) of lived environment. One of our chief concerns throughout the course will be to consider these landscapes from multiple perspectives – that of the individual, the state, institutional actors, minority groups, and outsiders – in order to tease out how these landscapes are produced and reproduced, experienced and, above all, represented, understood, and made knowable. .

Couse Design:

This course is intended to run as a seminar in which students will provide much of the discussion of the weekly readings. That said, there is significant background to the weekly topics which will require me to provide short lectures in order to give you an entry into the readings, their importance and the key themes. This will generally take the shape of a preview of the coming week at the end of our Thursday seminar. Most weeks are designed as case studies in which we will discuss a particular topic or site. The first couple of weeks are intended to provide some of the theoretical and thematic lenses through which we will further elaborate through out the course (notions such as: What is a landscape?; Why are they important?; The problems of representation; place versus space; etc.).