MI week 1

Tuesday (1a)

Class

Greetings and Introduction to Islam

assalamu alaykum السلام عليكم  

wa alaykum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله وبركاته  

Islam: الاسلام  

Islamic Creed (al-Shahada): الشهادة  

Tawḥīd - Risāla

kalimatu l'tawhid: laa ilaaha illaallah لا اله الا الله محمد رسول الله

muhammadun rasulullah  محمد رسول الله

Music (موسيقى = "musiqa") or Singing (غناء = "ghināʾ) or Sound (صوت = sawt). Problems of translation, interpretation.  Etic vs Emic approaches.

Music and Islam:

• What are the relations between Music and Islam?
• What are the practices of music, singing, or sound in Islam? How can we understand them, and what do they tell us?  
• What are the discourses, beliefs, and attitudes towards music?
• How has Islam conditioned music, and vice versa?

Calligraphy

Vocal sound (language performance) (Cat Stevens and children) (Sami Yusuf [1])

Call to Prayer (al-Adhan): الأذان

Adhan - mu'adhdhin - ma'dhana (minara or "minaret")

Maps and Timelines

Orientalist images of the muezzin (mu'adhdhin)

The sounds of Islam: Adhan

Due today (not graded!)

• Review course
• Locate resources
• Submit a short statement about yourself, and what you hope to learn from this class (not graded)

Use this form to submit all assignments. Please be sure to indicate the due date on the form. Except for today, all assignments are due before class.

Thursday (1b)

Due today (note that assignments are due by class time!)

Report on the following (1-2 pages total) [remember page counts are 1.5 spaced, 1" margins, Times New Roman font - but you'll submit this as text using the assignment submission form]

Read:

• Schimmel 1992 pp. 1-28, from Schimmel, Annemarie. 1992. Islam : An Introduction. Albany: State University of New York Press. One paragraph will suffice to summarize (and critique if you can).
• Frishkopf 2008, “Music”, in The Islamic World, edited by Andrew Rippin. New York: Routledge, 2008, pp. 510-526. Again, write a paragraph.

Watch: Empire of Faith, part 1. Take note of (a) sounds of Islam represented in the film (diegetic sound); (b) the film's non-diegetic soundtrack. Critique: who is behind this film and why? Who is behind the ideas? How is Islam reified? Search: Find at least one online video introducing Islam by and for Muslims. What is the difference between this video and Empire of Faith? (include the link in your report)

Add to your report: one question or issue (about anything you have read, seen, or heard in the course so far) - to be discussed in class.