ISLAMIC STUDIES

The course aims to provide essential information on the Muslim world following the evolution of the main institutions and to explore some historical crossroads which are fundamental for the Muslim world, in general, and, in particular, for the Arab world. At the end of this course the students will be able not only to understand the past but also to approach properly and discuss, with informed arguments, events that are unfolding today.

The course includes two modules.

The first module aims at defining Islam as a “religious phenomenon”. Particular attention will be paid to the Qur'ān and the sense of revelation, to the concept of prophecy and the sources of authority, to the emergence of different religious currents as well as to the formation of legal and theological schools both Sunni and Shiʽi.

The second module aims at retracing the expansion and the formation of the Islamic empire, and finally its progressive fragmentation in a series of new state entities and new forms of power. Particular attention will be paid to the caliphate institution, following its transformations over the centuries.

• Il Corano, introduzione, traduzione e commento di Alessandro Bausani, Milano, Biblioteca universale Rizzoli, 2005, pp. 8-81; sura nn. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 17, 24, 26, 33, 37, 47, 75, 76, 81, 96, 109, 114.

• S. Mervin, L’islam. Fondamenti e dottrine, Milano, B. Mondatori, 2004, pp. X, 227.

• B. Scarcia Amoretti, Il Corano. Una lettura, Roma, Carocci, 2009, pp. 284.

• B. Scarcia Amoretti, Il mondo musulmano. Quindici secoli di storia, Roma, Carocci, 2013, pp. 1-204.