Syllabus for Seminar Religion 8480:  Research in Islamic Studies

 

Dr. Godlas   Fall 2009

Class time: Tues/Thurs 5:00-6:15,  205C Seminar Room, Peabody

Office hour: Thursday, 2:30-3:30,  217 Peabody, phone 706-542-1486

Email: godlas@uga.edu   ; website:  www.uga.edu/islam

 

Course Objectives:

1)   To become proficient in the skills necessary for doing M.A. and Ph.D. level research in Islamic Studies and Arabic or Persian;

2)   To develop professional expertise in presenting one’s area of specialization within Islamic and Religious Studies; and

3)   To use these skills and expertise in researching a particular topic relevant to one’s area of specialization.

 

Topical Outline:

I. Romanization/transliteration

II. Unicode and Arabicizing your computer

III. Arabic Papyrology School  and Manuscripts in UGA Rare Book Room

IV.Googling in Arabic and Persian (and Google Toolbar-translator)

V. English Encyclopedias

VI. Periodical searches: ATLA, Index Islamicus, JSTOR-Google, Interlibrary Loan

VII. Wright's Grammar and Arabic and Persian Dictionaries

VIII. Searching and Researching Qur’anic verses and tafsir

IX. Searching and Researching Hadith

X. Online libraries in Arabic and Persian

XI. Arabic bibliographical research

XII. Formatting Scholarly Works: Chicago Manual of Style

XIII. Manuscript Research

XIV. Reading manuscripts

 

Works in European Languages:

Library of Congress, Romanization  (& online at Dr. G's website)

http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/arabic.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/persian.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/ottoman.pdf

Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Eliade

Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World

Encyclopaedia of Islam

McAuliffe, ed., Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an

Index Islamicus  and Inter-library loan office

Brockelmann, Geschichte Der Arabischen Litteratur

Sezgin, Geschichte Des Arabischen Schrifttums

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: a bio-bibliographical survey

Wright, A Grammar of the Arabic Language

E.W. Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon  http://tabs-online.com/TABS/Lane/

Steingass, Persian-English Dictionary http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/steingass/

The Chicago Manual of Style

 

Resources in Arabic

Muhammad Fu'ad, al-Mu'jam al-mufahras  li-alfaz al-Qur'an al-karim

Wensinck, Concordance et indices de la tradition musulmane (al-Mu'jam al-mufahras  li-alfaz al-hadith al-nabawi)

Al-Kahhala, Mu'jam al-mu'allifin http://islamport.com/  

al-Zirikli, al-'Alam, search first category at islamport or just tarajim wa-tabaqat

Hajji Khalifa, Kashf al-zunun http://islamport.com/ search third category or faharis al-kutub

Tabaqat-Ta’rikh genre

 

Online Resources:

Online Unicode Fonts for Transliterating Arabic: See Dr. Godlas' website

Arabic Papyrology School:

http://orientx.unizh.ch:8080/aps_test_2/home/index.jsp

Online Qur'an and Hadith Searching in English, see Dr. G's website.

"Arabicizing Your Computer," see Dr. G's website.

Searching Google in Arabic

www.al-tafsir.com

Al-Waraq Online Library of Arabic Texts and other similar databases

http://www.alwaraq.net

Online Arabic Dictionaries

·  Lisan al-'Arab  of Ibn Manzur.  Use http://islamport.com/ search 'ulum al-lugah al-'arabiya  but also at www.alwaraq.net 

·  Taj al-'Arus of Zabidi. Use http://islamport.com/ search 'ulum al-lugah al-'arabiya ,but also at www.alwaraq.net

Online hadith index of the major hadith collections: http://hadith.al-islam.com/

Online Qur'an and tafsir search at http://www.altafsir.com/

Princeton Online Arabic Manuscripts http://library.princeton.edu/projects/islamic/index.html

 

Texts:

Assorted handouts

  

Grading:  Based on weekly student assignments, hadith research project, paper and final oral presentation, and attendance.

 

40% Written Final Research Paper due Fri., Dec. 11, 7:00 pm.

20% Final Oral Presention
15% Hadith Research Project (takhrij
)

15% Weekly Assignments

10% Attendance

 

 

Attendance and Participation:

All students are expected to attend each class. Class attendance is absolutely necessary.

Late assignments will also result in a 1% reduction of your final grade for this course. If you hand in your final paper late, every day your grade will go down ½ the letter grade (i.e. 5%). The final oral presentation exam is scheduled for Exam: Fri., Dec. 11, 7-10 pm. This cannot be changed.  Absolutely no cell phones (or other communication devices) are to be used in class, as these are highly disruptive. This includes silently checking your messages or sending text messages! If you violate this policy, you will be counted as absent for that day without notice. No exceptions!

 

Final Oral Presentation Exam:

Exam: Fri., Dec. 11, 7:00 - 10:00 pm

 

 Honesty Policy

The UGA Academic Honesty Policy will be followed.  See http://www.uga.edu/ovpi/academic_honesty/academic_honesty.htm

 

Changes to this Syllabus

The instructor reserves the right to make any changes to this syllabus.  Changes will be posted on WebCT.