HNAA10131U The Archaeology of CONFLICT & COEXISTENCE in the Islamic World

Pre-modern Islamic societies were diverse, incorporating a host of traditions, ethnicities, religious beliefs, and languages. Reductionist histories have often typecast Islamic societies in terms of competing internal ideologies and conflicts with external polities and belief systems, but more recent perspectives, often informed by archaeological evidence, suggest that more nuanced interpretations are needed. This elective course will examine key historical themes and movements in late antique through early modern history. It will ask what can archaeology tell us about the realities of conflict and co-existence in Islamic societies? Are these concepts a useful framework for investigating socio-cultural interactions between diverse groups and polities? Can we determine how the arrival and development of the new religion of Islam took place by drawing on the archaeological record? What were the realities of life on the frontier between the Byzantine and Islamic Empires, and how did these empires interact with each other? A major focus will be on crusading and jihad movements, which have constituted an important component of archaeological research in recent years. The course will consider the creation and destruction of a Muslim society in the Iberian peninsular, and the role played by nomadic groups in the central and eastern Islamic lands. Finally, examination of the complex relationship between Europe and the Ottoman Empire leads us into a discussion of the emergence of post-colonial archaeologies and the role of archaeology in present day situations of conflict and co-existence in the Muslim world.