This first-year seminar will cover the three different empires of the Early Modern era (c. 1500-1800), encompassing much of the Muslim world: the Ottoman Empire in the core of the Middle East, Safavid Empire in Persia and beyond, and Mughal Empire in South Asia. Our aim is to analyze both common and divergent patterns and structures of imperial rule as well as shared imperial legacies and cultural resources. In addition to lectures and secondary background readings, students read and discuss fictional works, with a view to exploring "Islamic civilization" through literary voices of acclaimed authors. Reading fiction is to help us through the fragmentary nature of the sources used to reconstruct the major debates that surround the emergence and formation of Islamic empires in the Early Modern period. Questions of fictional narration, historical memory, and revisionist history will also be discussed. |