REL 278 - Empires & Cities

Walking around on campus, have you ever stopped to wonder how one would study Davidson’s culture and life? What if you were to consider its space, art, and architecture as a window into the community? As one might at Davidson, in this course, to understand Islamic societies and their inhabitants, “the Muslims,” we approach Islamic civilization spatially. That is, we explore the three great Islamic empires of the pre-modern era – the Ottomans, the Safavids, and the Mughals – through their cities. How were those cities spatially arranged? What was the center of town? Where were the markets? Who lived where? Researching and imagining their societies, institutions, and cultural and artistic lives, we digitally recreate major cities of these Muslim empires. This course is joyfully co-taught with a research librarian and a facilitator from Technology & Innovation (T&I).

Satisfies a requirement for Religious Studies major and minor.
Satisfies Arab Studies major and minor requirement.
Satisfies a South Asian Studies interdisciplinary minor requirement.
Satisfies the Religious and Philosophical Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies a cultural diversity requirement.