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Fall 2023

Problems in Roman History: Introduction to Roman Epigraphy
Subject associations
CLA 545

Texts that survive on stone, bronze, or terracotta provide one of the best and most direct sources for Roman history and culture. Such texts survive in large quantities and new discoveries are made every year. This course offers an introduction to Roman epigraphy, the study of non-literary ancient texts, by familiarizing students with a wide variety of writing preserved from Antiquity.

Instructors
Harriet I. Flower
Problems in Ancient History: Non-Citizens from the Ancient World to the Medieval Ages
Subject associations
CLA 547 / PAW 503 / HLS 547 / HIS 557

We analyze the principles guiding the exclusion of certain free inhabitants from the political communities in which they lived and often prospered, the initiatives taken by ancient states to integrate them despite their secondary rank, the non-citizens' own efforts at integration, and the evolution of these interactions over time. We also study the factors that influenced both exclusion and integration (ethnicity, religion, etc.) and how the broad and ever-changing spectrum of what we call 'non-citizens' provides us with a window into the formation/transformation of categorial infrastructures from the ancient to the medieval world.

Instructors
Marc Domingo Gygax
Helmut Reimitz
Problems in Ancient History: Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Numismatics
Subject associations
CLA 548 / HLS 548 / PAW 548 / ART 532

A seminar covering the basic methodology of numismatics, including die, hoard and archaeological analysis as well as a survey of pre-modern coinages. The Western coinage tradition is covered, from its origins in the Greco-Persian world through classical and Hellenistic Greek coinage, Roman imperial and provincial issues, Parthian and Sasanian issues, the coinage of Byzantium, the Islamic world, and medieval and renaissance Europe. Students research and report on problems involving coinages related to their own areas of specialization. Open to undergraduates by permission of the instructor.

Instructors
Alan M. Stahl
Monotheism and Society from Constantine to Harun al-Rashid
Subject associations
HIS 555 / HLS 555

The goal of this seminar will be to introduce students to some of the most important ideas and debates surrounding the two major religious revolutions of Late Antiquity: the triumph of Christianity and the subsequent emergence and world conquests of Islam. The course will focus on extensive reading in both primary and secondary literature and students will be introduced to and trained in using major instrumenta studiorum for this period; texts may also be read in Greek, Syriac, and Arabic. No prior knowledge of Late Antiquity, Christianity, or Islam will be assumed.

Instructors
Jack B. Tannous
Jewish Art and Visual Culture in Late Antiquity
Subject associations
JDS 515 / REL 514

Jews have often been thought of as a 'nation without art' who disparaged the visual and discouraged artistic creation. But the reality is very different: Judaism has a rich tradition of artistic production as well as a long history of reflection on the role of images in religious life. This course explores the nature and function of visual expression in ancient Judaism, with a particular focus on Jewish art from Late Antiquity. In addition to considering these materials in their own immediate contexts, we also use them to assess how Jews viewed and engaged with the wider visual culture of the ancient Mediterranean world.

Instructors
Ra'anan S. Boustan
An Introduction to the Islamic Scholarly Tradition
Subject associations
NES 502 / MED 502

The course offers a hands-on introduction to such basic genres of medieval scholarship as biography, history, tradition, and Koranic exegesis, taught through the intensive reading of texts, mostly in Arabic. The syllabus varies according to the interests of the students and the instructor.

Instructors
Michael A. Cook
Introduction to Syriac
Subject associations
NES 511

A systematic introduction to Syriac language. Close reading of selected passages of Syriac texts.

Instructors
George A. Kiraz
Introduction to Arabic Documents
Subject associations
NES 547 / HIS 546

An introduction to hands-on work with medieval Arabic documentary sources in their original manuscript form. Between 100,000 and 200,000 such documents have survived, making this an exciting new area of research with plenty of discoveries still to be made. Students learn how to handle the existing repertory of editions, documentary hands, Middle Arabic, transcription, digital resources and original manuscripts. The syllabus varies according to the interests of the students and the instructor. Experience reading Arabic is required; experience reading manuscripts is not.

Instructors
Marina Rustow
Studies in Islamic Religion and Thought
Subject associations
NES 553

This course focuses on reading texts that are illustrative of various issues in Muslim religious thought. The texts are selected according to students' needs.

Instructors
Hossein Modarressi
Studies in Greco-Roman Religions: How Christianity Began: Group Formation, Ritual, and Politics
Subject associations
REL 504 / HLS 504 / CLA 519

This seminar offers comprehensive survey of primary sources essential for research, general exams, future teaching. Some topics: strategies of group formation; how various Jewish and "pagan" critics characterize and interact with Jesus' followers; exploring NT sources and "secret gospels" to clarify issues that ignite creation of "orthodoxy"/"heresy"; controversies on authority/social/sexual practices; the politics of persecution; how Christians defied Roman authority in trial/martyr accounts. Finally, how did this unlikely movement morph into "the catholic church" in the 4th century, legitimized and transformed by Roman imperial authority?

Instructors
Elaine H. Pagels
Religions of Late Antiquity Workshop
Subject associations
REL 525

A weekly, year-long workshop providing students in the Religions of Late Antiquity with the opportunity to present their current research for discussion. Note: REL 525 (fall) and REL 526 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop. In order to receive credit and/or a grade, students must take the course both semesters.

Instructors
Yedidah Koren
Workshop in Islamic Studies
Subject associations
REL 529

A weekly year-long Religion workshop focusing on the research and writing of graduate students, faculty, and visitors in Islamic Studies. This workshop provides a forum for presentation of works in progress: drafts of dissertation chapters, dissertation proposals, seminar papers, conference papers, articles and book chapters. All Islamic Studies graduate students are encouraged to participate as presenters and as commentators. The workshop fosters collegiality and professional development. Note: REL 529 (fall) and REL 530 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop.

Instructors
Tehseen Thaver

 

SPRING 2023

 

The Roman Villa
ART 518 / CLA 531 / HLS 539

A seminar on the phenomenon of the Roman villa, its archaeology, history, decoration, and the social practices that arose from this aspect of aristocratic life.
Michael Koortbojian

 

Byzantine Art: Mimesis, Participation, and Performance
ART 535 /HLS 535

This seminar focuses upon two aspects of mimesis, relational likeness and the participation in forms, that have shaped quite different ways of understanding the implications of artistic representation in Byzantium. As well as considering "naturalism" and "abstraction" in the visual arts of the Medieval period, the course examines rhetoric, theater, and liturgy as performative sites for an animated and ethical visual culture.
Charlie Barber

 

Problems in Greek Literature: Twelve Ways to Read an Ancient Text
CLA 514

Twelve modes of reading' combines, each week, a discussion of relevant theory and a practical application to a text read in the original Greek or Latin. Reading knowledge of these languages is a pre-requisite: it need not be very advanced and will improve through taking this course. Sessions include distinguished visitors associated with specific modes of reading and divide into three thematic groups: Reading through writing: philology, commentary, translation, digitization. Reading suspiciously: Freudian, Marxist, postcolonial feminist readings. Reading through (other) reading: reception, authorship, autobiography, reparation.
Barbara Graziosi

 

Roman History: Problems and Methods
CLA 524

A seminar that introduces graduate students to current methods and debates in Roman history and historiography. Provides a chronological overview of the history of Rome and her expanding empire from the early Republic (5th century BC) to Late Antiquity, accompanied by the study of a wide variety of ancient sources, including texts, inscriptions, coins, material culture, art, and archaeology, and the methods commonly used by modern historians to analyze them. Students acquire the basic tools needed to do research in Roman history.
Dan-El Padilla Peralta

 

Problems in Byzantine History
HIS 545 / HLS 542

This course introduces and engages with historiographical questions central to our understanding of the Byzantine Empire from its inauguration in the fourth century to its fall in the fifteenth century. Sample sources - available in original and translation - are examined and analyzed using a variety of current methodological approaches. We consider aspects of political, economic, social, and cultural and intellectual history. The main areas of focus in a specific year will depend on the interests of the group. The aim is to provide students with concrete tools that will inform and strengthen their own research and teaching.
Teresa Shawcross

 

Themes in Islamic Culture: Middle Eastern History
NES 503

Read select texts by the following authors: Ibn Khaldun (from the part of the `Ibar on the Berbers), Jahiz, Ibn Battuta, Qalqashandi, Mas'udi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn al-`Arabi, Haydar al-Amuli, Ibn `Abd Rabbihi, Ibn Hazm, Maqrizi, and early modern authors.
Michael A. Cook

 

Readings in Judeo-Arabic
NES 523 / HIS 563

Introduction to the Judeo-Arabic documents of the Cairo Geniza, including personal and business letters of the tenth through thirteenth centuries. Students learn the Hebrew alphabet, the peculiarities of middle Arabic, diplomatic technique, research methods, manuscript paleography, digital tools and the existing literature.
Matrina Rustow

 

Persian Historiography from the Mongols to the Qajars
NES 528

This course is designed to introduce advanced students of Persian to later Classical Persian prose from the Mongol conquests of the thirteenth century down to the middle of the nineteenth century, when significant innovations were introduced into Persian literary style. Over the course of the semester, students gain familiarity with texts composed in Iran, India, and Central Asia in a variety of literary genres including history, biography, hagiography, and travelogues. Each week's classes consist of excerpted readings from primary sources along with secondary sources related to the readings.
Daniel J. Sheffield

 

Reading Coptic Texts
REL 557

This course will serve as a continuation of REL 555: Intro to Coptic Language and Literature. The focus of this term will be on building Coptic reading competency. The class will focus on reading Coptic Nag Hammadi literature and will serve as a basic introduction to the generic and literary forms of this corpus. We will read texts both in English translation and prepare shorter selections of the Coptic for each session. Students will walk away from the course with stronger reading comprehension as well as a knowledge about the theologies, philosophies, and historical contexts of the ancient codices.
Lydia C. Bremer-McCollum


FALL 2022

 

Problems in Ancient History:  Obedience:  Actualities, Limits, Alternatives
CLA 547 / PAW 503 / HLS 547 / HIS 557

In this seminar we analyze social compliance and the willingness to accept regulation or instruction, delivered person to person or by systemic prescription. We investigate what the consequences of the various results of such assessment may be for our understanding of social cohesion (or its weaknesses) and political stability (or lack thereof). How 'biddable' were the millions of inhabitants of 'the ancient world'? And how much did the level of their consent to direction by others matter for the purposes of community solidarity and continuity?
Marc Domingo Gygax

 

Problems in Ancient History: Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Numismatics
CLA 548 / HLS 548 / PAW 548 / ART 532

A seminar covering the basic methodology of numismatics, including die, hoard and archaeological analysis as well as a survey of pre-modern coinages. The Western coinage tradition is covered, from its origins in the Greco-Persian world through classical and Hellenistic Greek coinage, Roman imperial and provincial issues, Parthian and Sasanian issues, the coinage of Byzantium, the Islamic world, and medieval and renaissance Europe. Students research and report on problems involving coinages related to their own areas of specialization. Open to undergraduates by permission of the instructor.
Alan M. Stahl

 

The Origins of the Middle Ages
HIS 543 / HLS 543

The seminar explores the cultural history of Europe from the 9th to the 12th c. and the emergence of a cultural convergence that allowed to imagine the Latin West as the Latin West. Our window into this process is the codification of various subjects in books and libraries and in the collection, arrangement and transmission of history books, legal handbooks, patristic, hagiographical or liturgical collections. In so doing the course introduces students to paleography, codicology, basic techniques of editing texts and the study of Latin manuscripts, scriptoria and libraries.
Helmut Reimitz

 

An Introduction to the Islamic Scholarly Tradition
NES 502/ MED 502

The course offers a hands-on introduction to such basic genres of medieval scholarship as biography, history, tradition, and Koranic exegesis, taught through the intensive reading of texts, mostly in Arabic.
Michael A. Cook

 

Introduction to Arabic Documents
NES 547 / HIS 546

An introduction to hands-on work with medieval Arabic documentary sources in their original manuscript form. Between 100,000 and 200,000 such documents have survived, making this an exciting new area of research with plenty of discoveries still to be made. Students learn how to handle the existing repertory of editions, documentary hands, Middle Arabic, transcription, digital resources and original manuscripts. The syllabus varies according to the interests of the students and the instructor. Experience reading Arabic is required; experience reading manuscripts is not.
Marina Rustow

 

Themes in Islamic Law and Jurisprudence
NES 555

Selected topics in Islamic law and jurisprudence. The topics vary from year to year, but the course normally includes reading of fatwas and selected Islamic legal texts in Arabic.
Hossein Modarressi

 

Studies in Modern Arab History: Readings in Islamic Revivalism, Islamist Politics and Law
NES 561

This course aims to survey a variety of historical and religious texts in Arabic. Students must have mastery of advanced Arabic. Some of the texts that will be studied have been edited and published, others remain in manuscript form.
Bernard A. Haykel

 

Special Topics in the Study of Religion: Trends and Approaches in Qur’anic Studies
REL 511

This graduate seminar examines key scholarly trends, debates, and conversations in the field of Qur'anic Studies over the last three decades or so. It explores themes including debates over the Qur'an's origins, Qur'an and Late Antiquity, the Qur'an's commentarial tradition, Qur'an and translation, the Qur'an in multiple regional contexts, and Qur'an and modernism. A major thrust of this course will be on connecting a study of the Qur'an with broader questions and conversations in the Humanities on related themes such as hermeneutics, language, orality and experiential elements of scripture.
Tehseen Thaver

 

Religions of Late Antiquity Workshop
REL 525

A weekly, year-long workshop providing students in the Religions of Late Antiquity with the opportunity to present their current research for discussion. Note: REL 525 (fall) and REL 526 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop. In order to receive credit and/or a grade, students must take the course both semesters.
Staff

 

Workshop in Islamic Studies
REL 529

A weekly year-long Religion workshop focusing on the research and writing of graduate students, faculty, and visitors in Islamic Studies. This workshop provides a forum for presentation of works in progress: drafts of dissertation chapters, dissertation proposals, seminar papers, conference papers, articles and book chapters. All Islamic Studies graduate students are encouraged to participate as presenters and as commentators. The workshop fosters collegiality and professional development. Note: REL 529 (fall) and REL 530 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop.
Tehseen Thaver

 

Introduction to Coptic Language and Literature
REL 555

This course offers an introduction to Coptic language and literatures. The class provides the foundational grammatical and linguistic concepts to build elementary Coptic reading competency (with focus on the Sahidic dialect primarily but not exclusively). Through course examples and group reading, students gain exposure to a broad Coptic corpus including Nag Hammadi literature, martyr literature, monastic texts, magic or medical recipes, and other documentary texts. The course also introduces students to the tools and resources of Coptic studies - dictionaries, grammars, as well as digital humanities resources.
Lydia Bremer-McCollum


SPRING 2022


Greek Sculpture and Roman Copies
ART 518 / CLA 531 / HLS 539

A seminar devoted to the long-standing problems concerning the tradition of Greek sculpture, most of which survives in later Roman copies. Replication was fundamental to ancient artistic practice and remains central to both its critical evaluation and its broad appreciation. Emphasis is on stylistic comparison of the surviving copies (Kopienkritik); critical engagement with the ancient written sources that attest the most famous works (opera nobilia); and the historiographic tradition in modern scholarship devoted to these works and the problems they pose.
Michael Koortbojian


Problems in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture: Techne: Late Ant./Byzantine Art Making
ART 535 / HLS 535

Henry Staten has recently argued for a re-evaluation of art in relation to the concept of techne. This seminar addresses this argument by considering the evidence for artistic production from ca. 300-1600. Working from objects, written sources, and archaeological evidence, the class seeks to define both the status of the artist and of the arts across this period. Social, economic, and cultural considerations shape this conversation. When possible, each meeting builds upon the close examination of works in the Princeton University collections.
Charlie Barber 


Problems in Greek Literature: Elevations of the body: Lucian and Libanius Dance
CLA 514

Two ancient texts on dance, written in Greek by Syrian authors (Lucian On Dance and Libanius On the Dancers) allow us to strengthen knowledge of Greek and have discussions radiating out to consider: 1. popular Platonisms and the elevation of the body 2. Hellenisms of the body and ethnic diversity 3. dance, spectacle, and narrative art 4. anti-Christian approaches to the body, beauty, pleasure 5. influence of antiquity on modern ballet.
Barbara Graziosi


Themes in Islamic Culture: Middle Eastern History
NES 503

This semester the course will be a chapter and paper clinic. Each participant will be expected to submit at least one draft chapter or paper to the seminar, and will receive intensive comments and suggestions on both form and substance from the other participants and the instructor. Chapters and papers may relate to any period or aspect of Middle Eastern or Islamic history.
Michael A. Cook 


Topics in Zoroastrian Studies: Introduction to Middle Persian Language and Literature
NES 538

This course serves as an introduction to the study of Pahlavi - the Zoroastrian Middle Persian language - and its literature. Students gain a firm knowledge of the Pahlavi script, grammar, and vocabulary through weekly exercises. At the same time, we survey extant Middle Persian literature, reading in translation and in the original from genres including epic, cosmology, religious response, ritual instruction, and scriptural hermeneutics. Students are introduced to current problems in the field, emphasizing historical and comparative approaches. Students gain hands-on experience working with Zoroastrian manuscripts.
Daniel J. Sheffield 


Special Topics in the Study of Religion: Papyrology with case studies on Oxyrhynchus Papyri
REL 511 / HLS 546

This seminar introduces students to the field of papyrology, the study of ancient texts preserved on papyrus. Papyri have contributed greatly to our understanding of daily life, government, and textual transmission and many other aspects of antiquity. The course teaches students the skills to read and understand ancient documents and literature preserved on papyrus. The papyri found at the garbage heaps of the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus will serve as case studies in this class. Special attention will be paid to the importance of papyri for religious and social history.
AnneMarie Luijendijk


FALL 2021


Problems in Ancient History: Naturalism and Anti-Naturalism
CLA 547 / HLS 547 / PAW 503 / HIS 557 / ART 527

This seminar attempts to set the rise of naturalistic depictions in the visual arts (especially the individuated portrait) in the context of literary, philosophical, and medical traditions of the time (6th-4th centuries BCE). The focus and character of the discussions is both historical and historiographic.
Michael Koortbojian


Problems in Ancient History: The Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Numismatics
CLA 548 / HLS 548 / PAW 548 / ART 532

A seminar covering the basic methodology of numismatics, including die, hoard and archaeological analysis as well as a survey of pre-modern coinages. The Western coinage tradition is covered, from its origins in the Greco-Persian world through classical and Hellenistic Greek coinage, Roman imperial and provincial issues, Parthian and Sasanian issues, the coinage of Byzantium, the Islamic world, and medieval and renaissance Europe. Students research and report on problems involving coinages related to their own areas of specialization. Open to undergraduates by permission of the instructor.
Alan M. Stahl 


Problems in Ancient History: Monotheism and Society from Constantine to Harun al-Rashid
HIS 555 / HLS 555

The goal of this seminar will be to introduce students to some of the most important ideas and debates surrounding the two major religious revolutions of Late Antiquity: the triumph of Christianity and the subsequent emergence and world conquests of Islam. The course will focus on extensive reading in both primary and secondary literature and students will be introduced to and trained in using major instrumenta studiorum for this period; texts may also be read in Greek, Syriac, and Arabic. No prior knowledge of Late Antiquity, Christianity, or Islam will be assumed.
Jack B. Tannous
 

An Introduction to the Islamic Scholarly Tradition
NES 502/ MED 502

The course offers a hands-on introduction to such basic genres of medieval scholarship as biography, history, tradition, and Koranic exegesis, taught through the intensive reading of texts, mostly in Arabic.
Michael A. Cook
 

Themes in Islamic Law and Jurisprudence
NES 555

Selected topics in Islamic law and jurisprudence. The topics vary from year to year, but the course normally includes reading of fatwas and selected Islamic legal texts in Arabic.
Hossein Modarressi
 

Introduction to Arabic Manuscripts
NES 557

Hands-on introduction to Arabic manuscripts and their material history via Princeton's Garrett Collection of Middle Easter book, including codicology, supports n manuscripts, the largest such collection in North America. Covers the anatomy of the medieval Arabic, scripts, ink, ownership notes, certificates of audition and other paratextual information; and the social history of the book, including reading and transmission, libraries, the modern book trade, and the ethics and legality of the transfer cultural patrimony. Good classical Arabic is a prerequisite; prior experience with manuscripts and paleography is neither expected nor assumed.
Marina Rustow
 

Studies in Modern Arab History: Readings in Islamic Revivalism, Islamist Politics and Law
NES 561

This course aims to survey a variety of historical and religious texts in Arabic. Students must have mastery of advanced Arabic. Some of the texts that will be studied have been edited and published, others remain in manuscript form.
Bernard A. Haykel
 

Classical Arabic Poetry
NES 569 / COM 575

Introduces students to the major Arabic poets and poems from pre-Islamic times to the Mamluks. Goals: Increase the ease with which students read classical Arabic poetry, learn how to scan Arabic meters, and expand knowledge of styles, genres and development. Students prepare assigned poems and put together brief biographical sketch of poets.
Lara Harb
 

Studies in Ancient Judaism: Introduction to Judaism in the Greco-Roman World
REL 513 

The goal of this course is to introduce a significant part of the literature of the Jews of Palestine and Egypt in the period from Alexander to the destruction of the Second Temple.
Martha Himmelfarb


SPRING 2021

Antioch through the Ages - Archaeology and History
ART 418 / CLA 418 / HL S418 / PAW 418

Antioch was unique among the great cities of the classical world for its position at the crossroads between the Mediterranean and Asia and for being a foundation of the Greek age that shrunk almost to insignificance in the modern era. Students in this course will get exclusive access to the archives and artifacts from Princeton's mostly unpublished Antioch excavations of the 1930s. The focus of the 2021 course will be life in the ancient villa, investigated through the study of the luxury homes situated in Antioch's suburb of Daphne, specifically the building known as the 'House of the Buffet Supper', in use from about 300 BCE to 650 CE.
Alan M. Stahl 

The Origins of the Middle Ages
HIS 543 / HLS 543

The seminar explores the cultural history of Europe from the 9th to the 12th c. and the emergence of a cultural convergence that allowed to imagine the Latin West as the Latin West. Our window into this process is the codification of various subjects in books and libraries and in the collection, arrangement and transmission of history books, legal handbooks, patristic, hagiographical or liturgical collections. In so doing the course introduces students to paleography, codicology, basic techniques of editing texts and the study of Latin manuscripts, scriptoria and libraries.
Helmut Reimitz

Intermediate Syriac
NES 512

The aim of the course is to provide the linguistic skills and the academic tools that are necessary to carry out research in Syriac Studies. The first session deals with the transcription of Syriac and presents an overview of the basic resources for academic research. The rest of the course centers on a selection of Syriac texts and addresses fundamental notions of literature, culture, and history.
George A. Kiraz 

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions – Fashion, Footwear, and Faith
REL 504 / HLS 504

How did women and men appear before the divine in late antiquity? And what did they wear in everyday life? This interdisciplinary seminar examines self-representation through dress, footwear, hairdo, and jewelry. Special attention is reserved for questions regarding religion and ritual. We study a wide range of sources, including literary and documentary texts (papyri, inscriptions), iconographic representations (mosaics, frescoes, sculpture), and archaeological finds (shoes, clothes). Students conduct research with these sources and relate them to modern theoretical works about dress and self-representation.
AnneMarie Luijendijk


FALL 2020

Problems in Ancient History: Ancient Lives 
CLA 547 / HLS 547 / PAW 503 / HIS 557

Questions of how and why individuals mattered, even of what constituted an individual are among the most complicated and challenging asked of Greco-Roman civilization. Our seminar considers the historical development of biography from the pre-Hellenistic Greek world to late Antiquity. Through studying the representation of individual lives and asking what makes them worth narrating and what ancient discourses shape their reception, we aim to develop a better understanding of both the texts within this tradition and the changing conceptions of identity and social agency that inform them.
Andrew M. Feldherr
Brent D. Shaw

Problems in Ancient History: The Monetary Economy from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages 
CLA 548 / HLS 548 / PAW 548 / ART 532

Coin evidence provides a unique view of the transition from the height of the Roman and Sasanian Empires in the first centuries CE through the development of distinctly Latin, Byzantine, and Islamic zones by the end of the eighth century. Attention is given to cases where the numismatic evidence of change and identity varies from that supplied by written, archaeological and visual sources. Each student focuses on a region of western Eurasia, considering questions of minting and circulation and does periodic seminar presentations and a final presentation on the transformation of that region.
Alan M. Stahl

Introduction to Syriac
NES 511

A systematic introduction to Syriac language. Close reading of selected passages of Syriac texts.
George A. Kiraz

Themes in Islamic Law and Jurisprudence
NES 555

Selected topics in Islamic law and jurisprudence. The topics vary from year to year, but the course normally includes reading of fatwas and selected Islamic legal texts in Arabic.
Hossein Modarressi

Studies in Modern Arab History: Readings in Islamic Revivalism, Islamist Politics and Law
NES 561

This course aims to survey a variety of historical and religious texts in Arabic. Students must have mastery of advanced Arabic. Some of the texts that will be studied have been edited and published, others remain in manuscript form.
Bernard A. Haykel

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions: Group Formation, Ritual, and Politics: Who's In? Who's Out?
REL 504

Together we explore basic primary sources (especially Greek, some Latin or Coptic, reading mostly, for our purposes, in translation) of Ancient Mediterranean Religion c.100-400 CE, investigating how the early Jesus movement originated from and interacted with Jewish sources, writers and teachers, as well as classical ones, while spreading throughout the Roman empire, and how, in the fourth century, this unlikely movement morphed into "catholic church" endorsed by Roman imperial authority.
Elaine H. Pagels

Studies in Ancient Judaism: Otherworldly Journeys in Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature
REL 513 

This course treats ancient Jewish and Christian texts involving ascent to heaven, tours of hell, and journeys to hidden places on earth, from the Book of the Watchers in the Hellenistic era to the hekhalot texts in the early Islamic era. We consider the contexts in which the texts were composed, their possible relations to each other, and their significance for beliefs about the relationship between humanity and the divine sphere, reward and punishment after death, and cosmology. Among the texts to be studied are Aramaic Levi, the Testament of Levi, Revelation, 2 Enoch, 3 Baruch, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the Apocalypse of Paul.
Martha Himmelfarb


SPRING 2020

Seminar in Roman Art: Historical Reliefs
ART 513 / CLA 518

The seminar focuses on Roman historical representations - an innovation of the Romans - and addresses not only the problem of their historical reference but, in many cases, their reconstruction from the fragmentary remains.
Michael Koortbojian 

Problems in Latin Literature: Latin Paleography
CLA 543

The graduate seminar provides a chronological survey of the development of Latin handwriting from its origins, the Roman scripts, through to humanistic scripts, in all their diversity of forms and styles. A particular emphasis is put on the book-based scripts of the western European Middle Ages and the Renaissance from c. 500 - 1500 AD, including scribal conventions and text typologies.
Daniela E. Mairhofer

Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Medieval Mediterranean
HIS 536 / HLS 536/MED 536

The littoral of the Great Sea has long been viewed as a major place of contact, conflict and exchange for groups belonging to the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This course approaches the encounters of different religions and ethnicities in such a manner as to introduce students not only to the classic historiography on the subject, but also to the main controversies and debates now current in scholarship. Our analysis and evaluation of the connections that developed between individuals and communities will focus on the High Middle Ages.
Teresa Shawcross

The Origins of the Middle Ages
HIS 543 / HLS 543

The seminar explores the transition from the late ancient to the medieval world in the Merovingian kingdoms, the most successful successor state of the Western Roman empire. We study the various efforts to find order and orientation in a quickly and constantly changing world that was shaped by its continuing connections to the Mediterranean as well as by its interaction with the European North and Northwest. We particularly focus on how the intellectual, social, and spiritual resources and models of the late Roman world were adopted and adapted in an ongoing bricolage which some of the baselines of medieval Europe were created.
Helmut Reimitz

Themes in Islamic Culture: History 600-1800 
NES 503

The course offers is a seminar on Islamic history from 600 to 1800 intended to prepare students for Generals and for eventually teaching such a course.
Michael A. Cook 

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions - Community Formation, Ritual, & Politics in Early Christianity 
REL 504 / HLS 525 / CLA 535

This seminar focuses on basic primary sources, Greek, Latin, and Coptic, that offer evidence for the early history of Christianity (c. 90-430 C.E.) To allow for breadth of reading and to include participants with varied interests, one may read primarily in English, with reference to the original texts as necessary.
Elaine H. Pagels

Studies in Ancient Judaism: Introduction to Judaism in the Greco-Roman World
REL 513
 
The goal of this course is to introduce a significant part of the literature of the Jews of Palestine and Egypt in the period from Alexander to the destruction of the Second Temple.
Martha Himmelfarb


Spring 2019

Antioch through the Ages - Archaeology and History
ART 418 / HLS 418 / CLA 418 / PAW 418

Antioch was unique among the great cities of the classical world for its position at the crossroads between the Mediterranean Sea and the Asian continent and for being a new foundation of the Hellenistic age that shrunk almost to insignificance in the modern era. Students in this course will get exclusive access to the archives and artifacts of the Princeton Antioch excavations of the 1930s. In the 2019 course, the focus will be on the Bath F Complex, the site of the greatest concentration of materials datable to the transition from the classical and late antique periods to the Islamic era.
Alan M. Stahl

Seminar in Medieval Art - 'Influence' and Innovation
ART 537 / MED 500

The course explores the vexed concept of "influence" in medieval art through case studies involving exchange between Eastern/Western Christian, Jewish, Pagan, and Islamic traditions. The seminar proceeds as a research workshop: each unit requires students to prepare a research agenda, present initial findings, and contribute to the course bibliography. In lieu of a single paper, students may compile a portfolio of short critical essays with a general introduction/conclusion. Readings balance historical and contemporary approaches to exceptionally complex monuments, along with theoretical texts drawn both from art history and other fields.
Beatrice E. Kitzinger

Problems in Post-Classical and Byzantine Literature - Beyond Transmission: Medieval Reception of Ancient Greek Literature
CLA 517 / MED 517 / HLS 517  

The history of ancient Greek literature in the middle ages has long been reduced to "transmission", relegating the period to curator instead of co-creator of the classical canon. We study the medieval reception of antiquity's literary legacy in institutional and intellectual practices which underwrote the copying, reading, and commenting of classical Greek texts, including the manuscript traditions of Homeric epic, the Pindaric odes, Greek historiography, and the works of Plato, among others. Palaeography and codicology are paired with medieval and Byzantine studies more generally in a bid to rewrite this chapter of classicism.
Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis

An Introduction to the Islamic Scholarly Tradition
NES 502 / MED 502

The course offers a hands-on introduction to such basic genres of medieval scholarship as biography, history, tradition, and Koranic exegesis, taught through the intensive reading of texts, mostly in Arabic.
Michael A. Cook

Intermediate Syriac
NES 512

The aim of the course is to provide the linguistic skills and the academic tools that are necessary to carry out research in Syriac Studies. The first session deals with the transcription of Syriac and presents an overview of the basic resources for academic research. The rest of the course centers on a selection of Syriac texts and addresses fundamental notions of literature, culture, and history.
George A. Kiraz

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions - Community Formation, Ritual, & Politics in Early Christianity
REL 504 / HLS 525 / CLA 535

This seminar focuses on basic primary sources, Greek, Latin, and Coptic, that offer evidence for the early history of Christianity (c. 90-430 C.E.) To allow for breadth of reading and to include participants with varied interests, one may read primarily in English, with reference to the original texts as necessary.
Elaine H. Pagels

Studies in Theology - Israel and the Nations
REL 506

Much of recent Jewish and Christian thought has focused on arguments defending the respective particularity of the Jewish and Christian traditions. With special attention to debates about God's people, the problem of election, the relation between religious and national identities, and the significance of the Apostle Paul, this seminar examines the historical and theological contexts of these arguments as well as their philosophical, ethical, and political implications.
Leora F. Batnitzky
Eric S. Gregory


Fall 2018

Seminar in Roman Art: Greek and Roman Portraits 
ART 513 / CLA 518  

The seminar focuses on the portraits in the collection of the PUAM, the department's cast collection, and works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. All discussions depend on the three-dimension presence of sculptures, either the originals or casts. The emphasis is on changes of style and technique, together with the contexts in which such changes occur.  
Michael Koortbojian

Problems in Ancient History: Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Numismatics 
CLA 548 / HLS 548 / PAW 548 / ART 532

A seminar covering the basic methodology of numismatics, including die, hoard and archaeological analysis as well as a survey of pre-modern coinages. The Western coinage tradition is covered, from its origins in the Greco-Persian world through classical and Hellenistic Greek coinage, Roman imperial and provincial issues, Parthian and Sasanian issues, the coinage of Byzantium, the Islamic world, and medieval and renaissance Europe. Students research and report on problems involving coinages related to their own areas of specialization. Open to undergraduates by permission of the instructor.
Alan M. Stahl

Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Medieval Mediterranean 
HIS 536 / HLS 536/ MED 536 

The littoral of the Great Sea has long been viewed as a major place of contact, conflict and exchange for groups belonging to the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This course approaches the encounters of different religions and ethnicities in such a manner as to introduce students not only to the classic historiography on the subject, but also to the main controversies and debates now current in scholarship. Our analysis and evaluation of the connections that developed between individuals and communities will focus on the High Middle Ages.
Teresa Shawcross

The Origins of the Middle Ages 
HIS 543 / HLS 543

This seminar explores the transition from the late ancient to the medieval world through the lens of law and legal practice from the late Roman to the Carolingian empire. We look at how the different codifications built on earlier legal models and traditions but adopted and adapted them in their respective circumstances. We explore these processes until the ninth century when the Carolingian rulers came to rule an Empire which comprised a variety of different Roman and post Roman legal traditions and laws and were confronted with the challenge to find new ways and strategies for their coexistence, compatibility and convergence. 
Helmut Reimitz

Intro to the Islamic Scholarly Tradition 
NES 502 / MED 502 

The course offers a hands-on introduction to such basic genres of medieval scholarship as biography, history, tradition, and Koranic exegesis, taught through the intensive reading of texts, mostly in Arabic. The syllabus varies according to the interests of the students and the instructor. 
Michael A. Cook

Introduction to Syriac 
NES 511 

A systematic introduction to Syriac language. Close reading of selected passages of Syriac texts.
Staff

Introduction to Arabic Documents 
NES 547 / HIS 546 

An introduction to hands-on work with medieval Arabic documentary sources in their original manuscript form. Between 100,000 and 200,000 such documents have survived, making this an exciting new area of research with plenty of discoveries still to be made. Students learn how to handle the existing repertory of editions, documentary hands, Middle Arabic, transcription, digital resources and original manuscripts, including Geniza texts currently on loan to Firestone from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. The syllabus varies according to the interests of the students and the instructor.
Marina Rustow

Special Topics in History of Philosophy – Plotinus’ Psychology 
PHI 515 / CLA 550 

The course is an intensive study of Plotinus' conception of the soul, focusing on treatises from his fourth Ennead. The seminar studies Plotinus' conception of the soul in its own right, but also places his thinking about the soul in the larger context of his conception of reality.
Staff

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions – Antioch from the Seleucids to Late Antiquity
REL 504 / HLS 525 

In this cross-disciplinary course about ancient Antioch students learn about religious and ethnic diversity, imperial power, and domestic life in antiquity and communicate their knowledge clearly through creating virtual exhibits that draw on objects in collections at Princeton and Harvard. The seminar focuses on literary, archaeological, and art historical materials. This course is parallel-taught at Harvard Divinity School by Prof. Laura Nasrallah. Participants travel to collections at Dumbarton Oaks, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Worcester Art Museum, and Harvard University.
AnneMarie Luijendijk


Intensive Course on Pre-Islamic Arabia
Princeton, New Jersey (USA) May 28 - June 1, 2018

Thanks to a number of generous grants from the David A. Gardner '69 Magic Project, the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University has organized a series of short, intensive courses for graduate students on a variety of subjects in the broad field of Islamic studies not normally covered in the Princeton curriculum. In each case, an internationally-recognized expert has been brought in to teach the course over a period of five weekdays.

This year, we plan to offer such a course on Pre-Islamic Arabia.

The course will take place from May 28 - June 1, 2018. The course is intended primarily for graduate students, both from Princeton and from other universities.

The instructor will be Professor Christian Robin, a leading expert in the study of pre-Islamic Arabia. The objective of the program is to present the state of knowledge about ancient Arabia until the time of Muḥammad. Archaeological excavations and innumerable epigraphic discoveries have profoundly renewed the question in recent decades.

Further information is available from the Department of Near Eastern Studies.


Spring 2018

Advanced Arabic II
ARA 302

This course will focus on advanced Arabic reading skills, grammar, and syntax. Attention will be paid to listening, speaking, and writing, but the primary aim of the course is to prepare students to read and understand the type of advanced Arabic texts read in graduate seminars. Attention will also be given to acquainting students with various research tools and with a variety of Arabic genres and text types.
Gregory J. Bell

Advanced Arabic Reading: The Short Story
ARA 309

This course will use the genre of the Arabic short story to help students expand their reading and, to a lesser extent, their speaking skills in Modern Standard Arabic. In addition, students will learn about the development of the Arabic short story through reading representative examples of the genre from a variety of periods and authors. Classes will be devoted to close readings of stories and to discussions of them in Arabic.
Gregory J. Bell

Problems in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture - Art and Persuasion
ART 535 / HLS 535
  
This seminar seeks to investigate the relationship of art to argument, by asking how it is that an icon might persuade its viewer to accept its contents as truthful. The focus is on Medieval Byzantine Art (ca. 500-1500) and addresses painting's relationship to rhetorical practices, scientific thought, and theology. In a society in which the icon was central to the definition of correct belief, such an "archaeology" of the icon discloses the discursive power of this medium.
Charlie Barber

Greek History - Methods and Problems
CLA 520 / PAW 520 / HLS 521  

A comprehensive introduction to central topics and methods of Greek history, offering a chronological overview of periods and significant developments; a survey of research tools and specialized sub-disciplines (e.g., epigraphy and numismatics); as well as important theoretical approaches to the study of the past (e.g., positivism, or the Annales School).
Nino Luraghi

Problems in Greek and Roman Philosophy - Pre-Socratic Philosophy
CLA 526 / HLS 527 / PHI 522

The seminar aims at exploring both the evidence and the conceptual tools on the basis of which we read the so-called 'Presocratic philosophers'. How can we analyze philosophy in the making, before it became a discipline in its own right? We consider a large sample of primary texts and sources related to prominent early thinkers such as Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Empedocles, and discuss them in the light of specialized scholarship; but we also try to find our way among a variety of theoretical approaches (philosophical, historiographical, etc.).
Andre Laks

Problems in Latin Literature - Boethius
CLA 543 
 
The aim of this course is to make a careful study of Boethius' world, reception and thought, giving particular attention to his Consolatio and the questions of historical context and Boethius' role in the assimilation of Greek and Roman literature and thought. Weekly meetings are divided between lectures, presentations, and analysis of texts.
Daniela E. Mairhofer

The World of Late Antiquity
HIS 210 / HLS 210 / CLA 202

This course will focus on the history of the later Roman Empire, a period which historians often refer to as "Late Antiquity." We will begin our class in pagan Rome at the start of the third century and end it in Baghdad in the ninth century: in between these two points, the Mediterranean world experienced a series of cultural and political revolutions whose reverberations can still be felt today. We will witness civil wars, barbarian invasions, the triumph of Christianity over paganism, the fall of the Western Empire, the rise of Islam, the Greco-Arabic translation movement and much more.
Jack B. Tannous

The Civilization of the High Middle Ages
HIS 344 / CLA 344

In lectures, to provide my interpretation (and a conspectus of differing interpretations) of the civilization of Western Europe, 11th-14th century; by the readings, to introduce students to the variety of surviving sources; through the paper, to give students a taste of doing medieval history.
William C. Jordan

The Crusades
HIS 345 / HLS 345 / MED 345

The Crusades were a central phenomenon of the Middle Ages. This course examines the origins and development of the Crusades and the Crusader States in the Islamic East. It explores dramatic events, such as the great Siege of Jerusalem, and introduces vivid personalities, including Richard the Lionheart and Saladin. We will consider aspects of institutional, economic, social and cultural history and compare medieval Christian (Western and Byzantine), Muslim and Jewish perceptions of the crusading movement. Finally, we will critically examine the resonance the movement continues to have in current political and ideological debates.
Teresa Shawcross

The Vikings: History and Archaeology
HIS 476 / MED 476

Who were the Vikings, at home or abroad? How did their raiding and settlement change the history of the British Isles and western Europe? This course will study the political, cultural, and economic impact that Norse expansion and raiding had on early medieval Europe. It will also look at the changes in Scandinavia that inspired and resulted from this expansion. Sources will include contemporary texts, sagas and epic poetry, material culture, and archaeological excavations.
Janet E. Kay

Problems in Byzantine History - Byzantium, Islam and the West
HIS 542 / HLS 542 / MED 542

The course looks at the ways in which different types of state formation arose out of the former Roman and Sasanian empires, with especial emphasis on elite formation and the dynamics of power. Discussions are grounded in some general theoretical insights and reading as well as in the sources for the early medieval west, the eastern Roman empire, and the early Islamic caliphate, with the emphasis on Byzantium. We also consider environmental, geographical and climatic features of state development. The aim is to situate the states that developed in these three zones in a broader context of state formation over the longue durée.
John F. Haldon

Monotheism and Society from Constantine to Harun al-Rashid
HIS 555 / HLS 555

The goal of this seminar will be to introduce students to some of the most important ideas and debates surrounding the two major religious revolutions of Late Antiquity: the triumph of Christianity and the subsequent emergence and world conquests of Islam. The course will focus on extensive reading in both primary and secondary literature and students will be introduced to and trained in using major instrumenta studiorum for this period; texts may also be read in Greek, Syriac, and Arabic. No prior knowledge of Late Antiquity, Christianity, or Islam will be assumed.
Jack B. Tannous

Latin: An Intensive Introduction
LAT 103

This is an intensive introduction to the Latin language: LAT 103 covers the material of LAT 101-102 in a shorter time through increased class time. Students completing the course will be prepared to take LAT 105.
Robert A. Kaster

Themes in Islamic Culture - Middle Eastern History
NES 503

This semester the course will be a chapter and paper clinic. Each participant will be expected to submit at least one draft chapter or paper to the seminar, and will receive intensive comments and suggestions on both form and substance from the other participants and the instructor. Chapters and papers may relate to any period or aspect of Middle Eastern or Islamic history.
Michael A. Cook

Documents and Institutions in the Medieval Middle East
NES 549 / HIS 509  

Seminar is part of a multi-year collaborative project devoted to reading Arabic documents from the medieval Middle East in Hebrew and Arabic script. Students contribute to a corpus of diplomatic editions, translations and commentaries to be published in the project's collection of texts. We introduce the most common legal and administrative genres: letters, lists, deeds, contracts, decrees and petitions. Our goal is to make this material legible as historical sources by combining philology, diplomatics, attention to the material text, and institutional and social history. Prerequisite: good reading knowledge of classical Arabic.
Eve Krakowski
Marina Rustow

In the Shadow of Swords: War, Martyrdom and the Afterlife in Islam
REL 235 / NES 235

 How were just war, holy war, and martyrdom imagined and enacted over the centuries in Islamic societies? How do concepts of the afterlife inform attitudes towards war and martyrdom? We begin in the Late Antique world with a survey of noble death, martyrdom, holy war, and just war, in the Roman, Jewish and Christian traditions. We explore these topics in the Islamic tradition through case studies: the Arab conquests, the Crusades, Spain and the Reconquista, the Iran-Iraq war and contemporary jihadist movements. We use primary sources in translation (including fiction and poetry) and, for modern period, films and internet.
Shaun E. Marmon

Christianity in the Roman Empire: Secret Rituals, Mystery Cults, and Apocalyptic Prophets
REL 251

How did Jesus' earliest followers interpret his life and death? What were secret initiation rites and love feast gatherings about? How did women participate in leadership? How did the Roman government react to this movement and why did Jesus' followers suffer martyrdom? How did early Christians think about the end of the world, and what did they do when it did not happen? This course is an introduction to the Jesus movement in the context of the Roman Empire and early Judaism. We examine texts in the New Testament (the Christian Bible) and other relevant sources, such as lost gospels, Dead Sea scrolls, and aspects of material culture.
AnneMarie Luijendijk

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions - Community Formation, Ritual, & Politics in Early Christianity
REL 504

This seminar focuses on basic primary sources, Greek, Latin, and Coptic, that offer evidence for the early history of Christianity (c. 90-430 C.E.) To allow for breadth of reading and to include participants with varied interests, one may read primarily in English, with reference to the original texts as necessary.
Elaine H. Pagels

Studies in Ancient Judaism - Science, Judaism, and Christianity in Late Antiquity
REL 513

This seminar centers on late ancient Jewish and Christian interactions with what we may call "science." We examine the place of natural observation and knowledge in some of the classical works of the period as well as more specialized texts dedicated to the description and interpretation of natural phenomena.
Moulie Vidas

Religions of Late Antiquity Workshop
REL 526

A weekly, year-long workshop providing students in the Religions of Late Antiquity with the opportunity to present their current research for discussion. Note: REL 525 (fall) and REL 526 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop. In order to receive credit and/or a grade, students must take the course both semesters.
Elaine H. Pagels

The Family in Roman Times and Late Antiquity
REL 590 / CLA 590 / PAW 590  

This course on the Family in the Roman and Late Antique World represents an in-depth introduction to the Roman family 100 BC to 700 AD with special attention to the political, economic, social, and cultural impact of Christianity both on ideology and reality of Roman family life.
Sabine Huebner


Fall 2017 

Art and Power in the Middle Ages
ART 228 / HLS 228 / MED 228 / HUM 228

In twelve weeks this course will examine major art works from the twelve centuries (300-1500 CE) that encompass the European Middle Ages. Presenting works from Europe and the Middle East, the course will introduce students to the art of Catholicism and Orthodoxy, Judaism and Islam; the great courts of the Eastern- and Holy Roman Empires, and the roving Vikings, Celts and Visigoths. Students will not only be invited to consider how art can represent and shape notions of sacred and secular power, but will also come to understand how the work of 'art' in this period is itself powerful and, sometimes, dangerous.
Charlie Barber

Medieval Art - Emperors, Angels, and Martyrs: Bodies in Byzantium
ART 430 / HLS 430 / MED 430

This course will explore the modes and meanings of representations of different types of bodies in the art of the East Roman Empire (ca. 700 to 1453). Weekly meetings will center around a group of readings and images that focus on a particular type of body within the Byzantine world. The course will begin with the imperial body, cover Christ, martyrs, and saints, and conclude with the bodies of Byzantine and modern viewers. The textual and visual material in discussion will prompt students to think critically about the relationship between historical and represented bodies and the kinds of signification the body was and is made to bear.
Charlie Barber

The Roman Empire, 31 B.C. to A.D. 337
CLA 219 / HIS 219

To study the Roman Empire at its height; to trace the transformation of government from a republican oligarchy to monarchy; to study the changes wrought by multiculturalism on the old unitary society; to trace the rise of Christianity from persecution to dominance; and to assess Rome's contributions in historical context.
Harriet I. Flower

Problems in Ancient History - Transformations of Culture in Late Antiquity
CLA 547 / PAW 503 / HLS 547 / HIS 557

Relying on material and textual evidence, the seminar explores the cultural history of the Mediterranean World in the Late Antique period by focusing on continuities and transformations in fields such as literate education, transmission of knowledge, religious change, formation of identity, and legal practice. We discuss key concepts such as Romanization, paideia, religious conversion, democratization of culture, centre and periphery from the early Empire to the emergence of post-Roman cultures and societies. Attention is paid to past scholarship as well as to innovative approaches based on new evidence and methods.
Helmut Reimitz, Alberto Rigolio

The Civilization of the Early Middle Ages
HIS 343 / CLA 343 / HLS 343

This course will survey the "Dark Ages" from the end of the Roman Empire to the end of the first millennium (ca. 400-1000 AD), often seen as a time of cultural and political decline, recently even labelled as the "end of civilization". The complex political and social landscape of the Roman Empire, however, had more to offer than just to end. This course will outline how early medieval people(s) in the successor states of the Roman Empire used its resources to form new communities and will suggest to understand the "Dark Ages" as a time of lively social and cultural experimentation, that created the social and political frameworks of Europe.
Helmut Reimitz

Problems and Sources in the Study of Late Antique Iran: Sasanian History
HIS 534

This graduate seminar is meant as both an overview of Sasanian history as well as an introduction to its historiography. It is organized based on the study of sources and addresses the issue of the diversity of languages, types of evidence, and variety of approaches. It additionally aims at connecting Sasanian history to the greater issues of late antique and world history and emphasizes similarities and mutual influences with other late antique civilizations and entities.
Khodadad Rezakhani

Ancient and Medieval Political Theory
POL 301 / CLA 301 / HLS 303

A study of the great works of political theory in four periods: ancient Greece, including Athenian democracy, Thucydides, Plato and Aristotle; ancient Rome from republic to empire, including Polybius, Cicero, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius; medieval Christian political thought in Augustine, Aquinas, Marsilius, and others; and a brief survey of Renaissance meditations on classical themes. Fundamental topics are examined, including nature and convention; constitutional analysis, including democracy, oligarchy, tyranny, kingship, and the mixed constitution; property, virtue, law, and republicanism; church and state; consent and representation.
Giovanni Giorgini

Special Topics in the Study of Religion - Papyrology and Late Antique History
REL 511

This course introduces students to the tools of the discipline of papyrology. The two main components are 1. how to write history with ancient papyrus documents and 2. the material history of books (new philology). We work with a broad range of papyri, mainly in Greek, so strong knowledge of Greek is required.
AnneMarie Luijendijk

Religions of Late Antiquity Workshop
REL 525

A weekly, year-long workshop providing students in the Religions of Late Antiquity with the opportunity to present their current research for discussion. Note: REL 525 (fall) and REL 526 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop. In order to receive credit and/or a grade, students must take the course both semesters.
Elaine H. Pagels


Spring 2017

Topics in Ancient History - Religions in the Roman Empire
CLA 327 / HIS 327 / HLS 327 / REL 307

The course addresses a pivotal period of cultural and religious change in Mediterranean history and takes the form of an interdisciplinary journey among several religious communities living in the Roman Empire from the time of Augustus to the rise of Christianity. We will make use of the artistic, archeological and documentary record to learn about pagan sanctuaries, ancient synagogues and the earliest house churches used by Christians; and we will read ancient texts in order to understand the lives of the most influential historical players in the religious field, including the prophet Mani, Emperor Constantine and Julian 'the Apostate'.
Alberto Rigolio

Problems in Ancient History - Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Numismatics
CLA 548 / HLS 548 / PAW 548 / ART 532

A seminar covering the basic methodology of numismatics, including die, hoard and archaeological analysis as well as a survey of pre-modern coinages. The Western coinage tradition is covered, from its origins in the Greco-Persian world through classical and Hellenistic Greek coinage, Roman imperial and provincial issues, Parthian and Sasanian issues, the coinage of Byzantium, the Islamic world, and medieval and renaissance Europe. Students research and report on problems involving coinages related to their own areas of specialization. Open to undergraduates by permission of the instructor.
Alan M. Stahl

Methods in Byzantine Literature and Philology
CLA 598 / MED 598 / HLS 598

This course emphasizes proficiency in post-Classical and Medieval Greek language through close readings and translations of literature. In addition to surveying the principal genres of literature and the questions surrounding them, it also introduces Ph.D. students to the instrumenta studiorum of Late Antique and Byzantine philology, such as palaeography, codicology, text editing, databases and bibliography.
Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis

Mediterranean Contingencies: Byzantium and Its Medieval Others
COM 429 / HLS 429 / MED 429

Well before other medieval societies (both Christian and Muslim), Byzantium was flourishing in the 4th century. Greek-speaking (though bilingual with Latin until the 6th century), this self-proclaimed, New Rome, faced unprecedented challenges. It grew into an immense empire, an empire, paradoxically, whose cultural influence spread over the centuries in inverse proportion to its political strength. Topics we will consider include: definitions of empire, definitions of Byzantium over its 1,100-year evolution, issues of ethnicity and race and the inextricable relationship of historiography and fiction.
Marina S. Brownlee

The World of Late Antiquity
HIS 210 / HLS 210 / CLA 202

This course will focus on the history of the later Roman Empire, a period which historians often refer to as "Late Antiquity." We will begin our class in pagan Rome at the start of the third century and end it in Baghdad in the ninth century: in between these two points, the Mediterranean world experienced a series of cultural and political revolutions whose reverberations can still be felt today. We will witness civil wars, barbarian invasions, the triumph of Christianity over paganism, the fall of the Western Empire, the rise of Islam, the Greco-Arabic translation movement and much more.
Jack B. Tannous

Introduction to Medieval Latin
LAT 232

Selections from Medieval Latin prose and poetry, with emphasis on Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Attention to developments in Latin in the period, as well as to textual transmission and the reception of the Classics.
Daniela E. Mairhofer

Plato's Legacy in the Middle Ages
MED 336 / CLA 337

A survey of the most important Neoplatonic philosophers and Christian writers of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages influenced by Neoplatonism, up to the late 13th century; the emphasis is very much on the reception of Plato's dialogue Timaeus, more specifically on the creation of the world.
Daniela E. Mairhofer

In the Shadow of Swords: War, Martyrdom and the Afterlife in Islam
REL 235 / NES 235

How were just war, holy war, and martyrdom imagined and enacted over the centuries in Islamic societies? How do concepts of the afterlife inform attitudes towards war and martyrdom? We begin in the Late Antique world with a survey of noble death, martyrdom, holy war, and just war, in the Roman, Jewish and Christian traditions. We explore these topics in the Islamic tradition through case studies: the Arab conquests, the Crusades, Spain and the Reconquista, the Iran-Iraq war and contemporary jihadist movements. We use primary sources in translation (including fiction and poetry) and, for modern period, films and internet.
Shaun E. Marmon

The New Testament and Christian Origins
REL 251

To trace the origins of Christianity from its beginnings as a movement within ancient Judaism to its gradual transformation and emergence as an independent religious movement in the Roman Empire and beyond. To read the New Testament with a critical eye, i.e., as a collection of documents illustrating differing emphases and stages in the growth of early Christianity.
John G. Gager

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions - Late Antique Jewish Texts and Material Culture in Christian Context
REL 504

The fifth through eighth centuries saw the emergence of a variety of forms of literature outside the rabbinic corpus among Jews in Palestine & Babylonia. At the same time, Jewish communities in Palestine & elsewhere commissioned a significant body of mosaics & other ritual & decorative objects for their synagogues. We consider both texts & material evidence to develop a more variegated picture of Jews & Judaism in late antiquity, with units on the liturgical poetry (piyyut) & mosaic art of the synagogue, apocalyptic literature & hekhalot texts, & the narrative midrash Pirqei Rabbi Eliezer, in their larger, primarily Christian, context.
Ra'anan S. Boustan, Martha Himmelfarb

Religions of Late Antiquity Workshop
REL 526

A weekly, year-long workshop providing students in the Religions of Late Antiquity with the opportunity to present their current research for discussion. Note: REL 525 (fall) and REL 526 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop. In order to receive credit and/or a grade, students must take the course both semesters.
AnneMarie Luijendijk


Fall 2016

Art and Power in the Middle Ages
ART 228 / HLS 228 / MED 228 / HUM 228

In twelve weeks this course will examine major art works from the twelve centuries (300-1500 CE) that encompass the European Middle Ages. Presenting works from Europe and the Middle East, the course will introduce students to the art of Catholicism and Orthodoxy, Judaism and Islam; the great courts of the Eastern- and Holy Roman Empires, and the roving Vikings, Celts and Visigoths. Students will not only be invited to consider how art can represent and shape notions of sacred and secular power, but will also come to understand how the work of 'art' in this period is itself powerful and, sometimes, dangerous.
Charlie Barber, Beatrice E. Kitzinger

Antioch through the Ages - Archaeology and History
ART 418 /HLS 418 /CLA 418 /PAW 418

Antioch was unique among the great cities of the classical world for its position at the crossroads between the Mediterranean Sea and the Asian continent and for being a new foundation of the Hellenistic age that shrunk almost to insignificance in the modern era. Students in this course will get exclusive access to the archives and artifacts of the Princeton Antioch excavations of the 1930s. In the 2016 course, the focus will be on the theatre excavated in the Daphne region overlooking the city of Antioch, site of pagan performances well into the Christian era; students will study and report on its architecture, decor and use.
Alan M. Stahl

Medieval Art - The Icon
ART 430 / HLS 430 / MED 430

The topic for this seminar will be the icon, a medium that developed in Late Antiquity and that continues to be a major and influential form of painting. We will examine the history, function, theory and meaning of the icon, and will also examine the icon's influence upon the discourses of Modernism. A more practical aspect of this seminar is that participants will work with the Princeton University Art Museum's newly acquired collection of icon painter's preparatory drawings, preparing catalogue entries for a virtual exhibition of this material.
Charlie Barber

Constantinople: A Literary Journey to the Capital of Byzantium
CLA 230 / HLS 230 / MED 231

Our focus is the city of Constantinople. Designated 'New Rome' to rule the Christian East at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, the capital of the Byzantine empire was considered the greatest metropolis of the middle ages. We will study the city through primary texts in translation and examine its surviving monuments and urban landscape. To encourage individual engagement with the city, each student will assume a typical persona drawn from the readings, from whose perspective she or he will observe the city as part of a broader assignment.
Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis

Methods in Byzantine Literature and Philology
CLA 598 / MED 598 / HLS 598

This course emphasizes proficiency in post-Classical and Medieval Greek language through close readings and translations of literature. In addition to surveying the principal genres of literature and the questions surrounding them, it also introduces Ph.D. students to the instrumenta studiorum of Late Antique and Byzantine philology, such as palaeography, codicology, text editing, databases and bibliography.
Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis

Introduction to Jewish Cultures
COM 202 / JDS 203

This introductory course focuses on the cultural syncretism and the global diversity of Jewish experience. It provides a comparative understanding of Jewish culture from antiquity to the present, examining how Jewish culture has emerged through the interaction of Jews and non-Jews, engaging a wide spectrum of cultures throughout the Jewish world, and following representations of key issues such as sexuality or the existence of God in different eras. The course's interdisciplinary approach covers Bible and Talmud, Jewish mysticism, Zionism, Jewish cinema, music, food, modern literature, and graphic arts. All readings and films are in English.
Lital Levy

The World of Late Antiquity
HIS 210 / HLS 210 / CLA 202

This course will focus on the history of the later Roman Empire, a period which historians often refer to as "Late Antiquity." We will begin our class in pagan Rome at the start of the third century and end it in Baghdad in the ninth century: in between these two points, the Mediterranean world experienced a series of cultural and political revolutions whose reverberations can still be felt today. We will witness civil wars, barbarian invasions, the triumph of Christianity over paganism, the fall of the Western Empire, the rise of Islam, the Greco-Arabic translation movement and much more.
Jack Tannous

Europe from Antiquity to 1700
HIS 211

This course shows how Greeks and Romans, Jews and Christians, nobles and merchants built the civilization of the west.
Anthony T. Grafton

Ancient Judaism from Alexander to the Rise of Islam
REL 246 / JDS 246

This course offers an introduction to the development of ancient Judaism during the eventful millennium from the establishment of the Torah as the constitution of the Jewish people in the fifth century BCE--an event that some have seen as marking the transition from biblical religion to Judaism--to the completion of the other great canonical Jewish document, the Babylonian Talmud, in perhaps the sixth century CE.
Martha Himmelfarb

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions - The Beginning of Late Antiquity
REL 504 / HLS 516

This class examines this influential period, beginning with the celebration of the Roman millennium in the year 247 through the reign of Theodosius I. We study sources pertaining to economy, law, demography, philosophy, social history, and theology in addition to material evidence (archaeological remains, coins, papyri).
AnneMarie Luijendijk

Coptic II: Early Christianity in Late Antique Egypt
REL 550

This course assumes a basic knowledge of Coptic language, and will provide an introduction to early Christianity in Late Antique Egypt. Our starting point will be the Nag Hammadi Library; as such, this course will survey a number of literary genres (letters, gospels, magic, and apocalypse) and sectarian groups (Sethians, Hermetists, and Valentinians) contained in the collection. Depending on student interests, this course will also consider a number of possible topics relating to Late Antique Egypt, such as Manichaeism, monasticism, Neo-Platonism, demonology, ecumenical councils, and indigenous religious beliefs and practices.
Alexander G. Kocar


Spring 2016

Medieval Architecture
ART 315 / ARC 315

A survey of Western architecture and urban design from ca. 300 to ca. 1500 A.D, with a particular emphasis on Italy, Germany, and France. The aim will be to explore the major developments in religious and secular architecture in the West from Early Christian times to the Renaissance. Various aspects of architecture will be considered (patronage, functional requirements, planning, form, structure, construction techniques, symbolism, decoration) with the aim of attaining as complete an understanding as possible of architectural developments and urban design in their historical context.
Alexander K. Harper

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions - Authority, Ritual, and Politics in Early Christianity
REL 504 / HLS 505

Our seminar investigates several major topics (c. 70 C.E.- 500 C.E.), including the following: Authority, "Scriptures," and leadership, seen in comparison with Jewish groups; Rituals, especially exorcism, in context of Greco-Roman cosmology and practices; Constantine's "Christian empire"; Discoveries of "heretical" texts.
Elaine H. Pagels

Religions of Late Antiquity Workshop
REL 526

A weekly, year-long workshop providing students in the Religions of Late Antiquity with the opportunity to present their current research for discussion. Note: REL 525 (fall) and REL 526 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop. In order to receive credit and/or a grade, students must take the course both semesters.
Moulie Vidas


Fall 2015

Medieval Art: Writing on the Image
ART 430 / HLS 430 / MED 430

This seminar investigates the presence of words on images. It will ask how signatures, titles, epigrams, quotations, names, prayers, graffiti and other verbal traces on the surface of the work of art challenge our assumptions of representation, introducing speech acts, memorials, frames, possession, and origins into this visual economy. Our focus will be on Byzantine art, using a range of media: icon, ivory, enamel, manuscript, architecture. No previous knowledge of Byzantine art is necessary. Students will be able to write on non-Byzantine topics.
Charlie Barber

The Roman Empire 31 BC to AD 337
CLA 219 / HIS 219

To study the Roman Empire at its height; to trace the transformation of government from a republican oligarchy to monarchy; to study the changes wrought by multiculturalism on the old unitary society; to trace the rise of Christianity from persecution to dominance; and to assess Rome's contributions in historical context.
Brent D. Shaw

Sex and Salvation in Early Christian Literature
CLA 245 / HLS 244 / GSS 245 / MED 244
   
Why did sex become so prominent in the moral imagination of early Christianity? How did the fate of the soul become so dependent on the sexual discipline of Christians? We will read a wide variety of late antique and early medieval texts which explore, prescribe, and aestheticize physical love and relate its consequences for sin and salvation in later Roman society. The course will emphasize literary as well as social history.
Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis

Problems in Ancient History: Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Numismatics 
CLA 548 / HLS 548 / PAW 548 / ART 532 
 
A seminar covering the basic methodology of numismatics, including die, hoard and archaeological analysis as well as a survey of pre-modern coinages. The Western coinage tradition is covered, from its origins in the Greco-Persian world through classical and Hellenistic Greek coinage, Roman imperial and provincial issues, Parthian and Sasanian issues, the coinage of Byzantium, the Islamic world, and medieval and renaissance Europe. Students research and report on problems involving coinages related to their own areas of specialization. Open to undergraduates by permission of the instructor.
Alan M. Stahl

Europe from Antiquity to 1700
HIS 211   

This course shows how Greeks and Romans, Jews and Christians, nobles and merchants built the civilization of the west.
Anthony T. Grafton

Empire and Catastrophe
HIS 428 / HLS 428 / MED 428 
  
Catastrophe reveals the fragility of human society. This course examines a series of phenomena--plague, famine, war, revolution, economic depression etc.--in order to reach an understanding of humanity's imaginings of but also resilience to collective crises. We shall look in particular at how political forces such as empire have historically both generated and resisted global disasters. Material dealing with the especially fraught centuries at the transition between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period will be set alongside examples drawn from antiquity as well as our own contemporary era.
Teresa Shawcross

Introduction to Classical Arabic Literature
NES 223 / COM 227
  
An introduction to Classical Arabic Literature from pre-Islamic Arabian poetry to 17th century burlesque tales from Cairo, this course familiarizes you with the authors and texts that shaped the classical Arabic literary heritage. Poetry, tales, and fables will acquaint you with genres such as the qasida, ghazal, and the maqamat, providing a sense of literature at a time when Arabic was the language of writing from Spain to India. Keeping in mind our positionality in relation to the material, we will address questions of genre, periodization, translation, and aesthetic judgment.
Lara Harb

The Islamic World from its Emergence to the Beginnings of Westernization
NES 245 / HIS 245 / MED 245

Begins with the formation of the traditional Islamic world in the 7th century and ends with the first signs of its transformation under Western impact in the 18th century. The core of the course is the history of state formation in the Middle East, but other regions and themes make significant appearances. The course can stand on its own or serve as background to the study of the modern Islamic world.
Michael A. Cook 

Early Christian Biblical Interpretation
NES 344
 
In this seminar, we shall study the ways in which the Christian Bible, comprising the Old and the New Testament, was interpreted in the early Church. After a broad survey of the history of Biblical interpretation to the end of the sixth century, we shall focus on the exegesis of specific Biblical themes (The Creation Narrative; the Story of Cain and Abel; the Sacrifice of Isaac; themes from the Book of Daniel; the Adoration of the Magi; Christ's Entry into Jerusalem; Lazarus and the Rich Man). Primary sources will be read in English translation.
Emmanuel Papoutsakis

Everyday Writing in Medieval Egypt, 600-1500
NES 389

This class explores medieval Islamic history through everyday documents from Egypt: letters, decrees, contracts, court records, and accounts. We will read a wide range of documents in translation, learn to understand them, and use them to evaluate politics, religion, class, commerce, material history, and family relationships in Egypt from just before the Islamic conquests until just before the Ottoman era. We will also consider documents themselves, as historical artifacts and as historical evidence. Why did medieval people produce and preserve written records? And what does history look like when told through documents?
Eve Krakowski

Ancient and Medieval Political Theory
POL 301 / CLA 301 / HLS 303
 
A study of the great works of political theory in four periods: ancient Greece, including Athenian democracy, Thucydides, Plato and Aristotle; ancient Rome from republic to empire, including Polybius, Cicero, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius; medieval Christian political thought in Augustine, Aquinas, Marsilius, and others; and a brief survey of Renaissance meditations on classical themes. Fundamental topics are examined, including nature and convention; constitutional analysis, including democracy, oligarchy, tyranny, kingship, and the mixed constitution; property, virtue, law, and republicanism; church and state; consent and representation.
Melissa Lane 

Texts in Ancient and Medieval Political Theory
POL 510 / CLA 527 / HLS 509 

This course covers selected ancient and medieval political theory texts in depth, beginning in ancient Greece and ending in the early Renaissance. Authors to be covered include Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Aquinas, and Marsilius. Students are required to attend the twice weekly lectures for POL 301, in addition to a eighty-minute graduate meeting in which secondary as well as primary readings are discussed.
Melissa Lane

Religions of Late Antiquity Workshop
REL 525

A weekly, year-long workshop providing students in the Religions of Late Antiquity with the opportunity to present their current research for discussion. Note: REL 525 (fall) and REL 526 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop. In order to receive credit and/or a grade, students must take the course both semesters.
Moulie Vidas

Medieval Architecture
ART 315 / ARC 315 

A survey of Western architecture and urban design from ca. 300 to ca. 1500 A.D, with a particular emphasis on Italy, Germany, and France. The aim will be to explore the major developments in religious and secular architecture in the West from Early Christian times to the Renaissance. Various aspects of architecture will be considered (patronage, functional requirements, planning, form, structure, construction techniques, symbolism, decoration) with the aim of attaining as complete an understanding as possible of architectural developments and urban design in their historical context.
Alexander K. Harper

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions - Authority, Ritual, and Politics in Early Christianity
REL 504 / HLS 505 

Our seminar investigates several major topics (c. 70 C.E.- 500 C.E.), including the following: Authority, "Scriptures," and leadership, seen in comparison with Jewish groups; Rituals, especially exorcism, in context of Greco-Roman cosmology and practices; Constantine's "Christian empire"; Discoveries of "heretical" texts.
Elaine H. Pagels

Religions of Late Antiquity Workshop
REL 526 

A weekly, year-long workshop providing students in the Religions of Late Antiquity with the opportunity to present their current research for discussion. Note: REL 525 (fall) and REL 526 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop. In order to receive credit and/or a grade, students must take the course both semesters.
Moulie Vidas


Summer 2015

Excavations at Molyvoti in Northern Greece
ART/CLA/HLS 304

A hands-on introduction to the methods and theories of excavation and to the archaeology of ancient Greece. Students participate in a 6-week excavation season, where they will learn how to excavate and survey, and how to record, analyze, and interpret what they find. Onsite training and discussion complemented by seminars, guest lectures, and regional trips.  More information
Helmut Reimitz


Spring 2015

The Roman Empire, 31 B.C. to A.D. 337
CLA 219 / HIS 219  
 
To study the Roman Empire at its height; to trace the transformation of government from a republican oligarchy to despotism; to study the changes wrought by multiculturalism on the old unitary society; to trace the rise of Christianity from persecution to dominance; and to assess Rome's contributions to western civilization.
Edward J. Champlin

Topics in Medieval Greek Literature - Abused, Repentant, Transvestite, Holy Women in Byzantium
CLA 320 / HLS 320 / MED 320 / GSS 320
   
In this course we will read a selection of stories about a new social and religious figure, the female saint. Translated from medieval Greek, these "Lives" of holy women from the later Roman and Byzantine world combine social realism (wives fleeing brutal husbands, girls escaping prostitution, women disguised as monks in order to gain entry into male preserves) with a Christian idealist piety. We will attempt to understand how such literature evolved and why the figure of the female saint escaping the plight of her gender resonated in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis

The Eagle and the Dragon: Comparing Ancient Rome and Han Empire
CLA 360 / EAS 360 / HUM 360
 
Flourishing contemporaneously between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE, Rome and the Han controlled much of the Eurasian landmass. What does juxtaposing the two reveal about each and the possibilities of historical comparison more broadly? By focusing on common themes (including kingship, administration, society, material culture), we draw upon a range of approaches to introduce both empires and a core problem in historical enquiry. Unlike most comparative histories, we also pay close attention to how ancient participants in empire perceived, portrayed, and theorized their worlds, and the ways ideas shaped their imperial projects.
Tineke M. D'Haeseleer Matthew M. McCarty 

Problems in Greek Literature - Ancient Prose Fiction
CLA 514 / COM 524   

A survey of Greek prose fiction with the aim of exploring the structures, techniques, themes, influences, and preoccupations of the ancient novel/romance in its cultural and historical contexts. Attention to theories of the genre and its development in the expanded borders of the Greek world from the Hellenistic period to late antiquity. We will focus primarily on Chariton, Achilles Tatius, Longus, and Heliodorus, with attention, if interest warrants it to the Roman examples of Petronius and Apuleius. Appropriate secondary readings, including Bakhtin, Foucault, Goldhill, Konstan, Whitmarsh, Morales, Morgan.
Froma I. Zeitlin

Roman History - Problems and Methods
CLA 524
  
A seminar that introduces graduate students to current methods and debates in Roman history and historiography. Provides a chronological overview of the history of Rome and her expanding empire from the early Republic (5th century BC) to the end of the empire in the West (5th-6th centuries AD), accompanied by the study of a wide variety of ancient sources, including texts, inscriptions, coins, material culture, art, and archaeology, and the methods commonly used by modern historians to analyze them. Students acquire the basic tools needed to do research in Roman history.
Brent D. Shaw

The World of Late Antiquity
HIS 210/HLS 210/CLA 202

This course will focus on the history of the later Roman Empire, a period which historians often refer to as "Late Antiquity." We will begin our class in pagan Rome at the start of the third century and end it in Baghdad in the ninth century: in between these two points, the Mediterranean world experienced a series of cultural and political revolutions whose reverberations can still be felt today. We will witness civil wars, barbarian invasions, the triumph of Christianity over paganism, the fall of the Western Empire, the rise of Islam, the Greco-Arabic translation movement and much more.
Jack B. Tannous

The Origins of the Middle Ages
HIS 543/HLS 543

This seminar explores the transition from the late ancient to the medieval world through the lens of law and legal practice from the late Roman to the Carolingian empire. We will look at how the different codifications built on earlier legal models and traditions but adopted and adapted them in their respective circumstances. We will explore these processes until the ninth century when the Carolingian rulers came to rule an Empire which comprised a variety of different Roman and post Roman legal traditions and laws and were confronted with the challenge to find new ways and strategies for their coexistence, compatibility and convergence.
Helmut Reimitz

Monotheism and Society from Constantine to Harun al-Rashid
HIS 555 / HLS 555 

The goal of this seminar will be to introduce students to some of the most important ideas and debates surrounding the two major religious revolutions of Late Antiquity: the triumph of Christianity and the subsequent emergence and world conquests of Islam. The course will focus on extensive reading in both primary and secondary literature and students will be introduced to and trained in using major instrumenta studiorum for this period; texts may also be read in Greek, Syriac, and Arabic. No prior knowledge of Late Antiquity, Christianity, or Islam will be assumed.
Jack Tannous

Christianity Along the Silk Road
NES 325/HIS 338/HLS 323

Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic very similar to the language spoken by Jesus in first-century Palestine. Aramaic-speaking Christians in the Near East soon adopted Syriac as their literary language; by the early fourteenth century, Syriac Christianity spread from the western Mediterranean to China. In this seminar we shall be exploring the origins of Syriac Christianity in the Near East and its spread along the Silk Road before 1500.
Emmanuel Papoutsakis

Ancient Judaism from Alexander to the Rise of Islam
REL 246 / JDS 246 
  
This course offers an introduction to the development of ancient Judaism during the eventful millennium from the establishment of the Torah as the constitution of the Jewish people in the fifth century BCE--an event that some have seen as marking the transition from biblical religion to Judaism--to the completion of the other great canonical Jewish document, the Babylonian Talmud, in perhaps the sixth century CE.
Martha Himmelfarb

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions - Ritual and Liturgy in Late Antiquity
REL 504/HLS 504

How did people in Late Antiquity worship? What happened in a temple, synagogue, church or shrine? What at home? What did people say and do? How did ritual experts and laypeople act and interact? What practices surrounded birth, marriage, travel, illness, feasts and death? Who prays, sings hymns, reads scripture? What is our evidence for every day (and idealized) practices and where are the biases in the evidence? What changes in ritual and liturgy this period and why? We will examine a range of primary sources (literary, papyrological, archaeological), historical scholarship and theoretical writings.
AnneMarie Luijendijk


Fall 2014

Medieval Greek Literature
CLA 320 / HLS 320 / MED 320

The subject of this course will be medieval Greek Romantic fiction. We will read translations of the four surviving novels written in twelfth-century Constantinople in a bid to answer questions about the link between eroticism and the novel, truth and invention in the middle ages, who read fiction and why, and what role, if any, did the medieval or Byzantine Romances have in the story of the European novel. Above all, we will seek to recover some of the pleasure felt by the medieval readers and audiences of these novels.
Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis

Topics in Ancient History - Slavery in the Roman World
CLA 326 / HIS 326 / REL 329 

This course considers the problem of slavery in the Roman world, from the early Republic to the end of the Empire. There will be some coverage of the background developments in the slave system under the earlier age of the Greek city-states. A wide range of subjects concerning slavery in Roman society will be considered including the causes of the creation of the Roman slave system, the ways in which it was maintained, its main social and economic functions, and the problem of resistance to servitude.
Brent D. Shaw

Problems in Greek History - Classical and Hellenistic Inscriptions
CLA 521 
 
Greek inscriptions provide especially valuable information on the political life, institutions and social structures of Greek society. The aim of the course is to give an introduction to the use of epigraphic documents in historical research. The sessions are devoted to the analysis of particular aspects of Greek society (e. g. relationships between city and country, king and city, Greeks and non-Greeks) on the basis of inscriptions from the Classical and Hellenistic periods.
Marc Domingo Gygax

Problems in Ancient History - Politics & Religion
CLA 547 / PAW 503 / HLS 547 / ART 534 
 
This interdisciplinary seminar explores the intersection of politics and religion in the ancient world. The special case to be studied, exempli gratia, will be Augustus' Res Gestae, although individual projects may range across the Mediterranean throughout Antiquity, and may focus on any form of surviving evidence (historical, literary, monumental, numismatic, etc.).
Edward J. Champlin  Michael Koortbojian

Problems in Ancient History - Ancient and Medieval Numismatics
CLA 548 / HLS 548 / PAW 548 / ART 532 

A seminar covering the basic methodology of numismatics, including die, hoard and archaeological analysis. The Western coinage tradition is covered, from its origins in the Greco-Persian world through classical and Hellenistic Greek coinage, Roman imperial and provincial issues, the coinage of Byzantium, the Islamic world and medieval and renaissance Europe. Students research and report on problems involving coinages related to their own areas of specialization. Open to undergraduates by permission of the instructor.
Alan Stahl

Introduction to Post-Classical Greek from the Late Antique to the Byzantine Era
CLG 240/HLS 240

This course will focus on the Greek Bible and the emergence of a 'common' Greek language. We will read excerpts from the Septuagint (the Greek transl. of the Hebrew bible) and from the New Testament in order to understand how Greek evolved from the time of Alexander the Great to the Roman emperors so as to become the 'common tongue' (koinê) of a Hellenized eastern Mediterranean world of Jews, Pagans, and Christians.
Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis

HIS 343/CLA 343/HLS 343
The Civilization of the Early Middle Ages

This course will survey the "Dark Ages" from the end of the Roman Empire to the end of the first millennium (ca. 400-1000 AD), often seen as a time of cultural and political decline, recently even labelled as the "end of civilization". The complex political and social landscape of the Roman Empire, however, had more to offer than just to end. This course will outline how early medieval people(s) in the successor states of the Roman Empire used its resources to form new communities and will suggest to understand the "Dark Ages" as a time of lively social and cultural experimentation, that created the social and political frameworks of Europe.
Helmut Reimitz

Empire and Catastrophe
HIS 428 / HLS 428 / MED 428
  
Catastrophe reveals the fragility of human society. This course examines a series of phenomena--plague, famine, war, revolution, economic depression etc.--in order to reach an understanding of humanity's imaginings of but also resilience to collective crises. We shall look in particular at how political forces such as empire have historically both generated and resisted global disasters. Material dealing with the especially fraught centuries at the transition between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period will be set alongside examples drawn from antiquity as well as our own contemporary era.
Teresa Shawcross

The World of the Middle Ages
MED 227 / HUM 227  

An introduction to medieval culture in Western Europe from the end of the classical world to ca. 1400. The course focuses on themes such as the medieval concepts of self, humanity, and God; nation-building, conquest and crusade; relations among Christians, Jews, and Moslems; literacy, heresy, and the rise of vernacular literature; gender, chivalry, and the medieval court. Material approached through various cultural forms and media; some lectures by invited guest lecturers. Seminar discussion format with some lecturing.
Sara S. Poor

The Islamic World from its Emergence to the Beginnings of Westernization
NES 245/HIS 245/MED 245

Begins with the formation of the traditional Islamic world in the seventh century and ends with the first signs of its transformation under Western impact in the 18th century. The core of the course is the history of state formation in the Middle East, but other regions and themes make significant appearances. The course can stand on its own or serve as background to the study of the modern Islamic world.
Michael A Cook

Early Christian Biblical Interpretation
NES 344

In this seminar, we shall study the ways in which the Christian Bible, comprising the Old and the New Testament, was interpreted in the early Church. After a broad survey of the history of Biblical interpretation to the end of the sixth century, we shall focus on the exegesis of specific Biblical themes (The Creation Narrative; the Story of Cain and Abel; the Sacrifice of Isaac; themes from the Book of Daniel; the Adoration of the Magi; Christ's Entry into Jerusalem; Lazarus and the Rich Man). Primary sources will be read in English translation.
Emmanuel Papoutsakis

Readings in Classical Arabic Literature
NES 531
  
A reading of selections of poetry and prose. Problems of narrative, poetics, and the like may be discussed according to the interests of the class.
Andras P. Hamori

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions - Community Formation in Early Christian Sources
REL 504 / CLA 516 / HLS 505  

Course focuses on basic primary sources, both Greek and Latin, that offer evidence for the early history of Christianity (100-400 CE). To allow for breadth of reading and to include participants from various departments, one may read primarily in English, with reference to the original texts as necessary.
Elaine Pagels

Studies in Ancient Judaism - Apocalyptic Literature of the Byzantine Era
REL 513 / HLS 510

The events of the seventh century--the wars between Byzantium & Persia followed by the Muslim conquest--seemed to some Jews to signal that the messianic age was about to dawn. From a very different angle of vision Christians felt called upon to explain the significance of the Muslim conquest for their eschatological expectations. This course considers the literature produced by Jews and Christians in response to these events & the impact of Jewish & Christian texts & traditions on each other against the background of earlier Jewish & Christian apocalyptic literature & the messianic expectations of the centuries before the rise of Islam.
Martha Himmelfarb 


Spring 2014

The Civilization of the Early Middle Ages
HIS 343

This course will survey the "Dark Ages" from the end of the Roman Empire to the end of the first millennium (ca. 400-1000 AD), often seen as a time of cultural and political decline, recently even labelled as the "end of civilization". The complex political and social landscape of the Roman Empire, however, had more to offer than just to end. This course will outline how early medieval people(s) in the successor states of the Roman Empire used its resources to form new communities and will suggest to understand the "Dark Ages" as a time of lively social and cultural experimentation, that created the social and political frameworks of Europe.
Helmut Reimitz

Themes in Islamic Culture - History 600-1800
NES 503

This year the course will be a seminar on Islamic history from 600 to 1800 intended to prepare students for Generals and for eventually teaching such a course.
Michael A. Cook


Fall 2013

HIS 543/HLS 543
The Origins of the Middle Ages:  History, Law and the Bible in the early Middle Ages

This seminar explores the transition from the late ancient to the medieval world through the lens of the historians of the time. What role did the writing of history play in understanding social change? Which preexisting historical models or texts were used, how were they reconfigured, and what new ones were created in order to respond to the fundamental social changes? How did the writing of history not only reflect but also encourage social change? The course explores these processes and introduces students of late antique and medieval studies to techniques such as codicology, palaeography, and the art of editing.
Helmut Reimitz

An Introduction to the Islamic Scholarly Tradition
NES 502

The course offers a hands-on introduction to such basic genres of medieval scholarship as biography, history, tradition, and Koranic exegesis, taught through the intensive reading of texts, mostly in Arabic. The syllabus varies according to the interests of the students and the instructor.
Michael A. Cook

Introduction to Medieval Latin
LAT 232

Selections from Medieval Latin prose and poetry, with emphasis on Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Attention to developments in Latin in the period, as well as to the transmission and reception of the literature and values of Classical Antiquity.
Brent Shaw


Spring 2012

HIS 343 The Civilization of the Early Middle Ages
Helmut Reimitz

HIS 543 Historiography and Identity from late Antiquity to the Middle Ages
Helmut Reimitz

 


2001-2011
Regular offerings

ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY

ART 100 – Introduction to the History of Art, Ancient to Medieval.

ART 201/ARC 205 – Roman Architecture.

ART 203 – Roman Art.

ART 204/HLS 204 – Pagans and Christians: Urbanism, Architecture and Art of Late Antiquity.

ART 205 – Medieval Art in Europe.

ART 206/HLS 206 – Byzantine Art and Architecture.

ART 232/NES 232– The Arts of the Islamic World.

ART 310/NES 309 - Introduction to Painting and Book Illumination of the Islamic World.

ART 312 – The Arts of Medieval Europe.

ART 315/ARC 315 – Medieval Architecture.

ART 320/ARC 320 – Rome, the Eternal City.

ART 430, 432 – Seminar, Medieval Art. See Topical Courses for past examples.

ART 435, 436 – Topics in Medieval Art, Architecture, and Theory. See Topical Courses for past examples.

ART 535 – Problems in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture. See Topical Courses for past examples.

ART 580/NES 580 – Great Cities of the Islamic World.

ART 585 – Problems in Islamic Art and Archaeology. See Topical Courses for past examples.

 

CLASSICAL GREEK

CLG 240/HLS 240 – Introduction to Postclassical Greek from the Late Antique to the Byzantine Era.

 

CLASSICS

CLA 219/HIS 219 – The Roman Empire, 31 B.C to A.D. 337.

CLA 325/HIS 329 – Roman Law.

CLA 326, 327/HIS 326, 327 – Topics in Ancient History and Religion. See Topical Courses for past examples.

CLA 522 – Problems in Greek History. See Topical Courses for past examples.

CLA 542 – Problems in Latin Literature. See Topical Courses for past examples.

CLA 545 – Problems in Roman History. See Topical Courses for past examples.

CLA 546, 547 – Problems in Ancient History. See Topical Courses for past examples.

CLA 548/HLS 528 – Ancient and Medieval Numismatics.

 

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

COM 205/HUM 205 – The Classical Roots of Western Literature.

COM 543 – Topics in Medieval Literature. See Topical Courses for past examples.

 

HELLENIC STUDIES

HLS 362/NES 362 - Special Topics in Byzantine Civilization. See Topical Courses for past examples.

HLS 500 – Topics in Hellenic Studies. See  Topical Courses for past examples

HIS 542/HLS 542 – Problems in Byzantine History. See Topical Courses for past examples.

 

HISTORY

HIS 211 – Europe from Antiquity to 1700.

HIS 236/HLS 236 – The Greeks: History of a People.

EAS 336/HIS 319 – The Making and Transformation of Medieval China, 300-1200.

HIS 330/HLS 330 – The Muslim Mediterranean.

HIS 343/CLA 343 – The Civilization of the Early Middle Ages.

HIS 355/HLS 355 – Transformation of the Ancient World: Byzantium, 500-1200.

HIS 400 – Junior seminar in history. See Topical Courses for past examples.

HIS 542/HLS 542 – Problems in Byzantine History. See Topical Courses for past examples.

HIS 543 – The Origins of the Middle Ages.

HIS 545, 546 – Readings in Renaissance and Reformation History. See Topical Courses for past examples related to Late Antiquity.

 

LATIN

LAT 232 – Introduction to Medieval Latin.

 

NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

NES 201/HIS 223 – Introduction to the Middle East.

NES 220/HIS 220 – Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Middle Ages.

NES 245/HIS 245 – The Islamic World from its Emergence to the Beginnings of Westernization..

SPA 308/NES 308 – Spanish Islam, A.D. 711-1492.

NES 323 – Introduction to Early Sufism (c. AD 800-1200).

NES 325/REL 325 – Christianity along the Silk Road.

NES 502 – An Introduction to the Islamic Scholarly Tradition.

NES 503 – Themes in Islamic History and Culture.

NES 515 – Introduction to Syriac.

NES 517 – Syriac Prose Writings.

NES 523 – Readings in Judeo-Arabic.

NES 524 – Introduction to Classical Armenian.

NES 531, 532 – Readings in Classical Arabic Literature.

NES 545 – Problems in Near Eastern Jewish History. See Topical Courses for past examples.

NES 547 – Intermediate Syriac.

NES 566 – Intermediate Armenian.

NES 590 – Syriac Studies Seminar. See Topical Courses for past examples.

           

PROGRAM IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

PAW 501 – Program Seminar. See Topical Courses for past examples.

 

RELIGION

NES 240/REL 240 – Muslims and the Qur’an.

REL 251 – The New Testament and Christian Origins.

REL 252 – The Early Christian Movement.

REL 335/NES 356 – Moses and Jesus in the Islamic Tradition.

REL 504 – Studies in Greco-Roman Religions. See Topical Courses for past examples.

REL 509 – Studies in the History of Islam. See Topical Courses for past examples
 

Topical/one-time courses

ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY

ART 398/HLS 398 – The Byzantine Commonwealth, Then and Now. (F 2005)

ART 430 – Seminar, Medieval Art: Death and Salvation. (F2004)

ART 430 – Seminar, Medieval Art: Byzantine Monasteries. (F 2006)

ART 430 – Seminar, Medieval Art: The Other “Romanesque.” (F 2007)

ART 430 – Seminar, Medieval Art: Belfry and Minaret. (F 2008)

ART 432/CLA 432/HLS 432 – Island of Cultures: Sicily from the Greeks to the Normans. ( F 2009)

ART 435 –The Arts of Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. ( S 2005)

ART 436 – Topics in Medieval Art, Architecture, and Theory: Concepts for the Depiction of God.  (S 2007, S 2011)

ART 438/NES 428 – Representations of Faith and Power: Islamic Architecture in Its Context. (F 2007)

ART 439 – Illuminations: Monuments of Medieval Art in Form and Theory. ( F 2004)

ART 499/HLS 499 – Architecture as Icon. (S 2010)

ART 513 – Seminar in Roman Art: Roman Triumphal Monuments. (S 2010)

ART 520 – Greek Art of the Iron Age and Orientalizing Periods. ( S 2007)

ART 531 – Roman Painting and Mosaic. ( S 2005)

ART 535 – Problems in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture: The Byzantine House (4th-15th cent.). (S 2004)

ART 535/HLS 535 – Problems in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture: Accessing Saints in the Eastern Christian World (ca. 300-ca.-1500). (S 2005)

ART 535/HLS 535 – Juncture of Heaven and Earth: The Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. (S 2006)

ART 535 – Architecture as Icon. (S 2010)

ART 537 – Seminar in Medieval Art: Medieval Image/Concepts of Authenticity. ( S 2008)

ART 537/MED 500 – Seminar in Medieval Art: Medieval Images of Visionary Experience. (F 2009)

ART 539 – Seminar in Iconography. (F 2004)

ART 585 – Problems in Islamic Art and Archeology. ( S 2004)

 

CLASSICS

CLA 235/HLS 235 – Antiquity after Antiquity: Homer. ( S 2007)

CLA 326/HIS 326 – Topics in Ancient History and Religion: Slavery in the Roman World. (S 2005, F 2008)

CLA 326/HIS 326 – Topics in Ancient History and Religion: Religion in Roman Society. (S 2006, F 2010)

CLA 327/HIS 327 – Topics in Ancient History and Religion: Women in Ancient Rome. (S 2004, S 2008)

CLA 327/HIS 327 – Topics in Ancient History and Religion: How the Classics Became the Classics. (S 2008)

CLA 345 – Ancient Greco-Roman Medicine. (S 2009)

CLA 522- Problems in Greek History: The Greek East in the Roman Era.  (S 2007)

CLA 526 –Animals in Ancient Science and Medicine: Theories, Practices, Contexts. (S 2011)

CLA 541 – Survey of Early Medieval Latin Literature. ( S 2008)

CLA 542 – Problems in Latin Literature: Greek and Latin Textual Criticism. (S 2010)

CLA 545 – Problems in Roman History: Economies of Empire. (F 2004, S 2005)

CLA 545 – Problems in Roman History: Africa and Empire. (S 2006)

CLA 546 – Problems in Roman History: The Roman Family. (S 2008)

CLA 547/PAW 501 – Problems in Ancient History: Priests and Power in the Ancient World. (F 2004)

CLA 547/PAW 501 – Problems in Ancient History: Belief and Faith in Ancient Religions. (F 2006)

CLA 547/PAW 501 – Problems in Ancient History: The Language of the Gods: Prophecy, Oracles and Divination. (F 2007)

CLA 547 – Problems in Ancient History: Sacred Specialists in Ancient Societies. ( F 2010)

CLA 552 – Virgil and His Epic in the Middle Ages. (F 2005)

 

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

COM 224/REL 290 – Representing the Queen of Sheba in the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian Traditions. (F 2009)

COM 311/MED 311 – Reading Medieval Culture. (S 2004)

COM 329/NES 326 – The Thousand and One Nights. ( S 2005)

COM 417/NES 417 – Genre East and West: A History of Literature of the Ancient Near East. ( S 2006)

COM 543 – Topics in Medieval Literature: Medieval Allegory. (S 2004)

COM 543 – Topics in Medieval Literature: The Medieval Voice. (S 2008)

 

HELLENIC STUDIES

HLS 362/NES 362 - Special Topics in Byzantine Civilization. Empires in Transition. (S 2004)

HLS 500/CLA 529 – Topics in Hellenic Studies: Rhetorical and Theatrical Performance in the Late Antique Greek World. (S 2001)

HLS 500/HIS 512 – Topics in Hellenic Studies: Greek Palaeography. (S 2007)

 

HISTORY

HIS 437/HLS 437 – Byzantium in the 10th Century: The Age of Reconquest. (S 2007, S 2008)

HIS 395 – History of Medicine and the Body. (S 2010)

HIS 400 – Junior seminar: The Mediterranean in History. (F 2004, F 2005)

HIS 400 – Junior seminar: The Afterlife of Antiquity in the Greek & Arabic Middle Ages. (F 2006)

HIS 423/HLS 423 – State and Ideology in Eastern Europe: From Byzantium to the Enlightenment. (S 2006)

HIS 435 – Mounted Nomads and Sedentary States in the Medieval World. (S 2010)

HIS 443/JDS 443 – Jewish History through the Middle Ages. (F 2005)

HIS 444/JDS 444 – The Bible in History. (F 2007)

HIS 445 – Medieval Saints and Society. (F 2010)

HIS 542/HLS 542 – Problems in Byzantine History: The Formation of Byzantium, 600-850. (F 2006, F 2010)

HIS 542/HLS 542 – Problems in Byzantine History: Byzantium and the Crusades. ( F 2009)

HIS 542/HLS 542 – Problems in Byzantine History: Byzantium in the 10th Century: The Age of Reconquest. (F 2008)

HIS 542/HLS 542 – Problems in Byzantine History: Introduction to Byzantine Studies. (S 2008)

HIS 542/HLS 542 – Problems in Byzantine History: Rethinking the 11th Century in Byzantium. (F 2007)

HIS 545, 546 – Readings in Renaissance and Reformation History: Visions of the Past in Early Modern Europe. (S 2006, F 2008)

HIS 546 – Reception of the Classical Tradition. (S 2011)

 

NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

NES 225 – What Happened in History? ( S 2001, S2003)

NES 235/REL 235 – In the Shadow of Swords: Martyrdom and Holy War in Islam. (F 2009)

NES 237/REL 237 – The Medieval Islamic World. (F 2003)

NES 355/JDS 355 – Between Swords and Stones: Jerusalem, a History. (S 2010, S 2011)

NES 420 – Church and State in Late Antiquity. (F 2010)

NES 430/REL 439 – Qur’an in English. (S 2008)

NES 447 – Qur’anic Commentary. (S 2009)

NES 510 – Julian the Apostate in Syriac Sources. (F 2007)

NES 522 – Readings in Classical Arab Historians and Biographers. (S 2001, S 2003)

NES 533 – Syriac Hagiography. (F 2009)

NES 545 – Problems in Near Eastern Jewish History. (S 2004)

NES 545 – Problems in Near Eastern Jewish History. (S 2005, S 2007)

NES 545 – Problems in Near Eastern Jewish History: “Autonomy, Community, and Leadership.” (S 2006)

NES 546 – Concepts of Knowledge in Classical Islam. (S 2004)

NES 590 – Syriac Poetry and Homiletic Literature. (S 2004)

NES 592 – Symbols and Allegory in Medieval Islamic Art. (S 2004)

NES 599 – Syriac Biblical Interpretations. (F 2006)

 

PROGRAM IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

PAW 501 – Program Seminar: Cultural History of Syria: From the Late Bronze Age to Early Islam. (F  2005)

 

RELIGION

REL 253/WOM 253 – Early Christian Women: From Mary Magdalen to Martyred Mothers. ( S 2007)

REL 256 – Sacred Space and Christianity. (S 2008)

REL 270 – Christianity in the Medieval Millennium, c. 476-1453. (F 2009)

REL 301/HLS301 – Eastern Orthodox Christianity. (F 2010)

REL 312 – Augustine and Aquinas. (F 2008)

REL 330/NES 349 – Magic and Miracles in the Lands of Islam. ( S 2007)

REL 341/JDS 341 – Christianity and the Rabbis in Late Antiquity. (S 2004)

REL 343 – Jews, Gentiles, and Christians in the Ancient World. (F 2001, F 2004)

REL 350 – God, Satan, Demons, Angels: Invisible Beings, Identity and Politics. (S 2003)

REL 372/JDS 372 – God’s Body: Hebrew Bible, Rabbinic Literature, and Jewish Mysticism. (S 2008)

REL 385 - Spiritual Exercises: Classics of Christian Spirituality. (F 2008)

REL 504 – Studies in Greco-Roman Religions: Genres of Rabbinic Literature. (F 2004)

REL 504 – Studies in Greco-Roman Religions. (S 2008)

REL 504 – Studies in Greco-Roman Religions: Constructions of Identity in Late Antiquity – Josephus and Eusebius. ( S 2004)

REL 504/HLS 504 – Studies in Greco-Roman Religions: Literary and Documentary Papyrology. (S 2007, F 2009)

REL 504 – Studies in Greco-Roman Religions: Varieties of Early Christianity. (S 2009)

REL 507 – Studies in Religion and Philosophy: Augustine and Political Augustinianisms. (S 2011)

REL 508 – Studies in Religion and Morality: Augustine and Aquinas. (S2006)

REL 509 – Studies in the History of Islam: Historiography of Religion and Society. (F 2003)

REL 509 – Studies in the History of Islam: Medieval Islamic Narrative and Modern Historiography. (F 2004, S 2006)

REL 510 – Special Topics in the Study of Religion: Rabbinic Cosmology and Its Contexts. ( S 2004)

REL 512 – Studies in Greco-Roman Religions. (S 2007)

REL 525 – Religions of Late Antiquity Workshop. (F 2010)