Courses:

QuickTime® Player software is required to view the.mov files in this section. RealOne™ Player software is required to run the.ram files in this section.

When you click the Amazon logo to the left of any citation and purchase the book (or other media) from Amazon.com, MIT OpenCourseWare will receive up to 10% of this purchase and any other purchases you make during that visit. This will not increase the cost of your purchase. Links provided are to the US Amazon site, but you can also support OCW through Amazon sites in other regions. Learn more.

Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1978. ISBN: 9780710000408.

Abu-Lughod, Lila. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780520054837.

Nieuwkerk, Karin Van. A Trade Like Any Other: Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780292787209.

Eickelman, Dale F. The Middle East and Central Asia: an Anthropological Approach. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1997. ISBN: 9780131230194.

Calendar Schedule.

week #	Topics	Readings and Viewings
1	Introduction	Videotape: Algiers (1938) with Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr. Videotape: The Battle of Algiers (1967) plus handouts of film scenarios. Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York, NY: Grove Press, 1965, pp. 38-39. ISBN: 9780802150837. (Handout.) Eickelman, pp. 1-26.
2	Orientalism	Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1978, part 1, pp. 1-110, and 166-197. ISBN: 9780710000408. ———. "Orientalism Reconsidered." Cultural Critique 1 (1986): 89-107. al-'Azm, Sadiq Jalal. "Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse." Khamsin 8 (1981): 5-27.
3	Performance: The Egyptian Dancing Girl	Eickelman, pp. 27-52. Lane, Edward, and Gerard de Nerval. Description de l'Egypte. (Handouts.)
4	Popular and Folk Culture	Slyomovics, Susan. "Arabic Folk Literature and Political Expression." Arab Studies Quarterly 8, no. 2 (1986): 178-85. (PDF) ———. "Arabic Traditions." As originally published in Teaching Oral Traditions. Edited by John Miles Foley. New York, NY: The Modern Language Assocation, 1998, pp. 266-272. ISBN: 9780873523714. (PDF) Videotape: The Power of the Word. Webber, Sabra. "On Canonicity, Literacy, and Middle Eastern Folk Narrative." Edebiyat 4, no. 1 (1993): 35-48. Middle Eastern 20th Century Folk Art images.
5	The Performance of Folktale: "The Story of Solomon and Sheba" -- Christian, Muslim and Jewish texts	1) Bible. Old Testament: I Kings, I Chronicles; 2) Bible. New Testament: Matthew 12.42 and Luke 11.31; and 3) Koran: Sura 27 Handouts: Targum Sheni on The Book of Esther and al-Kisa'i, Stories of the Prophets. de Nerval, Gerard. "The Tale of the Queen of the Morning." In Journey to the Orient. London, UK: Peter Owen Ltd, 1972, pp. 123-213. ISBN: 9780720600117.
6	Performance and the Koran	Nelson, Kristina. The Art of Koranic Chant. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1986, pp. 1-51. ISBN: 9780292703674. Audiocassettes of Koranic chanters. Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock. Guests of the Sheikh: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village. New York, NY: Anchor, 1995, pp. 106-126. ISBN: 9780385014854. (Section on women's kraya.) Eickelman, pp. 249-323.
7	Women and Poetic Performances	Abu-Lughod, Lila. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780520054837. Joseph, Terri Brint. "Poetry as a Strategy of Power: The Case of the Riffian Berber Women." Signs 5, no. 3 (1980): 418-434. Eickelman, pp. 123-173.
8	Wedding Song	Videotape: Slyomovics, Susan, and Amanda Dargan. Wedding Song: Henna Art Among Muslim Women in New York City (1990). Streaming video available (RM - 16k audio only) (RM - 56k) (RM - 80k) (RM - 220k) Slyomovics. Wedding Song, accompanying booklet. (PDF) Photo stills from Wedding Song. Eickelman, pp. 174-221.
9	Professional Entertainers: Solo Females	Nieuwkerk, Karin Van. A Trade Like Any Other: Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780292787209. Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock, and Bassima Qattan Bezirgan, ed. "The Umm Kulthum Nobody Knows." In Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1977, pp. 134-165. ISBN: 9780292750333. Eickelman, pp. 222-247.
10	Professional Entertainers: Arab Oral Epic Performance	Slyomovics, Susan. The Merchant of Art: An Oral Epic Egyptian Poet in Performance. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988, pp. 1-35, and 264-268. ISBN: 9780520097377. Videotape: Slyomovics. The Merchant of Art (1986). (MOV - 85.3 MB) ———. "Approaches to Transcription and Translation of Arab Oral Epics." (Unpublished English translation of "Methodes de transcription et traduction d'une performance de geste orale arabe." In Le Conte (1987): 127-139. Edited by Pierre Lyon and Paul Perron. Montreal, Canada: Didier.) (PDF) ———. "Asig Ra'bad: The Passion of Ma'bad." Oriente Moderno, XXI n.s. (LXXXII), no. 3 (2002). Edited by Claudio lo Jacono of Istituto per l'Oriente C.A. Nallino of Roma (Italy). (PDF)
11	Islam in America: Parades and Mosques	Aswad, Barbara. "Arab Americans: Those Who Followed Columbus." Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 27 (July 1993): 5-22. Slyomovics, Susan. "New York City's Muslim World Day Parade." In Nation and Migration: The Politics of Space in the South Asian Diaspora. Edited by Peter Van Der Veer. Philadephia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995, pp. 157-177. ISBN: 9780812215373. (PDF) Photos from Muslim World Day parade. Slyomovics. The Muslim World Day Parade and 'Storefront' Mosques of New York City." In Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe. Edited by Barbara Daly Metcalf. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996, pp. 204-216. ISBN: 9780520204034. The Regents of the University of California. ———. "Comparing Mosques to New York City's Ethnic and Social Clubs." In NY Masjid: The Mosques of New York. Edited by Jerrilyn Dodds. New York, NY: Storefront for Art and Architecture, 1996, n.p. Catalogue essay with photographs for a museum exhibition, Nov. 30, 1996-Jan. 30, 1997 held at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, powerHouse Books; 1 edition (May 2002). ISBN: 9781576871355. (PDF) Photos from Storefront Mosques of New York.