75671 - Arabic Language and Literature 2A (LM)

Course contents

The course will be articulated in two interconnected parts:

i) language and ii) Literatury History.

A) Arabic Language.

The student will advance in the study of the Arabic Language begun in the first year. Students will train in translation and production tasks of written texts and will practice speaking skills.

Grammatical topics of this year: 1. Name: numerals, adjectives, elative. 2. Verb: derivative forms of verbs with their conjugation and complete verbal derivation.

B) Arabic Literature

Images of Africans in Medieval Arab Culture.

This course will focus on the main trends in social representations on Africans in Medieval Arab Culture, on the grounds of a varied range of literary sources spanning from 9th to 16th centuries C.E. In this framework, special attention will be paid to different theories on the origins of phenotypical diversity among the human beings, on the background of the fundamental opposition "Hamitic hypothesis"(explaining blackness as the effect of Noah's curse on his son Ham) vs. "climatic hypothesis" (explaining blackness, and phenotypical diversity in general, as the product of climatic conditions). The connection between representations on "Blackness" and "enslavability" theories will also be taken into account. Also, a special "case study" will be proposed, concerning different representations on Shaykh Yaqut al-Habashi (d. 732/1332), traditionally described as an Ethiopian Black slave who became a Muslim saint and a Sufi master in Early Mamluk Alexandria.

In particular, the following items will be specially analyzed:

1) the main trends in representation and "classification" of African peoples and the territories they inhabited;

2) different "explanations" proposed by Arab authors regarding the phenotypic diversity among the peoples of the Earth, with particular attention to the debate on the origin of "black" color (Noah's Curse on Cam or climatic and geographical causes);

3) theories on alleged implications of phenotypic diversity, and particularly of "black color" on the ethical, religious and socio-political level, with particular attention to the representations of the relationship between Islam and African cultures and the related ideological justifications of slavery and military expansionism;

4) the special and complex position that most Muslim intellectuals gave to the peoples of Ethiopia (Habasha) within the framework of African populations.

5) different historiographic traditions on Shaykh Yaqut al-Habashi (d. 732/1332).

Individual supplementary paths.

For the historical-literary part, Students will have the opportunity to define individual paths with the Teacher , and to report ion them in classroom if they wish.  

Readings/Bibliography

 

 LANGUAGE 

 

1. Deheuvels L.-W., Grammatica araba. Manuale di arabo moderno con esercizi e cd audio per l'ascolto. Volume 1. Edizione italiana a cura di Antonella Ghersetti. Zanichelli, Bologna, 2010.Units 8-12.

2. Giuseppe Cecere, "Quaderni di Esercitazione di Lingua Araba", (dispense fornite dal Docente), p. 21-35.

3. Audiovisual material from the online free-access Course "Sabily" , Lessons 12-17, 20-21, 26-28.

 

LITERATURE

COMPULSORY BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR BOTH ATTENDING AND NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Studies

AKBAR, Muhammad, "The Image of Africans in Arabic Literature:Some Unpublished Manuscripts". In Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa. Volume I. Islam and the Ideology of Enslavement, Edited with an Introduction by John Ralph Willis, Princenton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985, p. 47-74.

BURUMA, Ian, and MARGALIT, Avishai, 2005. Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies. New York: Penguin Books. (Selected sections to be agreed upon with the Teacher).

CECERE, Giuseppe, « From Ethiopian Slave to Alexandrian Sufi Master. Yaqut al-Habashi in Mamluk and Ottoman Sources», North Eastern African Review (special issue directed by Julien Loiseau), Forthcoming.

FARIAS, Paulo Fernando de Moraes, "Models of the World and Categorial Models: The 'Enslavable Barbarian' as a Mobile Classificatory Label". In Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa.Volume I. Islam and the Ideology of Enslavement, Edited with an Introduction by John Ralph Willis, Princenton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985, p. 27-46.

SAID, Edward W., 1978. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978 (First Edition). (Selected sections to be agreed upon with the Teacher).

WILLIS, John Ralph, "The Ideology of Enslavement in Islam". In Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa. Volume I. Islam and the Ideology of Enslavement, Edited with an Introduction by John Ralph Willis, Princenton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985, p. 1-15.

2) Compulsory Additional Biblography for Non-Attending Students:

In addition to the abovementioned texts, students that do not attend at least 50% of the lessons will have to choose one of the following volumes:

GOLDENBERG, 2003. The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Princenton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2003 (Introduction). 

SERSEN 1985: William John Sersen, “Stereotypes and Attitudes Towards Slaves in Arabic Proverbs: a Preliminary View”, in John Ralph Willis (ed.), Slaves and Slaves in Muslim Africa.
Volume One: Islam and the Ideology of Enslavement, London: Frank Cass, 1985, p. 92-105.

3) Suggested Preliminary Readings for Students Intending to Attend the Course

   

NORA, Pierre, 1989. "Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire". Representations 26 (Spring, 1989), Special Issue: Memory and Counter-Memory, p. 7-24.

PATTERSON, Orlando, 1982. Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1982.

PERRY, Craig, 2014. The Daily Life of Slaves and the Global Reach of Slavery in Medieval Egypt, 969-1250 CE. An abstract of a dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History 2014.

   

4) COURSE NOTES: HANDOUT MATERIAL

COURSE HANDOUT MATERIAL IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE COMPULSORY BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR ATTENDING AND NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS. 

 

 

Teaching methods

Language

Following the teaching method starded in the first yesr, a synthesis between the two most spread strategy in L2 learning will be used:

1) The grammatical approach, the "traditional method" used in academic teaching of Arabic language: the student will develop passive skills in written communication (translation from Arabic into Italian)

2)the inductive and mimetic approach proposed by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Learning / Teaching / Assessment).This approach will be adapted to the specific needs of the course and to the subject, i.e. Arabic, so to allow the student to activly produce small texts and dialogues.

The operational methodology will be further developed on the basis of a thorough “context analysis”, aimed at identifying the special needs of the students of this specific course.

History of Literature

The teacher's lectures will include the analysis and the translation of texts of the historical period studied within the course.

 

Assessment methods

Final Exam Structure

The final exam consists of two oral tests: one for the linguistic part, one for the historical-cultural part. Both tets will be evaluated on a scale of 30, and the final mark will result from the arithmetical average of the respective marks. 

The linguistic part

The language test will assess the student’s command of Arabic language, at the level required by the Course, with reference to the following main skills:

i) Understanding written messages in Arabic and producing answers to texts; ii) Translating written messages from Arabic into Italian iii) Producing written messages in Arabic in total autonomy. 

The historical-cultural part

The cultural history test  will assess the student's command of the literary material studied in the course, with two main focuses: ) commentary on selected texts among those analysed by the teacher during the course and ii) questions, where his/her ability to summarise and critically discuss topics raised in the course, making use of the exam bibliography and the course tools provided will be assested.

The assessment will thus consider the student's:
- competence in commenting on the selected texts, i.e. in identifying, translating and contextualizing them;
- knowledge and understanding of the topics covered;
- ability to summarise and analyse themes and concepts;
- familiarity with the terminology associated with the subject and his ability to use it effectively.

Assestments will be awarded following these principles:

TOP MARKS

(28-30)

• the students can to provide a full-fledged linguistic and historical commentary of the selected texts
• the students shows an overall understanding of the topics discussed during the lectures
• the students displays a critical approach to the material and a confident and effective use of the appropriate terminology

AVERAGE MARKS

(24-27)

• the student has memorized the main points of the course material
• the students is able to summarise them satisfactorily and provide an effective critical commentary,
• the student displays an average command of the appropriate terminology

LOW MARKS

(18-23)

• the students knows very sparsely the exam material
• the students is able to summarise and provide a general critical commentary,
• the student displays a limited command of the appropriate terminology

FAILED EXAM

• the students displays significant errors in his understanding the exam material
• the student fails to grasp the overall outlines of the subject
• the student displays a poor command of the appropriate terminology

Teaching tools

Textbooks will be integrated with a wide range of other tools (included audiovisual material), mostly relying on Arabic sources. 

Office hours

See the website of Giuseppe Cecere