Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module, students should be able to:
• demonstrate knowledge of the crucial historiographical episodes which have defined the engagement of the British Empire with the various lands and peoples which comprise “the Islamic world”
• think critically about the processes and language through which British imperial knowledge of Islam and Muslims has been constructed and expressed
• understand the wide range of Muslim responses to the imposition of British authority from India to the Middle East
• engage with a variety of primary source material derived from both British and Muslim actors
Indicative Module Content:
Week 1 Lecture: Introduction - the scope of Britain’s Islamic empire
Seminar theme: The idea of an “Islamic World”
Week 2 Lecture: The origins of Britain’s Islamic empire
Seminar theme: The centrality of India
Week 3 Lecture: The Great Game and the Eastern Question
Seminar theme: Imperial strategy, warfare, and conquest
Week 4 Lecture: 1857, its aftermath, and the “fanatical Musulman”
Seminar theme: Forms of imperial authority and the quest for legitimacy
Week 5 Lecture: The Muslims of British India
Seminar theme: Law, education, and national politics
Week 6 Lecture: The “penetration” of Arabia
Seminar theme: Forms of knowledge and information
Week 7 Lecture: “Modern Egypt” under British occupation
Seminar theme: The centrality of the Arab Middle East
Week 8 Lecture: Reformists, revivalists, and “sectarians” from Cairo to Calcutta
Seminar theme: Religion and Islam in British colonial thought
Week 9 Lecture: Extending to the ‘periphery’- East Asia, Africa, and beyond
Seminar theme: Mobility, communications, and networks
Week 10 Lecture: The First World War and the interwar mandates
Seminar theme: Collaboration, nationalism, and resistance
Week 11 Lecture: Revolutions, partitions, and withdrawals
Seminar theme: The legacies of empire, and Islam in modern Britain