This is a list of non-language courses that the graduate students could take at the Institute of Islamic Studies:
ISLA 602. Islamic Philosophy and Theology.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Fall 2025 in Visual Schedule Builder.
Description
Advanced examination of research issues in the field of Islamic philosophy and theology. Topics will include dialectic, metaphysics, the commentary traditions and 19th century Kalâm.
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ISLA 603. Introductory: Research Materials - Islamic Studies.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Fall 2025 in Visual Schedule Builder.
Description
Exploration of research materials in Islamic Studies, including intellectual output of Islamic civilization, compositions, Arabic nomenclature, Arabic script and transliteration systems, published and unpublished materials (theses, manuscripts, books printed by lithography, facsimile editions, monographic, serial, e-publishing), websites, databases; major reference books (bibliographies, encyclopedias, handbooks, online/published catalogues, language/biographical dictionaries).
- Fall
- 2 hours
- Compulsory for M.A. students; recommended for Ph.D. students
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Fall 2022 ISLA 603 Syllabus
ISLA 604. Arabic Manuscript Tradition.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
This course will examine the way manuscript books were bound, transcribed, decorated, collated, corrected and glossed. It will deal with various scribal practices employed in the critical apparatus, including abbreviations, and will provide practical assistance on how to locate and choose a manuscript for text editing.
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ISLA 606. Premodern Islamicate Literatures
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Winter 2026
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Winter 2026 in Visual Schedule Builder.
Description
Premodern literatures in verse and prose from Islamicate societies.
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ISLA 611. Pre-Modern Islamic History.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Advanced examination of research issues in the field of pre-modern Islamic history. Topics will include Shi'ite doctrine and law (fiqh), the Safivid Empire, and Shi'ites in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.
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ISLA 613. Women in Middle Eastern/Islamic Society.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Fall 2025 in Visual Schedule Builder.
Description
Advanced examination of research issues related to the experiences and histories of women in the Middle East and the Islamic world. Topics will include patriarchy, women and Islam, women and the state, nationalism and anti-colonialism struggles; labour, public space and theoretical issues.
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ISLA 615. Modern Middle Eastern History.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Advanced examination of research issues in modern Middle East history. Topics will include the history of Arab nationalism; the history of European Imperialism in the Middle East; the Middle East and historiography.
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ISLA 616. Modern Arabic Literature.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Advanced examination of research issues in the field of Arabic literature. Topics will include women's literature, gender and nationalism in literature, language use in literature and the diasporic literatures of the Middle East.
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ISLA 617. 17th Century Persia ‘Orthodoxy’ and Heterodoxy
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Winter 2026
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Winter 2026 in Visual Schedule Builder.
Description
The doctrinal, theological, and legal transformation of Persia after the rise of the Safavid Empire, presenting the interface between legal discourse and popular Shi`ism, heterodoxy (including messianism), and mysticism; the jurists’ approaches to temporal authority and association with the Safavid government while awaiting the advent of the Hidden Imam; the rise of the traditionists, their attack on the mujtahids and the question of legal heresy.
- Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 788 when topic was: "‘Orthodoxy’ and Heterodoxy in 17th Century Persia".
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ISLA 618. 1501-1736 Safavid Iran
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
The socio-political and economic history of Persia after the rise of the Safavid Empire and the official conversion of Iranians to Twelver Shi`a Islam. Different approaches toward imperial sovereignty and religion, socio-economic processes, relations to the Ottoman Empire and the Uzbek rulers, inter-elite and intra-elite struggles, women and gendered politics at the court, integration of ethnic and religious communities, opposition from below in the city and the provinces, and the building of architectural monuments, mosques, and shrines.
- Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 788 when topic was: "Public Religion, Secularism and Power in Modern Islamic Society in Safavid Iran".
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ISLA 620. Sources of Ottoman History
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Fall 2025 in Visual Schedule Builder.
Description
The manuscript and archival sources of Ottoman history. Relevant research catalogues and databases, as well as the technical aspects of various types of documents. Select historical documents in Ottoman Turkish.
- Readings in English, Turkish, and Ottoman Turkish.
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ISLA 680. Ottoman Institutions.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
A chronological overview of Ottoman history to 1800, providing in-depth discussions about the nature of development of Ottoman institutions. Topics include the formation of the Ottoman bureaucracy, the historical development of taxation and land regimes, and structures of provincial government. The course integrates a strong social history component that introduces students to sources and methodologies of Ottoman social history.
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ISLA 681. Special Topics 2.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Fall 2025 in Visual Schedule Builder.
Description
Selected topics in Islamic studies.
- Fall and/or Winter
- Note: Subject matter will vary year to year, according to the instructor. Topic will be announced at the beginning of the term.
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ISLA 682. Advanced Islamic Politics in Africa
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Advanced examination of research issues in the field of Islamic politics in Africa. Topics will include: Political Islam; social movement perspectives; Islam, state-building and civil conflict; the political economy of Islamist extremism, and globalization; informal markets and the rise of the politics of Identity.
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ISLA 683. History of Science in Islam.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Winter 2026
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Winter 2026 in Visual Schedule Builder.
Description
Advanced examination of research issues in the historiography of Islamic science. These include: the appropriation and naturalization of ancient Greek science by Islamic scientists; the Arabic-Latin translation movement and the influence of Islamic science on medieval and Renaissance Europe; and the question of the post-medieval decline of Islamic science.
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ISLA 707. Qur'an Exegesis (Classical).
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Winter 2026
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Winter 2026 in Visual Schedule Builder.
Description
A study of two or three suras of the Qur'an as interpreted by classical exegetes. The suras considered will vary from year to year.
- Seminar 2 hours
- Prerequisite: Reading knowledge of Arabic
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ISLA 777. Islamic Philosophy.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Consideration of the development of philosophic thought among the Muslims. Classical Arabic or Persian writings will be used.
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ISLA 788. Special Topics in Islamic Thought.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Graduate Studies)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Selected topics in Islamic thought.
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This is a list of undergraduate advanced seminars in which graduate students could register:
ISLA 501. The Qur'an: Text and History.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
A study of the Qur'an's teachings, structures, style, and history in the light of classical and modern scholarship.
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ISLA 502. Art in the Age of Empires.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
This course offers a wide-ranging survey of visual culture under the three Muslim superpowers of the early modern period: the Mediterranean-based Ottomans, the Safavids of Iran, and the Mughals of India. The course will examine the nature of these states and their distinctive and vibrant artistic idiom on a comparative basis. Topics include the formation of imperial ideology and its visual articulation; palaces and court culture; artistic organization, authorship, and agency; patronage, gender, piety, as well as cross-cultural interaction.
- Prerequisite(s): ISLA 320 or permission of instructor.
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ISLA 505. Islam: Origin and Early Development.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
The Qur'an, Hadith, the Shari'a and their major themes. The early development of law, theology and Sufism. The development and formation of an Islamic "orthodoxy", the development and nature of competing interpretations of Islam during the Classical Period. Topics: God, revelation, prophecy, the community and the individual and the meaning of history.
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ISLA 506. Revolutions: Arab Middle East and North Africa.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
The post-Ottoman Arab world; major socio-political transformations and revolutions in the 20th century Middle Eastern and North African Arab countries; the historical contexts that shaped them and their implications. Interdisciplinarity (anthropology, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, law), effects of revolutionson individuals and societies; the cause of these revolutions; the impact of the modernization/reforms, colonialism and the rise of nationalist movements on them; the diverse compositions and aims of these revolutions; types of social groups and political organizationsand societies that were drawn to these revolutions and why; and the role colonial and postcolonial powers played in them.
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ISLA 511. Medieval Islam, 10th-12th Century.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Socio-political, religious and intellectual developments in Muslim societies following the weakening of the Arab-Sunni Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad during the tenth century. Emphasis will be placed on the historical formation and features of the Seljuq and Buyid dynasties as well as the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt.
- Prerequisites: Isla 200
- Restrictions: Not open to students who have take ISLA 511D1/D2
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ISLA 512. Art of the Ottoman Empire.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
This course examines artistic production of the large and long-lived empire of the Ottomans. Focusing on key monuments of art and architecture, discussion will revolve around issues relating to imperial identity, patronage, court-culture, and cross-cultural exchange.
- Prerequisite(s): ISLA 320 or permission of instructor.
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ISLA 515. The Medieval School in Islam.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Schooling in medieval Islamic society particularly in Iraq, Greater Syria, Persia, and Egypt. Sheds light on the structure of learning, aims of education, the life of students including women, and their relationship to their teachers. Illuminates forms of academic evaluation, and looks closely at the "scholarly license" as an accrediting tool delineating its function and scope. Through a set of representative studies on the medieval school, it brings attention to the heated debates surrounding the academic rigor of this form of learning, and the place of scientific learning in it, as well as the historical connection between it and the early European college.
- Prerequisite(s): Either ISLA 200 or ISLA 350 or permission of instructor.
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ISLA 516. Medieval Islam, 13th-15th Century.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
The historical circumstances surrounding the Crusades against Muslims in Greater Syria and Egypt. The socio-economic, political, and cultural transformation of Muslim society following the destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate, and the rise of the Ikl-Khanid Mongols in Iran and Iraq, as well as the Mamluks in Syria and Egypt. Emphasis will be placed on the integration of new Persian, Turkish, and Indian populations into Islamic imperial culture.
- Prerequisites; ISLA 200
- Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 511D1/D2.
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ISLA 530. Advanced Sufism
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Fall 2025 in Visual Schedule Builder.
Description
Advanced explorations of various specialized texts and topics in Sufi history and thought. Focus on specific Sufi thinkers, Sufi texts and literary works in the original and translation, Sufism and gender, aspects of Sufi practice.
- Prerequisites: ISLA 330 or ISLA 375.
- Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 581 when topic was: "Advanced Sufism".
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ISLA 531. Survey Development of Islamic Thought.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
A survey of the development of the major intellectual traditions of Islamic civilization in medieval and modern times.
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ISLA 555. Urdu Poetry.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Interpretation of Urdu poetry for students with intermediate to advanced-level knowledge of Urdu-Hindi language. Includes advanced grammar topics, cultural and historical background, and interpretation and analysis.
- Prerequisite(s): ISLA 352D1/D2 or permission of the instructor.
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ISLA 580. Ottoman Institutions.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
Terms offered: Winter 2026
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Winter 2026 in Visual Schedule Builder.
Description
The latest historiographical debates in Ottoman History. The imperial palace, provincial administration, courts and legal procedures, and institutional development over time.
- Prerequisites: ISLA 315.
- Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken ISLA 680.
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ISLA 585. Arab Women's Literature.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Fall 2025 in Visual Schedule Builder.
Description
Explorations of writings by Arab women. Issues include: translation/reception, gender and genre, categories of knowledge about Arab women, feminist and post-colonial theories/methodologies.
- Prerequisite: ISLA 392 or permission of instructor.
- Note: Readings in English translation.
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Exceptionally, with the approval of the supervisor, graduate students could take lower level undergraduate courses if extra research work is done.