Islam in Practice

Module title	Islam in Practice
Module code	ARAM102
Academic year	2020/1
Credits	30
Module staff	Dr Istvan Kristo-Nagy (Lecturer)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks	11

Number students taking module (anticipated)	10

Module description

There are many different ways of approaching Islamic Studies. This class adopts a largely phenomenological approach, focusing on Islam in practice, with a multidisciplinary and comparative approach, as lived and as presented in literature, the visual arts, and music. This module can be taken by any MA student, and it complements our other modules offered in Islamic Studies.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module is designed to familiarise you with a multidisciplinary range of humanistic and social science disciplines, as applied to religious life and practice, normally included in the sub-field of Islamic Studies within the larger discipline of Religious Studies (or Study of Religion). A closely related aim of this module is to familiarise future research students with the full spectrum of historical cultures, traditions, creative processes, and global transformations necessarily involved in contemporary research and writing in Islamic Studies. In order to prepare you to assess and produce high level scholarship, you will be asked to think about:

The main message of the required readings;

What they like in it, and what they dislike in it, and what you can learn from both;

How the style of the read texts is related to their goal and readership;

How they are structured;

What approaches (theories/methods) they use;

What students can learn from them about Islamic studies (and related fields), as well as about ways to write in these fields that they can consider in their own research.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Demonstrate a familiarity with the different phenomenological dimensions of religious life and practice in research on Islam;
2. Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the diverse cultural, historical and religious contexts of the practices of Islam;

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

3. Demonstrate familiarity with fundamental issues, approaches and challenges in a broad range of related contemporary areas of Islamic Studies;
4. Demonstrate in-depth appreciation of the spiritual background and tradition underlying Muslim practices;

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

5. Demonstrate writing and oral presentation skills and group work; and
6. Synthesise large areas of unfamiliar reading and different interpretive approaches and methodologies.

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

Texts, Interpretations and Lived Realities
Islamic Art
Literature in Islam
Music in Islam
Good and Evil in Islam
Religion as a Political Tool
Islamic Society and Its Elites
Material Culture
Travelling Theories and Practices in Islamdom

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	278	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	22	11 x 2 hr. classes (lectures and discussion based on the required readings).
Guided independent study	88	Reading from required readings.
Guided independent study	190	Research and writing up of final term 6500 word essay. The title and structure of the essay is determined in consultation with your module convenor. Your module convenor with provide you with feedback on a draft of your final term essay and help you out with its bibliography and literature review

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
A short presentation outline of the essay	5 minutes	1-6	Verbal
Discussion during the lecture	10-15 minutes per class	2-6	Verbal
Seminar-based group discussion of the required readings, answering pre-assigned questions on them.	30-35 minutes per class	3,5,6	Verbal

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay	100	6500 Words	1-6	Written

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Essay	Essay (6500 words)	1-6	August/September re-assessment period.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Shahab Ahmed, What is Islam?: the importance of being Islamic, Princeton, New Jersey; Oxford, [England]: Princeton University Press, 2016.

Miriam Cooke & Bruce Lawrence (eds), Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip Hop, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

Andras Hamori, On the Art of Medieval Arabic Literature, Princeton, 1974, repr. 2015, 2016.

Leonard Lewisohn, “The Sacred Music of Islam: Sama‘ in the Persian Sufi Tradition”, The British Journal of Ethnomusicology, VI, 1997: 1-33.

Andrew Rippin, Muslims: their religious beliefs and practices, London: Routledge, 5. edition (2018).

Selected MA dissertations.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

ELE – vle.exeter.ac.uk

Key words search

Islamic studies

Credit value	30
Module ECTS	15
Module pre-requisites	None
Module co-requisites	ARAM103 New Approaches to Islamic Thought
NQF level (module)	7
Available as distance learning?	No
Origin date	01/10/2005
Last revision date	29/09/2020