CLAS 130 - Early Arab and Persian Empires

From the Rise of the Seleucids to the Abbasid Caliphate, this course focuses on the rise and transformation of Arab and Persian empires and city0states between 200 BCE through the founding of Baghdad (762) to the close fo the second great Islamic caliphate, the Abbasids in c. 950. This period in the religious, cultural and political history of the Middle East, Levant and Persian region east to at least the Zagros mountains is an extremely productive and formative period, yet is largely overlooked or neglected altogether in our histories and analyses of the millennium between c. 250 BCE-950 CE. In many respects the developments and effects of this period have wide-ranging implications for our contemporary world. We will attempt to acquaint ourselves with this period, and the players and powers that shaped it. Every other year. (4 credits) Every other year. (4 Credits)