14311
Introductory Course
A Great Divergence? narratives and models of Islamic and ‘Western’ history
Florian Zemmin
Comments
While the political and economic dominance of “the West” might currently be coming to an end, the age of modernity has been characterized by Western hegemony and supposed exceptionalism. How did this partially factual and partially perceived state of affairs come about? At which moment and for which reasons did the Western trajectory diverge from that of other regions of the world? Historians and social scientists have been providing varying answers to this question, focusing on different other regions for the sake of comparison. When comparison is made with Near Eastern or Islamic history, narratives of Western progress tend to be coupled with supposed Islamic decline. In this course we will discuss such narratives of Islamic and Western history, including their theoretical premises and normative underpinnings. Next to long-dominant models of a supposed great divergence, we will also look into aspects of convergence and engage with more recent propositions of common emergence. These point a way forward towards overcoming a supposed contrast of Islamic and Western histories, which, other than the paradigm of divergence suggests, did not develop in isolation. close
14 Class schedule
Additional appointments
Wed, 2024-07-17 14:00 - 18:00 Wed, 2024-07-24 13:00 - 14:00Nachschreibklausur
Regular appointments
Tue, 2024-04-16 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-04-23 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-04-30 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-05-07 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-05-14 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-05-21 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-05-28 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-06-04 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-06-11 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-06-18 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-06-25 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-07-02 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-07-09 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2024-07-16 16:00 - 18:00