Instructor: Martin Devecka

Islam emerged out of a Late Antique historical moment that, in its particularly Arabian instantiation, is still not well understood. We'll be looking at traditional Islamic accounts of Islamic origins alongside archaeological, epigraphic, and linguistic evidence as well as modern speculative historiography in order to get a sense of Islamic origins and what, if anything, connects the before time to the after time. That means trying to locate Islam as an outgrowth of Late Antiquity, but it means trying to answer some of these questions too: What is an origin, anyway? What do we mean when we talk about something "new" in history? And when does "antiquity" end, if it ever does?