DR1046: JERUSALEM: NAVEL OF THE EARTH (2014-2015)

Course Aims: This course provides an introduction to the historical, political, religious, and social geography of Jerusalem from 1000 B.C. to the eighteenth century. It is designed for all students interested in the roots of western civilization.

Main Learning Outcomes: Jerusalem, continuously inhabited since before 1000 B.C., offers a unique window into major developments in western and near-eastern history. The student who successfully completes this course will have an invaluable basis for further study in history, religion, divinity, international relations, and politics. Specifically, he or she will:
- understand the location, topography, and environmental features of Jerusalem through the ages, including significant changes in the physical landscape;
- possess a basic timeline of Jerusalem's past from its origins as a city until the early modern period;
- have a clear image of the city's major institutions, centres of worship, and built environment in successive periods;
- understand the changing roles of Jerusalem in relation to the political structures of which it was a part (e.g., as small temple state, as the centre of regional governance, or as one city among others in a province);
-  be able to identify and distinguish characteristics of the city under different periods, even within 'Jewish' (e.g., Persian-era, Hasmonean, Herodian), 'Christian' (Byzantine, Crusader), and 'Muslim' (Umayyad through Mamluk) rule;
- understand important aspects of the stakes held by Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Jerusalem, and the city's function as a site of veneration and pilgrimage in each tradition.

Content:

1.  Jerusalem: topography, Canaanite period, David and Solomon (tenth century BCE)
2.  First Temple, Babylonian siege and destruction (tenth to sixth centuries BCE)
3.  Early Second Temple: Persian and Hellenistic Rule (sixth to second centuries BCE)
4.  Hasmonean Jerusalem (160s to 60s BCE)
5.  Roman Rule I and King Herod's Jerusalem (60s to 4 BCE)
6.  Roman Rule II and Destruction by the Flavians (4 BCE to 120 CE)
7.  Roman Rule III: Aelia Capitolina (second to fourth centuries)
8.  Byzantine-Christian Jerusalem via the Emperor Julian (fourth to seventh centuries)
9.  Early Muslim, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid Jerusalem (seventh to eleventh centuries)
10. Crusader Kingdom, Ayyubid and Mamluk Jerusalem (1099 to 1516)
11. Early Ottoman Jerusalem: Suleiman the Magnificent to Napoleon (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries)

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

More Information about Week Numbers

1st Attempt:

Quiz 1 (knowledge of basic data from Weeks 1 to 3): 10%
Quiz 2 (knowledge of basic data from Weeks 4 to 7): 20%
Quiz 3 (knowledge of basic data from Weeks 8 to 11): 20%

Group and individual project (contribution to a web page and group presentation to class): 50%
This project has three inter-related components:
(i) a 1500 to 2000-word essay on a problem related to one element of the course (e.g., religious life or architecture or political structures in a given period), for 25% of the course mark;
(ii) the re-use of this material to create a group wiki-page, with groups of three or four, covering each period -- to be done in Blackboard, Wikispaces, or a similar environment, for 15% of the mark, individually assessed; and
(iii) the overall group effort, both in creating the finished wiki page and the in-class (15 to 20-minute) presentation of the results in the latter half of the course during tutorial, for 10% of the mark.

Resit: Essay of 3500-4000 words (100%).

Students meet the instructor in the first two weeks to confirm groups and the shared tasks within each group. The instructor monitors group progress from that point onward, hears any concerns in regular office hours or otherwise (by email and/or special appointment), and provides suggestions and informal feedback on group presentations.