1

FACULTY OF ORIENTAL STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

EUROPEAN & MIDDLE EASTERN

LANGUAGES

A handbook for Undergraduates reading EMEL

(Information about the Middle Eastern side of the degree)

ACADEMIC YEAR 2013-2014

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CONTENTS

Introduction 1

The Oriental Institute 3

Libraries 4

Structure of the EMEL course 5

Public Examinations 7

The Four Languages

Arabic 10

Hebrew 34

Persian 40

Turkish 49

Appendix A: Faculty Information 60

Academic Year 2013-2014: Dates of Full Term

Michaelmas Term Sunday 13

th October –Saturday 7

th December

2013

Hilary Term Sunday 19th

January – Saturday 15th

March

2014

Trinity Term Sunday 27th

April – Saturday 21st June 2014

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INTRODUCTION

EMEL is a Joint Honour School combining the study of a European language and its

literature with that of a Middle Eastern language and its literature. The two faculties

involved are the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and the Faculty of

Oriental Studies.

The aims of the course are

to make you competent in the spoken and written use of one European and one

Middle Eastern language;

to provide you with a specialized knowledge of the literature and culture of your

two chosen languages, either in the modern period, or in earlier periods, or in

both;

in some languages, to provide you with a specialized knowledge of the history of

specific periods.

Since you will be studying the languages and literature of two markedly different

cultures, you will probably be struck by the differences rather than the similarities

between them. These differences will enable you to reflect on each of the cultures from

the viewpoint of the other, placing each of them in a perspective that will help you

define its specific characteristics. But you will also be encouraged to discover

connections between the two cultures.

One important component of the final examination is a compulsory Extended

Essay, which is intended to form a ‘bridge’ between the European and Middle Eastern

sides of your course. In the Extended Essay you will have to write about both of the

cultures that you are studying. You will be able to choose your own topic, which might

be a comparison between the work of certain authors writing in your two languages, or

a study in the comparative linguistics of your two languages, though there are plenty of

other possibilities that you might want to pursue. The key thing is to discuss potential

topics with potential tutors for your proposed topic well in advance, on both the

Modern Languages and the Middle Eastern side of the degree. The Extended Essay is

written in the Hilary Term of the 4th

Year. The norm for the essay is for 4 tutorials to be

given, split equally between the European and Middle Eastern subject tutors. The

Extended Essay has to be handed in no later than the 10th

week of the Hilary term.

Further details (presentation, length, etc) of the Extended Essay can be found in the

Examination Regulations, at the end of the entry on the Honour School of European

and Middle Eastern Languages.

This handbook is intended only as a guide to the Middle Eastern components

of this joint degree. It won’t answer all the questions you have, but you should have

little difficulty finding the person who will know the answers. The handbook is

updated annually, and may be accessed on the Oriental Studies Faculty’s website

http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/general/ba_emel.html . Information about the papers in

the European language you have chosen and the Faculty of Medieval and Modern

Languages in general may be found in the handbooks for German, French, etc. For information about the Prelims and Finals syllabus, also consult the current

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Examination Regulations

(http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/examregs/European_and_Middle_Eastern_Languages.sht

ml).

Oxford is confusing to everyone at first, its institutions labyrinthine, and its

terminology arcane. If in doubt, please don’t hesitate to ask. Here are a few essential

terms, in alphabetical order, to get you started:

Collections: informal exams, usually held in 0th or 1st Week of term, to test your

progress. Colleges take a close interest in collection results.

Course: in Oxford used to refer to an entire degree course, e.g. German and Turkish or

Arabic and French. Each course is defined by the papers by which it is examined in the

Final Honour School (FHS).

FHS: the Second Public Examination or “Final Honour School”, taken at the very end

of your course (Trinity Term, Year 4).

Full Term: 1st to 8th Weeks, i.e. the eight teaching weeks of term. Teaching begins on

the Monday of 1st Week and continues up to and including the Friday of 8th Week.

Oxford does not observe Bank Holidays that fall within Full Term.

Hilary (Term): the second term of the academic year (Full Term mid-January to mid-

March).

Michaelmas (Term): the first term of the academic year (Full Term early October to

early December)

Paper: an examination paper for Prelims or FHS, as prescribed by the syllabus of your

course. (In its most technical sense, the term ‘paper’ includes non-written examinations

such as Spoken Arabic, and also the Extended Essay.)

Prelims: the First Public Examination or “Preliminary Examination”, taken at the end

of Trinity Term, Year 1. EMEL students take the Preliminary Examination in both the

European language and the Middle Eastern language.

Schools: an informal way of referring to (1) the FHS (see above); (2) the building

called Examination Schools in the High Street, where the two Public Examinations take

place.

Trinity (Term): the third term of the academic year (Full Term mid-April to mid-June).

Tutor: (1) the person or persons assigned to give you tutorial teaching in any particular

term (in the Middle Eastern language this applies mainly to Years 3 and 4); (2) the

person in your college who is designated to oversee your studies and your wellbeing in

a general way; depending on your college, you may or may not have a separate tutor for

the Middle East component of your course.

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Tutorial: a teaching session in which you (perhaps with one or two other students)

meet with your appointed tutor (usually on a weekly basis) to discuss a particular piece

of work that you have done. (See the section on Teaching later in this handbook.)

Tutorial Secretary (Course Coordinator): the person in the Faculty of Oriental Studies

with general responsibility for organizing the teaching of the Middle Eastern language

you are studying. You will meet with the tutorial secretary at the start of each term to

discuss progress and teaching arrangements for the term.

THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE

Address: The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford, OX1 2LE. Tel: 01865-278200.

Fax: 01865-278190. Email: [firstname.secondname]@orinst.ox.ac.uk

General: Most of the teaching for courses in Middle Eastern languages is faculty-

based, and nearly all classes, lectures, and tutorials are held in the Oriental Institute.

This is open Monday - Friday 9.15 a.m. - 7.00 p.m., Saturday 10.00 a.m. - 4.00 p.m.

The Institute is home to most of the teaching staff in Middle Eastern Studies, and to the

Faculty Office, classrooms, a language laboratory, a library (see ‘Libraries’, below) and

a common room which serves morning coffee from 10.30 a.m. - 11.30 a.m. and

afternoon tea from 3.30 p.m. - 4.30 p.m. during term. The Lodge of the Institute is

immediately to the right on entering. Some members of staff have rooms in the Khalili

Research Centre for the Art and Material and Culture of the Middle East, at 2-4 St John

Street, between the Oriental Institute and the Sackler Library. Others have rooms in the

Middle East Centre, which is located at St. Antony’s College, 68 Woodstock Road.

Faculty Office: The Faculty Office (third floor, Room 315) is the centre of the

Faculty’s administrative and bureaucratic machinery. It is from there that you may

purchase photocopies of many of the Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Turkish texts that

you will be studying, particularly in your third and fourth years. The current charge for

photocopies is 4p per sheet. The secretaries in this office are extremely busy; their

coffee and lunch breaks should be respected.

Joint Consultative Committee: Because of the relatively small numbers of staff and

students involved, the Joint Consultative Committee (J.C.C.) is actually an open

consultative meeting, normally held once a term; it provides a forum in which students

can express views about their course, and discuss them with teaching staff, and in

which students are consulted about any proposed syllabus changes. Arabic, Persian and

Turkish form part of the ‘Islamic World’ subject group within the Faculty, and have

one J.C.C. between them, while Hebrew has a separate one. The notices announcing

open consultative meetings of the Islamic World subject group are posted on the white

board in the Institute foyer. It is extremely important that you attend J.C.C. meetings;

please make a special effort to do so. You will also receive teaching evaluation forms,

which solicit your views on lectures, classes, and the course in general. Please return

these; they are taken seriously. But don’t feel that the J.C.C. and the evaluation forms

are the only means for you to comment upon your course; talk to your fellow students,

and to your tutors.

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LIBRARIES

Bodleian Library. The Bodleian Library is the University’s main library, and one of the greatest research libraries in the world. Many students graduate without having ever entered the Bodleian; that is their loss. The Bodleian can be daunting at first - it is on several sites, and most books are not on open shelves - but there are regular

introductory courses, and the staff are always willing to help (see

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk; to book a place on an introductory session call (2)77162.

The Bodleian Library possesses a vast collection of books and manuscripts in Arabic,

Persian and Turkish, as well as material in European languages relating to all aspects of

the Islamic Middle East. Under temporary arrangements in place during the large-scale

reorganization of the Bodleian Library, a large selection of this Bodleian material is

available on open shelves at the Oriental Institute, including Middle Eastern

periodicals, dictionaries, encyclopaedias and other reference works, and the remainder

is housed in closed stacks at the Book Storage Facility (BSF) in Swindon.

The Radcliffe Camera, which is part of the Bodleian Library, has an open-shelf

collection of books on history, organised by country; this includes the countries of the

Middle East.

Bodleian books cannot be borrowed. The Automated Stack Request system allows you

to request items from the BSF stacks of participating libraries using SOLO, Oxford

University’s online library catalogue. It enables you to track the progress of your

request(s) and renew and reserve items. This service can be used from wherever you

can access SOLO. Books can be ordered to any of the Bodleian reading rooms,

including the Oriental Institute Library.

Manuscripts are currently held at the Radcliffe Science Library, where they can be

consulted by appointment with one of the Special Collections staff.

Oriental Institute Library: The library of the Oriental Institute houses most of the

books (and some of the periodicals) that you will need to read for the Middle Eastern

side of your course. Administratively it is part of the Bodleian Library, so you will first

need to obtain your University ID card from your college; you should then register with

a librarian in the Institute library. You may borrow up to six books for an initial period

of two weeks. Some books are kept on reserve behind the circulation desk; you must

sign for these, and under no conditions should they leave the library.

College Libraries: Some colleges (e.g. Pembroke, St. John’s, Balliol, Magdalen) have

collections that include material in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, and others (e.g. Christ

Church, Lincoln) have material relating to Hebrew and Jewish Studies; these are

available only to students in these colleges. The Ferdowsi Persian library in Wadham

College accepts requests for access from students of Persian at all colleges

(http://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/about-wadham/library/persian-studies-section).

Middle East Centre Library: The collection of the Middle East Centre at St. Antony’s

College specializes in the modern (post-1800) period in terms of both history and social

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sciences; it is available to all undergraduates whose degree course involves Arabic,

Persian or Turkish.

STRUCTURE OF THE EMEL COURSE

The EMEL syllabus is set by the University, which grants degrees and therefore

examines for them; but teaching is the joint responsibility of the relevant sub-faculty

and your college as far as your European language is concerned, and of the Oriental

Institute as regards your Middle Eastern language. The EMEL syllabus prescribes the

subjects for two University examinations: the Preliminary Examination, taken after

three terms, and FHS which is taken after four years. In both sections of the course the

European and Middle Eastern languages are given equal weight in terms of the number

of examination components.

All courses with Arabic, Persian or Hebrew involve the study of both modern and

classical forms of the language and literature. In the case of Turkish, the older

(Ottoman) form of the language, which was heavily influenced by Arabic and Persian,

is compulsorily studied only through relatively modern (nineteenth- and twentieth-

century) texts, although there are options in earlier literature.

All syllabuses are published annually in the University’s Examination Regulations, to

which this handbook will frequently refer. This is available online at

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/examregs/European_and_Middle_Eastern_Languages.shtml .You

received a copy of the Examination Regulations from your college when you arrived;

any subsequent changes of regulation which significantly affect you will be notified to

you, and if there are changes of syllabus which might affect you adversely they will not

apply to you without your consent.

Year Abroad

It will normally be your second year that you spend abroad. For most students it will be

strongly advisable to spend the bulk of the year abroad following an approved formal

course of language instruction in a Middle Eastern country appropriate to their

language of study. The tuition fees involved in this will normally be covered in part, or

in full, by Oxford University, but you will have to provide for your own living

expenses, as you do in Oxford.

Assuming that you spend the main part of your year abroad as described above, you

should plan to spend the adjacent summers in the European country appropriate to your

course. On Friday or Saturday of 0th Week upon your return you will have to sit a

language test in your Middle Eastern language at the Oriental Institute.

Teaching

General: Teaching for EMEL, as for all subjects at Oxford, comes mainly in three

forms: classes, lectures, and tutorials. Because Oriental Studies covers many languages,

many of them with only a small number of students and staff, the Faculty arranges all

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teaching centrally, including tutorials (which in other subjects, including your

European language, are arranged by the colleges).

In the first year you will receive intensive language teaching in your chosen Middle

Eastern language.

Tutorials: In your final two years, each week your tutor will assign you work, normally

a passage of text for study, an essay topic for which specific reading is set, or a ‘prose’

(a passage of English to be translated into your language of study). You must then

prepare the text or write the essay or translation for discussion at an arranged tutorial in

the following week. It is through the directed reading, textual study, essay writing, and

discussion involved in classes and tutorials that you will gain essential understanding of

your subject.

Tutors submit written reports to your college on your progress at the end of each term,

and sooner if necessary, and these reports will be discussed with you by your college

tutor or other officers of the college.

Collections: In addition to Prelims and FHS, you will also be given ‘Collections’ by

your teachers in the Institute, usually on the Friday or Saturday of 0th week; these are

informal examinations, usually intended to test your command of material covered

during the previous term. They are also useful in preparing you for the experience of

Finals, in that Collections require you to write an essay or complete certain language

exercises in a specified time.

Lectures and Classes: The subjects and hours of all lectures, classes and seminars

appear on the Oriental Studies Faculty lecture list, which is posted on the University

website at http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/pubs/lectures/. The location of lectures and

classes in the Institute is posted on the white board in the foyer. Time permitting, you

are encouraged to attend lectures outside the Institute, in other faculties.

What to do if something goes wrong...

Sometimes things do go wrong. You, your teachers, or both may be at fault but,

tempting though it is to apportion blame, it is far more important to act quickly to

resolve the problem. In the first instance, talk to the teacher concerned, which is the

most direct way to address the problem. If this doesn’t work, consult one of the

following: in the Institute, the Tutorial Secretary for your language, or if necessary, the

Chairman of the Undergraduate Studies Committee; in your college, your personal or

moral tutor. If your problem is a general one, not personal, discuss it with your fellow

students and raise it at the Joint Consultative Committee.

For information about making a formal complaint, see Appendix A of this handbook,

item 1.

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Course Coordinators (Tutorial Secretaries) (2013-14)

Arabic: Dr Talal Al-Azem

Hebrew: Dr Alison Salvesen

Persian: Professor Edmund Herzig

Turkish: Dr Laurent Mignon

Convenors of Joint Consultative Committees (2013-14)

Islamic World: Dr Marie Legendre

Hebrew: Dr Alison Salvesen

PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS

General: The two Public Examinations —Prelims and FHS— are sat in the

Examination Schools in the High Street. You will be informed in writing, and some

weeks in advance, of the dates and times of your examinations. You must attend

wearing subfusc, the precise definition of which is made clear in a letter sent to you by

the Chairman of Examiners in advance of the Examinations. Copies of past papers are

available in the Oriental Institute library. They may also be accessed online via

http://www.oxam.ox.ac.uk/ . In the event of a paper which is being set for the first time,

or in a markedly changed format, students will be supplied with a specimen paper to

guide them in their preparation.

The ‘Guidelines for the setting and marking of examinations’ document is available on:

http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/docs/Exams/marking_guidelines.pdf

The Preliminary Examination: For Prelims you will spend a number of hours per

week in intensive language classes. Prelims are taken at the end of Trinity Term of

Year 1. In all the Middle Eastern languages the examination involves two written

papers of three hours each (comprising language exercises and translation). In the case

of Arabic there is, in addition, an oral examination in spoken Arabic. Note that the

Modern Languages part of the Prelim involves only one literature paper, in recognition

of the large number of hours you will spend learning the Middle Eastern language.

Prelims are marked on a pass/fail basis on each paper. Candidates may be awarded a

Distinction in one or both of their languages. Marks for each paper are not made public,

but may be used by colleges in the awarding of bursaries and scholarships. Detailed

marks are available on the ‘Academic and Assessment Information’ page on your

online Oxford Student Self Service a few days after the Faculties’ final examiners’

meetings in July (See

http://www.ox.ac.uk/current_students/registration_self_service/student_self_service.html ).

Results in Prelims do not contribute to your final degree class. If you fail one or more

papers in Prelims, you may take them again at the end of the summer vacation.

FHS: The second Public Examination (or ‘Schools’) is in Trinity Term, Year 4. There

are ten papers in total, including an oral examination:

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The oral is weighted as a half-paper in each of your languages (except Hebrew in which

there is no oral examination).

The two written language papers in each language are each weighted as a half-paper. .

There are three further written ‘content’ papers in each of your languages.

There is a compulsory extended ‘bridging’ essay.

Both languages are thus studied with equal weight. A high level of proficiency in both

is required at the end. The FHS is classed according to a I (first), II.1 (upper second),

II.2 (lower second), III (third), Pass, Fail scale. Occasionally a student is asked to

attend in subfusc a viva voce examination after sitting Finals. This is in order to resolve

borderline cases.

Set texts: Where a paper is based wholly or partly upon a corpus of texts that have been

prescribed for study (‘set texts’), the list of these texts will be available to you in one of

several ways. A list of set texts (for the examination in the following academic year)

will be published on the Faculty of Oriental Studies website

(http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/general/set_texts.html), not later than Friday of 3rd

week,

Hilary Term. This is to allow the teaching staff to introduce different texts from time to

time, but no changes are allowed after the above-mentioned date, which is 16 months

before the examination in question.

In Hilary Term of year 3, an Arabic FHS handbook is published on the Faculty website,

relating to the Final Honour Schools of Arabic and Islamic Studies and Arabic with a

Subsidiary Language, and a Turkish FHS handbook is published, relating to the Final

Honour Schools of Turkish, Turkish with a Subsidiary Language and Turkish with

Islamic Art and Archaeology. They both cover just years 3 and 4 of their respective

courses, and contain detailed descriptions of the papers involved (which are shared by

the relevant EMEL syllabuses), including lists of set texts.

Examination conventions. By the middle of Hilary Term in your fourth year, the

“setting conventions” for your FHS will be available on the Faculty’s website

(http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk). The conventions provide a detailed description of the

format of each paper that you will be taking in the FHS. The description will include an

indication of any subdivision of the paper into sections, the number and type (e.g.

translation, commentary, essay) of questions to be asked, the number of questions that

candidates are required to answer, and any rules governing the distribution of their

choices between different sections of the paper. The object of the conventions is to

assist candidates in organising their revision.

The oral examination: This is usually held in 0th Week of Trinity Term of Year 4. The

format of the oral examination in each language is described below in the relevant

section for each. (In the case of Turkish, it is described in the Turkish FHS handbook.)

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THE FOUR LANGUAGES

In the remainder of this handbook, the Middle East components of the EMEL degree

are listed by language: Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Turkish. Each Finals course is

described separately. The description includes the names of the teachers, to whom you

may apply for further information; a brief summary of the aims and content of the

course; and a list of the papers for examination. Except in the case of Turkish, the

papers are described, one by one, in some detail. For further details of the FHS papers

in Arabic and their availability, you should consult the separate handbook for the Final

Honour Schools of Arabic and Islamic Studies and Arabic with a Subsidiary Language,

which covers year 3 and year 4. For the FHS papers in Turkish, you should consult the

separate Turkish FHS handbook.

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ARABIC

Introduction

This course aims:

1. To give you a thorough grounding in written and spoken Arabic.

2. To provide you with a detailed knowledge of selected literary texts in both

classical and modern Arabic.

3. To develop in general your skills of description, interpretation and analysis of

literary, historical, religious and cultural material.

In Years 3 and 4, you will broaden and deepen your command of written and spoken

Arabic and you will begin to acquire a specialized knowledge of Arabic literature,

concentrating on modern texts and classical material. You will have the opportunity to

design your bridging essay, with the advice of your tutors, to suit your own interests

and enthusiasms. With Arabic you will study both classical and modern texts.

By the time you graduate you will have acquired a range of expertise. Linguistic

proficiency and knowledge of the literature, religion and culture of the Arab world may

lead some towards a variety of jobs connected with the region, such as diplomacy,

journalism, broadcasting, banking, and business. This degree also provides an excellent

foundation for those who wish to extend their studies to the Masters level, and beyond.

Teaching staff

Dr Walter Armbrust, University Lecturer and Albert Hourani Fellow of Modern Middle

East (St Antony’s). Middle East Centre, St Antony’s. Tel. (2)74471; Email:

walter.armbrust@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Dr Talal Al-Azem, Room 315, 41 Wellington Square. Tel: (2)80388. Email: talal.al-

azem@orinst.ox.ac.uk.

Professor Julia Bray, Laudian Professor of Arabic (St John’s). Oriental Institute, Room

211. Tel: (2)88215. Email: julia.bray@orinst.ox.ac.uk.

Professor Geert Jan van Gelder, Research Associate. Email:

gerard.vangelder@orinst.ox.ac.uk.

Dr Otared Haidar, Instructor in Arabic, Oriental Institute, Room 112. Tel: (2)78191;

Email: otared.haidar@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Professor Clive Holes, Professor for the Study of the Contemporary Arab World

(Magdalen). Oriental Institute, Room 101. Tel: (2)78239;

Email: clive.holes@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Dr Nadia Jamil, Senior Instructor in Classical and Modern Standard Arabic (on leave

2013-14). Oriental Institute Room 212. Tel: (2)88219; Email:

nadia.jamil@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Professor Jeremy Johns, University Lecturer in Islamic Archaeology (Wolfson). Khalili

Research Centre, St John St. Tel: (2)78198; Email: jeremy.johns@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Mr Tajalsir Kandoura, Instructor in Arabic. Oriental Institute Room 202. Tel: (2)78196;

Email: taj.kandoura@orinst.ox.ac.uk

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Dr Marie Legendre, Departmental Lecturer in Islamic History. Oriental Institute, Room

107 Tel. (2)78216; Email: marie.legendre@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Dr Christopher Melchert, University Lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies

(Pembroke). Oriental Institute, Room 103. Tel. (2)78211;

Email: christopher.melchert@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Mr Ronald Nettler, University Researcher in Oriental Studies (Mansfield) [retired].

Oriental Institute, Room 113. Tel: (2)78232; Email:

ronald.nettler@mansfield.oxford.ac.uk

Dr Mohamed-Salah Omri, University Lecturer in Modern Arabic Language and

Literature (St John’s). Oriental Institute, Room 104. Tel: (2)78221;

Email: mohamed-salah.omri@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Dr Ivan Panovic, Mellon Career Development Fellow in Arabic Linguistics:

ivan.panovic@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Dr Eugene Rogan, University Lecturer in the Modern History of the Middle East (St

Antony’s). Middle East Centre. Tel: (2)84773; Email:

eugene.rogan@orinst.ox.ac.uk.

Dr Judith Pfeiffer, University Lecturer in Arabic (St Cross, on leave). Oriental Institute,

Room 105. Tel: (2)78237; Email: judith.pfeiffer@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Dr Najah Shamaa, Faculty Tutor, Oriental Institute, Room 104. Tel: (2)78221;

Email: najah.shamaa@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Dr Nicolai Sinai, Shaikh Zayed University Lecturer in Islamic Studies (Pembroke, on

leave in Hilary), Oriental Institute, Room 209; Tel: (2) 78293; Email:

nicolai.sinai@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Dr Luke Treadwell, Samir Shamma Lecturer in Islamic Numismatics (St Cross).

Khalili Research Centre, St John Street. Tel: (2)78209; Email:

luke.treadwell@orinst.ox.ac.uk (on leave 2007-8)

Dr Zeynep Yurekli-Gorkay, Departmental Lecturer in Islamic Art and Architecture,

KRC. Tel: (2)78226

The Year Abroad

General: You will spend Year 2 (September to June) studying Arabic in the Arab

World, on a course approved by the Faculty Board. Students usually spend this year in

Cairo or Beirut, though, due to political circumstances, currently students are attending

the Qasid Institute in Amman. Information on the centres is available from the

teaching staff and from returning students. Addresses are given below. You must

finalise plans for your year abroad early in Trinity Term, Year 1. The current co-

ordinator for the year abroad is Dr Mohamed-Salah Omri.

Addresses of centres offering courses recognised by the Faculty Board

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Beirut c/o Eric Gautier Institut Français du Proche Orient

(I.F.P.O.)

Institut Français du Liban

Rue de Damas

B.P, 11-1424 Beirut, Lebanon

e.gautier@ifporient.org Web : www.ifporient.org

Tel : 00961-1-420/291/292/293/298

Fax : 00961-1-429295/ 615866

Cairo DÉPARTEMENT D’ENSEIGNEMENT DE L’ARABE

CONTEMPORAIN (DEAC)

2, Sikket el-Fadl Kasr el-Nil, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt

Tel : (00 202) 23 91 21 38

Fax : (00 202) 23 91 21 37

Contact : deac@cfcc-eg.org

Amman Qasid Institute

22 Queen Rania Street Next to Mukhtar Mall

Tel: +962 6 515 4364

Fax: +962 6 515 4352

Email: info@qasid.com

Web: www.qasid.com

Course Outlines

Prelims

The first three terms of your course are designed to give you a sound foundation in the

Arabic language.

Arabic Prelims, taken after three terms of study, comprise two examination papers of

3 hours each plus an oral examination.

1. Translation and précis into English.

2. Comprehension, composition and grammar.

3. Oral/aural examination (to be taken at the Oriental Institute).

You will prepare for Papers 1 and 2 by attending intensive language instruction for

about 10 hours per week, backed up by thorough preparation in your own time.

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The Final Honour School

This is the course outline

You have to take the following papers in FHS, one of which is the Oral. The details for

these papers are specified below.

6A. Arabic Unprepared Translation into English (half-paper)

6B. Prose Composition in Arabic (half-paper)

7. Spoken Arabic (counts as half-paper)

8. Arabic Literature

9. Islamic Religion

10. One paper chosen from the following:

i. Islamic History 570-1500 A.D.

ii. Classical Arabic literary texts

iii. Modern Arabic literature

iv. Arabic vernacular literature 1900 to the present day

v. History of the Middle East in the late Ottoman Age, 1750-1882

vi. A modern Islamic thinker (e.g. Sayyid Qutb, Mohammed Talbi, Rashid Rida)

vii. Society and Culture in the Modern Arab World

viii. A Short-Term Further Subject, as approved by the Board of the Faculty of

Oriental Studies and publicised in the separate handbook for the Final Honour

Schools of Arabic and Islamic Studies

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PAPERS IN ARABIC

Paper 6A

ARABIC UNPREPARED TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH TEACHING STAFF: Professor Clive Holes, Professor Geert Jan van Gelder, Professor

Julia Bray, Dr Najah Shamaa, Dr Nadia Jamil, Mr Taj Kandoura, Dr Otared Haidar.

WHEN TAUGHT/HOURS: Throughout the six terms of Years 3 and 4, there are 2-3

class hours per week devoted to improving language skills in modern Arabic, 2 to

written Arabic, 2 to spoken. Through the integrated approach adopted, these classes

constitute preparation for Arabic Papers 6A and 6B. For the Classical Arabic

component, there is one class hour throughout the terms of Years 3 and 4.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:

Modern Arabic

Year 3. Sets of modern Arabic texts are presented, which are organised thematically by

subject. Subjects vary from year to year but currently include: the Arabic language - its

history, native beliefs about, its importance as a political symbol of Arab unity; the

Arab architectural tradition, past, present and future; the structure of the Arab family,

Arabic autobiography, and the role of men and women in it, etc. Each subject is studied

for approximately 3 weeks. Students are given copies of printed materials in advance

for preparation, and these are reviewed in class where particular attention is paid to the

vocabulary and phraseology associated with each subject, the object being to promote

not just passive knowledge of, but active engagement with the language of the subject

matter. To this end, learning is reinforced orally either individually or in groups, in

classroom debates and presentations in Arabic on issues raised by the materials. For

some subjects, the input material includes Arabic audio and videotapes as well as

printed materials. Instruction is provided in dealing with longer Arabic texts for gist,

and précis writing. Practice is also given in how to translate English structures which

experience shows give particular problems to English speakers.

Year 4. In Year 4, what is offered is a more advanced version of the 3rd-year

programme, again thematically organised. The difference is that in Year 4 the

organising principle is text-type rather than subject matter: e.g. expository, polemical,

reportage, narrative, texts are studied as separate genres in order to examine how such

rhetorical purposes are typically fulfilled in Arabic. The range of material studied is

extremely wide, e.g. political speeches, philosophical reflections, personal memoirs,

short stories. The objective is to focus your attention on which parts of the language’s

inventory of vocabulary and syntactic structures are typically mobilised to express

particular rhetorical purposes: e.g. neutral reporting, advancing an argument,

persuasion, sequencing a narrative. This part of the course attempts to answer the

question: ‘What range of forms are used to express a given rhetorical function?’ In the

Trinity Term much attention is devoted to the translation of passages of modern

English prose from a wide variety of genres into Arabic, in which students are

encouraged to ‘recycle’ the phraseology from the Arabic texts they have read.

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Classical Arabic

The aim of the classical (or pre-modern) Arabic “unseen” class (3rd and 4th year) is to

make you acquainted, or better acquainted, with a wide range of prose genres, both

‘literary’ and non-literary; including anecdotes, ‘short stories’, jokes, historiography,

biography, philosophy, ethics, popular science, Islamic law, travel literature, etc. Each

week a different text will be presented.

The examination consists of two questions, and there is no choice. Both questions

involve translation into English of two Arabic passages in prose, one pre-modern, one

modern, which may be drawn from any genre.

Paper 6B

PROSE COMPOSITION IN ARABIC

TEACHING STAFF: Professor Clive Holes, Dr Najah Shamaa, Dr Nadia Jamil, Mr Taj

Kandoura, Dr Otared Haidar.

WHEN TAUGHT/HOURS: Years 3 and 4.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Year 3. You are given practice in translating from English into

Arabic, with emphasis on developing an idiomatic written Arabic style. The approach

is to focus first on ways in which modern Arabic typically expresses major linguistic

functions, whether narrowly syntactic, e.g. comparison, passivisation, adverbial

complementation, partitive constructions etc. or more broadly rhetorical, e.g.

hypothesising, persuading, denying, agreeing, etc. This initial focusing of your

attention involves the study of textual examples in Arabic from a diverse range of

sources. You will then be presented with short ‘parallel’ English texts (often no more

than four or five sentences long) and are required to use the Arabic structural and

rhetorical elements to which you have been exposed to translate these into Arabic. The

objective is to focus more clearly than is possible in traditional prose composition

classes on those aspects of Arabic syntax and rhetoric which experience shows cause

most problems to English-speaking students and which are most often mistranslated.

Year 4. What is offered is essentially a more advanced version of the Year 3

programme, except that less time is spent on individual areas of syntax, and more on

the development of a more finely tuned feel for the phraseology and style of modern

written Arabic. The focus is on text-types and the language typically associated with

them, and you will be given many short passages of English for translation into Arabic,

the texts being drawn from and grouped into types and subjects. The overall aim of

Year 3 and 4 prose composition classes is to develop both accuracy in written language

use and appropriateness in usage.

The examination involves translating into Arabic one of two English prose passages,

The style of modern written Arabic you use in the examination should be appropriate to

the subject matter of the piece being translated.

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Paper 7

SPOKEN ARABIC

TEACHING STAFF: Dr Nadia Jamil, Mr Taj Kandoura, Dr Otared Haidar, Ms

Katherine Halls.

WHEN TAUGHT/HOURS: Years 3 and 4.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Through a variety of textual and audio-visual materials,

students are instructed in a range of oral and aural skills which are tested in the Spoken

Arabic examination in FHS.

In the examination a candidate will normally be required to show competence in the

following:

(i) Comprehension of passages of text. In this comprehension test, candidates will

hear three passages each lasting up to three minutes, the passages being read

twice at normal speed. After the readings of each passage, candidates will be

given not more than ten minutes to provide written evidence in English that they

have understood the passage. This part of the examination will be conducted in a

group.

(ii) Reading aloud of a passage of text with grammatical vocalisation.

(iii) General conversation of not more than ten minutes, after an oral presentation

based on a choice of topics given in advance.

In part (iii) of the oral examination, it is desirable that you produce language which is

both fluent and accurate, whether you choose to use one of the colloquial varieties of

the language (Egyptian, Syrian, Tunisian, etc.) or to speak in Modern Standard Arabic,

either of which is acceptable. Ideally, you should aim at a style similar to that used by

educated Arabs, i.e., essentially the regional colloquial of whichever area of the Middle

East you spent your Year Abroad in, but with an ‘educated’ (i.e., Standard) vocabulary,

where this is required by the subject you choose to talk about.

Paper 8

ARABIC LITERATURE

TEACHING STAFF: Professor Geert Jan van Gelder, Professor Julia Bray (classical

texts), Dr Mohamed-Salah Omri (modern texts)

WHEN TAUGHT/HOURS: Year 3, MT-HT, 16+16 hours lectures, equally divided

between classical and modern, taught concurrently; 3 tutorials/essays each, each term.

SET TEXTS:

(a) classical: Abu l-Faraj al-Isfahani, al-Aghani, Cairo: Dar al-Kutub, vol. xxiv (1974)

pp. 145-166: akhbar ‘Urwa ibn Hizam (mostly simple narrative prose; contains c. 45

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lines of ghazal verse); Badi‘ al-Zaman al-Hamadhani, Maqamat, ed. Muhammad

‘Abduh, repr. Beirut, 1973, pp. 239-245: al-maqama al-khamriyya (ornate prose,

contains 10 lines of verse).

(b) modern: Muhammad al-Muwaylihi: Hadith ‘Isa b. Hisham, Chapter 2; Jibran

Khalil Jibran: extracts from ‘Ara’is al-muruj (“Marta al-Baniyya” and “Yuhanna al-

Majnun”); Mahmud Tahir Lashin: Hadith al-qarya; Yusif Idris: Bayt min lahm;

Zakariyya Tamir: Shams saghira; Ghada al-Samman: Qat` ra’s al-qitt; poems by Abu

’l-Qasim al-Shabbi (Fi zill wadi’l-mawt), Salah ‘Abd al-Sabur (Hajama al-tatar) and

Khalil Hawi (al-Bahhar wa’l-darwish).

(see Faculty website from Friday of 3rd

week, Hilary term for set text list:

http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/general/set_texts.html.)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: With this paper you will acquire a first introduction to Arabic

literary texts, including prose and poetry, both classical and modern.

The classical set texts offer narratives from a Bedouin and an urban background, with

some relatively easy poetry. The genres and forms (romantic love story, ghazal poetry,

the satirical maqama) make for possible links with modern Arabic literature. An

English translation of al-Hamadhani’s text is available (Prendergast, 1915); no English

translation of the Aghani text is known. It should be possible to get through most of the

set texts in class in 16 hours; the remainder can be read by the students independently,

with assistance in tutorials or revision classes if needed. Three essays will be written on

aspects of the texts and the genres to which they belong.

The modern component of this paper is designed to illustrate how modern Arabic

literature emerged initially from its classical antecedents such as the maqama , and

went on to develop rapidly the themes, genres and language which have made this one

of the richest literatures of the post-colonial world. It begins with extracts from two of

the pioneers of modernity in modern Arabic prose, Muhammad al-Muwaylihi and

Jibran Khalil Jibran, and continues with a selection of short stories written between

1929 and 1994. This part of the course will conclude with three poems, one each by the

poets mentioned above.

All modern Arabic texts will be supplied, and any text not read in full in the class will

be accompanied by an English translation. The three poems will be read and translated

in class. Reading lists will be provided in addition to the recommended background

reading. Three essays will be written on aspects of the texts and the genres to which

they belong.

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING:

Roger Allen, The Arabic Literary Heritage: The Development of its Genres and

Criticism, (Cambridge, 2000), esp. ch. 4 and 5 (“Poetry”, “Bellettristic prose and

narrative”, pp. 103-315).

M. M. Badawi (ed.), The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: Modern Arabic

Literature (Cambridge 1992).

M. M. Badawi, A Critical Introduction to Modern Arabic Poetry (Cambridge 1975).

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A. F. L. Beeston, chapter “Al-Hamadhani, al-Hariri and the maqamat Genre” in J.

Ashtiany et al. (eds), ‘Abbasid Belles-Lettres (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 125-135.

T. Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (Oxford, 1990).

S. Hafez, The Genesis of Arabic Narrative Discourse (London, 1993).

M. Shaheen, The Modern Arabic Short Story (London 1989).

R. Wellek and A. Warren, Theory of Literature (London 1976).

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Paper 9

ISLAMIC RELIGION

TEACHING STAFF: Dr Christopher Melchert and Dr Nicolai Sinai

WHEN TAUGHT/HOURS:

Year 3, 3 hours of lectures and seminars in weeks 5-8 of Hilary Term and weeks 1-8 of

Trinity Term; 2 tutorials and 2 essays in weeks 5-8 of Hilary Term; 4 tutorials and 4

essays in Trinity Term

SET TEXTS:

Qur’an 37:1-39, 83-113, and 5:1–11.

Al‑Nawawī, Arbaʿūna ḥadīthan, nos 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 30, 34, 38, and 42.

Al‑Baghawī. Al‑Tahdhīb fī fiqh al‑imām al-Shāfi‛ī. Edited by ‛Ādil Aḥmad ‛Abd

al‑Mawjūd and ‛Alī Muḥammad Mu‛awwaḍ. 8 vols. Beirut: Dār al‑Kutub al‑‛Ilmīyah,

1418/1997. 2:93-7.

Al‑Shaʿrānī. Al‑Ṭabaqāt al‑kubrá. 2 vols in 1. Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Muṣṭafá al‑Bābī

al‑Ḥalabī, 1373/1954. 1:140, biography of Abū Najīb ‛Abd al‑Qādir al‑Suhrawardī.

Al-Ghazālī. Tahāfut al-falāsifa. Edited by Michael E. Marmura. Provo, Utah:

Brigham Young University Press, 1997. 13, l. 7–14, l. 19.

ʿAbduh, Muḥammad and Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā. Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ḥakīm al-

mushtahir bi-ism Tafsīr al-Manār. 12 vols. 2nd

ed. Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-Manār, 1947–61.

1:6–8 (from qad shāhadnā ... to min tafsīrinā hādhā).

(see Faculty website from Friday of 3

rd week, Hilary term for set text list:

http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/general/set_texts.html)

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING:

Robinson, Neal. Discovering the Qur’an, London: SCM, 1996. BP 130 ROB.

Schacht, Joseph. An Introduction to Islamic Law, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964. BP

144 SCH.1.

Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystical Dimensions of Islam, Chapel Hill: University of

North Carolina Press, 1978. BP 189.1 SCH. (A good survey of Sufi literary

imagery, although insensitive to change over time).

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Paper 10. One of the following:

Paper 10.i ISLAMIC HISTORY, 570-1500

TEACHING STAFF: Dr Marie Legendre and Dr Talal Al-Azem.

WHEN TAUGHT/HOURS: Year 3, two hours of classes per week in Hilary Term,

two hours of classes in each of weeks 1-4 in Trinity Term.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This paper provides a chronological and topical introduction

to the political, social, and intellectual history of the central Islamic lands (Egypt, the

Fertile Crescent, and Iran) from the late 6th

century AD until the end of the 15th

century

AD. Its primary goal is to train you to think critically about the emergence of classical

Islamic civilisation. To do this, you are asked to read carefully a number of

monographs and articles, and to write 6 essays on a variety of topics. These range from

the historical sources on Muhammad to the First and Second Civil Wars, the Abbasid

Revolution, the emergence of Hadith and the development of Islamic law, the nature of

the caliphate, the political disintegration of the empire, and the role of the holy man.

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING:

Berkey, J. The Formation of Islam, Cambridge, 2002.

Endress, G., An Introduction to Islam, Edinburgh, 1988.

Goldziher, I., Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law, Princeton, 1981.

Hodgson, M.G.S., The Venture of Islam II. The Expansion of Islam in the Middle

Periods, Chicago and London, 1974.

Humphreys, R.S., Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry, Princeton, 1991.

The Cambridge History of Islam in Two Volumes, Vol. 1, pp. 141-291.

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Paper 10.ii CLASSICAL ARABIC LITERARY TEXTS

TEACHING STAFF: Professor Julia Bray, Professor Geert Jan van Gelder.

WHEN TAUGHT/HOURS: Year 3, TT, 16 hours lectures; 4 tutorials/essays.

SET TEXTS:

poetry: al-Shanfara’s Lamiyyat al-‘arab, 69 vss. in Diwan ed. Imil Badi‘ Ya‘qub, Beirut, 1991,

pp. 58-73 (6 hours in class); al-Mutanabbī, Wa-harra qalbahu, 37 vss. in Diwan ed. Dieterici,

Berlin, 1861, pp. 481-486 (3 hours in class);

prose: al-Jahiz, from al-Hayawan (ed. Cairo, 1966) vol. vii, p. 9 line 1 to p. 14 line 5 (The

Author Recapitulates) (4 hours); al-Tanukhi, from al-Faraj ba‘d al-shidda, ed. ‘Abbud al-

Shalji, vol. iv, pp. 316-327 (Slave-Girl Lost and Regained) (3 hours).

(see Faculty website from Friday of 3rd

week, Hilary term for set text list:

http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/general/set_texts.html))

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The aim of this paper is to broaden your acquaintance with classical

literary texts, through set texts in poetry and prose. The poetry includes two complete poems, a

famous early (probably pre-Islamic) ode and a tenth-century one by perhaps the most highly

esteemed Arabic poet from Islamic times. The two prose texts are taken from the most

important works by two great prose writers from the ninth and the tenth centuries, one a

versatile essayist and the other a great story-teller (the chosen story has many parallels, some of

them in the Thousand and One Nights). Most of the set texts will be read and discussed in class,

but the greater part of the story in al-Tanukhi’s Faraj, which is much easier, will have to be

read independently. There many English translations of al-Shanfara’s poem (including those by

Michael Sells, Suzanne Stetkevych, Alan Jones, Warren Treadgold) and at least two of al-

Mutanabbi’s poem (Arberry, Poems of al-Mutanabbi, and by Salma Jayyusi and Christopher

Middleton in Sperl & Shackle, Qasida Poetry). No English translations of the prose texts seem

to exist in print. Two of the four essays will deal with aspects of the set texts; two other

“essays” will be annotated translations of other classical Arabic literary texts chosen by the

student in consultation with the teacher or tutor.

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING:

Alan Jones, Early Arabic Poetry, vol. I (Oxford, 1992), “Introduction” (pp. 1-30), “al-Shanfara

al-Azdi: Lamiyyat al-‘Arab” (pp. 130-184);

Andras Hamori, chapter “Al-Mutanabbi” in Julia Ashtiany et al. (eds), ‘Abbasid Belles-Lettres,

Cambridge, 1990, pp. 300-314;

Charles Pellat, The Life and Works of Jahiz : Translations of selected texts (London, 1969) (Tr.

by D.M. Hawke of French original);

id., chapter “Al-Jahiz” in Julia Ashtiany et al. (eds), ‘Abbasid Belles-Lettres, pp. 78-93;

Julia Ashtiany, “Tanukhi’s al-Faraj ba‘d al-shidda as a Literary Source”, in Alan Jones (ed.),

Arabicus felix, luminosus britannicus: Essays in Honour of A. F. L. Beeston (Reading, 1991), pp.

108-120.

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Paper 10.iii MODERN ARABIC LITERATURE

TEACHING STAFF: Dr Mohamed-Salah Omri

WHEN TAUGHT/HOURS: Year 3, TT (16 hours lectures , 4 tutorials)

SET TEXTS: Prose: Ilyas Khuri, Abwab al-madina; Edwar al-Kharrat, Turabuha Za‘faran;

Najib Mahfuz, Zuqaq al-Midaqq. Poetry: Ahmad ‘Abd al-Mu‘ti Hijazi, Ila’l-liqa’; Badr Shakir

al-Sayyab, Madinat al-Sindibad; Amal Dunqul, Hikayat al-madina al-fiddiyya.

(see Faculty website from Friday of 3rd

week, Hilary term for set text list:

http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/general/set_texts.html))

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The further subject on Modern Arabic Literature will be organised

each Trinity Term around a specific theme, rather than a genre-based approach. In Trinity Term

2006, the theme will be “The City in Modern Arabic Literature”. Representations of the cities

of Beirut, Alexandria and Cairo and their functions in literature will be studied through three

novels by Ilyas Khuri, Edwar al-Kharrat, and Najib Mahfuz. All three novels are translated into

English, but significant sections of the novels in Arabic will be studied and analysed in class.

City imagery will also be studied in poems by Ahmad `Abd al-Mu`ti Hijazi, Badr Shakir al-

Sayyab, and Amal Dunqul. All poems will be read and translated in class. Reading lists will be

provided in addition to the recommended background reading.

RECOMMENDED BACKGROUND READING

Allen, R.: The Arabic Novel; an Historical and Critical Introduction (Manchester, 1982).

Badawi, M. M. : Modern Arabic Literature and the West (London, 1985)

Benjamin, W. : The Arcades Project (English trans. by H. Eiland and K. Mclaughlin,

Cambridge, 1999)

Jayyusi, S. K. : Trends and Movements in Modern Arabic Poetry, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1977).

Meyer, S.G. : The Experimental Arabic Novel (New York 2001).

Williams, R.: The Country and the City (London, 1973).

23

Paper 10.iv ARABIC VERNACULAR LITERATURE, 1900 TO THE PRESENT DAY

TEACHING STAFF: Prof Clive Holes

WHEN TAUGHT/ HOURS: Year 3, Trinity Term as Further Subject. 2hrs classes per week.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION In all Arab countries there is an ancient tradition of popular literature

alongside the better-known Classical tradition. By ‘popular literature’ is meant various genres

of verbal art – principally poetry, but also traditional tribal narrative, sīras (hero-cycles) and,

more recently, drama – that is often orally composed and performed and whose vehicle is the

non-standard form of the language, though often in a more elevated stylistic register than that

of everyday speech. This course provides an introduction to the subject via the study of a wide

range of Arabic popular poetry from Egypt, Iraq, the Gulf and Arabia of the various genres and

locates them in their social and political context.. Particular attention is paid to the role of the

poet as a communal ‘voice’ in both urban and rural society, and how the use of popular poetry

has played a role in the political upheavals of the 20th and 21

st centuries.

RECOMMENDED READING (Egypt)

Booth M. Bayram al-Tunisi’s Egypt: Social Criticism and narrative Strategies. Ithaca 1990.

Abdel-Malek K. A Study of the Vernacular Poetry of Ahmad Fu’ad Nigm. Brill 1990.

Cachia P. Popular Narrative Ballads of Modern Egypt. Oxford 1989.

RECOMMENDED READING (other areas)

Abu Lughod L. Veiled Sentiments. Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. University of

California Press, 1988.

Bailey C. Bedouin Poetry: From Sinai and the Negev. Oxford, 1991.

Holes C & Abu Athera S. Poetry and Politics in Contemporary Bedouin Society, Ithaca Press,

2009.

Holes C & Abu Athera S. The Nabati Poetry of the United Arab Emirates, Ithaca Press, 2011.

Sowayan S. Nabati Poetry: The Oral Poetry of Arabia. University of California Press, 1985.

Shryock A. Nationalism and the Genealogical Imagination: Oral History and Textual

Authority in Tribal Jordan. University of California Press, 1997.

Sowayan S. The Arabian Oral Historical Narrative: an Ethnographic and Linguistic Analysis.

Wiesbaden, 1992.

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Paper 10.v

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE LATE OTTOMAN AGE, 1750-1882

TEACHING STAFF: Dr Eugene Rogan

WHEN TAUGHT/HOURS: Year 3, TT 8 hours lectures, 4 tutorials

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This paper traces the growing autonomy of the Arab

provinces of the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth century, Ottoman reform efforts in

the nineteenth century, and the beginnings of European imperialism in North Africa.

Topics to be covered include the Mamluk households in Egypt, Palestine under Zahir

al-Umar and Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar, the rise of the Saudi-Wahhabi alliance in Central

Arabia, the French occupation of Egypt, Muhammad Ali in Egypt, the French invasion

of Algeria, the Ottoman reforms of the Tanzimat, the Christian massacres in Lebanon

and Syria, and the British occupation of Egypt.

25

Paper 10. vi

A MODERN ISLAMIC THINKER (e.g. Sayyid Qutb, Mohamed Talbi, Rashid Rida)

TEACHING STAFF: Mr Ron Nettler

WHEN TAUGHT/HOURS: Year 3, TT 16 hours lectures, 4 tutorials

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: apply to Mr Nettler

26

Paper 10. vii

SOCIETY AND CULTURE IN THE MODERN ARAB WORLD

TEACHING STAFF: Dr Walter Armbrust

WHEN TAUGHT/HOURS: Year 3, Lectures in Hilary and Trinity Terms, 4 tutorials in

TT.

SET TEXTS: There are no set texts. A wide variety of printed and recorded audio

and audiovisual materials can be integrated into the paper depending on demand and

the capabilities of students taking the paper.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The paper focuses on the society and culture of the modern

Arab world. The main academic literature for the course is drawn from the discipline

of social anthropology, but the paper also includes readings from literary studies,

political science, sociology and history. A number of primary texts are also relevant to

the paper. Topics covered will include notions of family in the region; moral rhetorics

of honor, shame, and modesty; marriage; particularism and universalism in Islam;

Islam and modernity; Islamist political movements; writing and recitation; language

and standardized identity; national identity; ethnicity and the nation-state;

"globalization," the state, and neo-liberalism. The paper will emphasize social

anthropological perspectives on the modern Arab world, but will incorporate Arabic-

language texts when there is demand for them.

ABRIDGED READING LIST:

BACKGROUND:

Eickelman, Dale. 1998. The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Gilsenan, Michael. 1982. Recognizing Islam: An Anthropologist's Introduction. London: Croom Helm.

MEN, WOMEN, AND FAMILY

Cole, Donald P. 1985. "The Household, Marriage and Family Life among the Al

Murrah Nomads of Saudi Arabia." In Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Nicholas S. Hopkins

eds., Arab Society: Social Science Perspectives, 19-211. Cairo: The American

University in Cairo Press.

Jansen, Willy. 1987. Women without Men: Gender and Marginality in an Algerian

Town. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1987.

Joseph, Suad. 1994. "Brother/Sister Relationships: Connectivity, Love, and Power in

the Reproduction of Patriarchy in Lebanon." American Ethnologist 21 (1): 50-73.

27

Meneley, Anne. 1996. "The Bayt: Family and Household." In Anne Meneley,

Tournaments of Value: Sociability and Hierarchy in a Yemeni Town. Toronto:

University of Toronto Press, pp. 60-80.

Murphy, R. and L. Kasdan. 1959. "The Structure of Parallel Cousin Marriage."

American Anthropologist 61 (1): 17-29.

Singerman, Diane. 1995. Avenues of Participation: Family, Politics, and Networks in

Urban Quarters of Cairo. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Introduction,

chs. 1-2, pp. 1-131).

MORAL RHETORICS OF HONOR, SHAME, AND MODESTY

Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1987. Veiled Sentiments:Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1965. "The Sentiment of Honor in Kabyle Society." in J.G. Peristiany ed. Honour and Shame: the values of Mediterranean Society. London: Weidenfeld.

Guindi, Fadwa El-. 1999. Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance. Oxford: Berg.

Hatem, Mervat. 1986. "The Enduring Alliance of Nationalism and Patriarchy in

Muslim Personal Status Laws: The Case of Modern Egypt." Feminist Issues 6 (1):

19-43.

Hill, Enid. 1979. "Courts and Auxiliary Structures," and "Divorce Egyptian Style and

Related Matters," In E. Hill, Mahkama! Studies in the Egyptian Legal System,

Courts and Crimes, Law and Society. London:that Ithaca Press.

Macleod, Arlene. 1991. Accommodating Protest: Working Women, the New Veiling, and Change in Cairo. New York: Columbia.

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE

Moghadam, Valentine. 1993. Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the

Middle East. London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Najjar, Fauzi. 1988. "Egypt's Laws of Personal Status." Arab Studies Quarterly 10 (3):

319-344.

Sonbol, Amira. 1996. "Law and Gender Violence in Ottoman and Modern Egypt." In

Amira Sonbol ed., Women, the Family, and Divorce Laws in Islamic History.

Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Stowasser, Barbara. 1987. "Liberated Equal or Protected Dependent? Contemporary

Religious Paradigms on Women's Status in Islam." Arab Studies Quarterly 9 (3):

260-283.

28

ISLAM: PARTICULARISM AND UNIVERSALISM

Eickelman, Dale. 1976. Moroccan Islam: Tradition and Society in a Pilgrimage

Center . Austin: University of Texas Press.

Geertz, Clifford. 1968. Islam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and

Indonesia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gellner, Ernest. 1981. "Flux and Reflux in the Faith of Men." In E. Gellner, Muslim

Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gilsenan, Michael. 1973. Saint and Sufi in Modern Egypt: An Essay in the Sociology

of Religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

ISLAM AND MODERNITY

Asad, Talal. 1993. "The Limits of Religious Criticism in the Middle East: Notes on

Islamic Public Argument." In Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of

Power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp.

200-236.

Asad, Talal. 2003. "Secularism, Nation-State, Religion." In Talal Asad, Formations

of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press,

pp. 181-201.

Eickelman, Dale and James Piscatori. 1996. "The Invention of Tradition in Muslim

Politics." In Eickelman and Piscatori, Muslim Politics, pp. 22-45.

Starrett, Gregory. 1998. Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious

Transformation in Egypt. Berkeley: University of California Press.

ISLAMIST POLITICS

Gaffney, Patrick. 1994. The Prophet's Pulpit: Islamic Preaching in Contemporary

Egypt. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Mahmood, Saba. 2005. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist

Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Wickham, Carrie. 2002. Mobilizing islam: Religion, Activism, and Political Change in

Egypt. New York: Columbia University Press.

29

WRITING AND RECITATION

Messick, Brinkley. 1993. The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a

Muslim Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Nelson, Kristina. 1985. The Art of Reciting the Qur'an. Austin: University of Texas

Press.

Ong, Walter. 1988. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New

York: Routledge. (Chapter 1).

Pedersen, Johannes. 1984. The Arabic Book. Translated by Geoffrey French. Edited

with an introduction by Robert Hillenbrand. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University

Press. (first three chapters).

LANGUAGE AND STANDARDIZED IDENTITY

Badawi, Said and Martin Hinds. 1986. A Dictionary of Egyptian Arabic: Arabic-

English. Beirut: Librairie du Liban (introductory material).

Booth, Marilyn. "Colloquial Arabic Poetry, Politics, and the Press in Modern Egypt."

International Journal of Middle East Studies. 24(3), August 1992.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. "The Production and Reproduction of Legitimate Language."

In Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard

University Press.

Fishman, Joshua. 2003 [1972]. "The Impact of Nationalism on Language Planning."

In Roxy Harris and Ben Rampton eds, The Language, Ethnicity and Race Reader.

London: Routledge, pp. 117-127.

Ferguson, Charles, "Diglossia," Word, v. 15, 1959, pp. 324-340.

Holes Clive. 1995. Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions and Varieties. London:

Longman. (chapter 9, 'Language Level').

Holes, Clive. 1993. 'The uses of variation: a study of the speeches of Gamal Abdul-

Nasir' in Eid M. and Holes C.D. Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics Vol 5,

Banjamins, Amsterdam, pp 13-45.

Holes, Clive. 2005. "Dialect and National Identity: The Cultural Politics of Self-

Representation in Bahraini Musalsalat." In Paul Dresch and James Piscatori eds,

Monarchies and Nations: Globalisation and Identity in the Arab States of the Gulf.

London: I.B. Tauris, pp. 52-72.

Suleiman, Yasir. 1994. "Nationalism and the Arabic Language: A Historical

Overview." In Yasir Suleiman ed., Arabic Sociolinguistics: Issues and

Perspectives. Surrey, Great Britain: Curzon Press.

30

NATIONAL IDENTITY

Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and

Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso. (First four chapters).

Armbrust, Walter. 1996. Mass Culture and Modernism in Egypt. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Dresch, Paul. 2005. "Debates on Marriage and Nationality in the United Arab

Emirates." In Dresch and Piscatori eds., Monarchies and Nations: Globalisation

and Identity in the Arab States of the Gulf. London: I.B. Tauris, pp. 136-157.

Longva, Anh Nga. 2005. "Neither Autocracy Nor Democracy but Ethnocracy:

Citizens, Expatriates and the socio-Political System in Kuwait." In Paul Dresch and

James Piscatori eds., Monarchies and Nations: Globalisation and Identity in the

Arab States of the Gulf. London: I.B. Tauris, pp. 114-135.

Messiri, Sawsan el-. 1978. Ibn al-Balad: A Concept of Egyptian Identity. Leiden: E.J.

Brill.

Shryock, Andrew. 1997. Nationalism and the Genealogical Imagination: Oral History

and Textual Authority in Tribal Jordan. Berkeley : University of California Press.

ETHNICITY AND THE NATION-STATE

Barth, Fredrik ed. 1969. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of

Culture Difference. Boston: Little, Brown. (Barth's chapter)

Ghosh, Amitav. 1993. In an Antique Land. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1993.

Longva, Anh Nga. 1997. Walls Built on Sand: Migration, Exclusion, and Society in

Kuwait. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.

Shammas, Anton. 1988. Arabesques. New York: Harper and Row.

Simmel, Georg. 1967. "The Stranger." In Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg

Simmel. Tr. and ed. Kurt Wolff. New York: The Free Press.

Weber, Max. 1961. "Ethnic groups." In Max Weber, Economy and Society: An

Outline of Interpretive Sociology (ed. Guenther Roth and Claus Wittlich. Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1978.

"GLOBALIZATION," THE STATE AND NEO-LIBERALISM

Elyachar, Julia. 2005. Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, Economic Development, and

the State in Cairo. Durham: Duke University Press.

31

Salamandra,Christa. 2004. A New Old Damascus: Authenticity and Distinction in

Urban Syria. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.

Winegar, Jessica. 2006. Creative Reckonings: The Politics of Art and Culture in

Contemporary Egypt. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

32

Paper 10. Viii

SHORT-TERM FURTHER SUBJECT APPROVED BY THE FACULTY

BOARD

33

HEBREW

Introduction

Oxford has been a world centre for the study of Hebrew since Henry VIII established

the Regius Professorship of Hebrew in 1546. There are unrivalled collections of

Hebrew manuscripts and printed books in the Bodleian Library which attract a steady

stream of visitors from all over the world. Outstanding scholars have held a number of

different positions in Hebrew Studies in the University, and students of many

nationalities come to Oxford for both undergraduate and graduate studies in the field.

Teaching Staff

Undergraduates are taught by a large group of specialists, whether members of the

University’s Unit in Hebrew and Jewish Studies, university post-holders in closely

related subjects such as Aramaic, or post-doctoral researchers who may be in Oxford

for a number of years. Those principally involved with teaching of the undergraduate

course at present are:

Dr Miri Freud-Kandel (Wolfson College)

Modern Judaism

Professor Martin Goodman (Wolfson College)

Professor of Jewish Studies

Jewish history in the Second-Temple and Talmudic periods

Dr Sara Hirschhorn

University Research Lecturer: Israel Studies

• Dr Adriana Jacobs (St Cross College)

Cowley Lecturer in Modern Hebrew Literature

Modern Hebrew and other Jewish literatures

Professor Derek Penslar (St. Anne’s College)

Israel Studies

Dr David Rechter (St. Antony’s College)

University Research Lecturer

Modern Jewish History.

Dr Alison Salvesen (Mansfield College)

University Research Lecturer

Textual criticism of the Bible; Syriac; Aramaic; Septuagint

Dr David Taylor (Wolfson College)

Lecturer in Aramaic and Syriac

• Dr Joshua Teplitsky (St Peter’s College)

Albert and Rachel Lehmann Junior Research Fellow in Jewish History and

Culture

Dr Joanna Weinberg (Exeter College)

Reader in Hebrew and Jewish Studies

Rabbinic and medieval Hebrew literature

Professor Hugh Williamson (Christ Church):

34

Regius Professor of Hebrew

Biblical Hebrew language, literature and history

Mr. Gil Zahavi

Instructor in Modern Hebrew

• Dr Zehavit Stern

University Research Lecturer

Yiddish and Hebrew literature; Eastern European Jewish Culture

Year Abroad

If you are taking Hebrew as part of your EMEL course you are able to spend a year at

the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where there is a course specially designed for

foreign students. If you are spending your year abroad in a country of your European

language, you are encouraged to take a summer course in Hebrew at any one of a

number of universities in Israel which offer special summer courses for foreign

students. It is also possible to spend half a year in each country.

Guidance about preparing for the year abroad and help with applying for an appropriate

course will be provided by Mr. Zahavi. It is advisable to discuss these matters with him

in good time, so that he is aware of your intentions.

Hebrew in EMEL: a general description

When Hebrew is combined with a modern European language (EMEL) it is normal to

focus on Hebrew in the early stages, since this is likely to be least familiar; thereafter,

the two languages are accorded roughly equal attention. Elementary Biblical and

Modern Hebrew are taught in the first three terms for Prelims. Similarly, two papers

must be offered in the European language. In practice, most people doing this course

will already have a good A-level in the European language but very little knowledge of

Hebrew, so that it may be necessary to spend more time on Hebrew to start with.

Despite this, however, both sides of the course have to be kept in play, so that it is very

demanding, especially in the first term.

Course Outlines

Prelims

For EMEL students the first three terms of the course comprise intensive class

instruction in the Hebrew language, both Biblical and Modern. The aim is to cover the

basic grammar in the first term and to consolidate this in the next two terms, when

simple texts in each form of the language are also taught. This is a demanding goal, but

essential in order to achieve a reading ability which will stand you in good stead for the

rest of the course. There are three class hours a week in each form of the language, and

35

you will be expected to prepare carefully for each. Written exercises are set regularly,

and there is some provision for individual tutorials to iron out difficulties or questions

and to return your written work.

Two papers are set for Prelims, taken at the end of the third term. The easiest way to

see exactly what to expect is to look at some past papers, which are available on-line

and also kept in bound volumes in the Oriental Institute library. The form of papers will

not vary from one year to the next without notice being given in advance by the

examiners.

1. The first paper is on the set texts, which will have been taught. (The list of

up-to-date texts will be found on the on the following webpage by Friday of

3rd

week, Hilary Term: http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/general/set_texts.html

As an example, the following were the texts for 2012-13

Genesis 12, 15, 17, 22

Deuteronomy 5-6

1 Kings 17-19

S. Y. Agnon, Sippurim ve’aggadot (Schocken 1962): “Ma’ase ha-ez” (93-95)

Hanan Hever and Moshe Ron, eds., 50 Yisra’elim ketsartsarim (Bene Brak: Hasifriyah

Hahadashah, 1999)

Aharon Apelfeld, “Akhsaniyah” (124-127)

Yehuda Amichai, Akhshav ba-ra`ash (Schocken 1975): “Haval. Hayinu amtsa’ah

tovah” (56-57)

Yona Volakh, Tat hakarah niftahat kemo menifah (Ha-sifriya ha-hadasha le-shira

1992): “Yonatan” (9)

T. Carmi, ed. The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse: Avraham ben Yitshak, “Ashrei ha-

zor`im” (522); Shaul Tshernikhovsky, “Ayit, ayit al harayikh” (517-518)

The paper is in two sections, and you are required to answer all the questions:

Section A, Biblical

(i) One Hebrew passage for translation and comment on the language and

grammar.

(ii) One Hebrew passage for translation and pointing.

Section B, Modern

(i) Hebrew passages for translation.

2. The second paper is on grammar, and again all the questions must be attempted:

(i) 5 questions on specific grammatical topics in Biblical Hebrew

(ii) One passage for translation from English into pointed Biblical Hebrew

(iii) One passage for translation from Modern Hebrew into English

36

A prize, the Junior Pusey and Ellerton Prize, may be awarded to candidates who

perform particularly well in Biblical Hebrew in Prelims. In the unlikely event of failure,

it is possible to resit the paper(s) in question the following term. You have to pass

Prelims, however, before being allowed to proceed to Finals.

The Final Honour School

After Prelims, the course is divided roughly half-and-half between the two languages.

The aim of the course is to achieve a high level of competence in the handling of

Hebrew texts from at least two periods, not just to translate them but to be able to

discuss them from a wide range of perspectives, stretching all the way from language

and textual criticism to literary and historical appreciation. For this reason attention is

given to developing knowledge of the necessary historical and cultural background of

the texts.

In Finals, four papers must be offered, namely 6 and 10 as listed below and two chosen

from among 7, 8, and 9:

6. Hebrew composition and unprepared translation

In this paper you have to translate one passage into Hebrew and two from

Hebrew into English. For the first question you can choose whether to tackle a

passage for translation into Biblical or Modern Hebrew. For the second, there are

passges in Biblical, Rabbinic and Modern Hebrew, and you have to choose two

out of these three for translation into English.

Teaching for the Biblical Hebrew option is provided in graded weekly classes

throughout the course, which students would do well to attend, whatever their

ultimate choice proves to be. For the other periods, teaching will be provided in

tutorials if requested.

7. Prepared texts I: Biblical texts

The specified texts for this and all other such papers are available in the B.A. in

Hebrew Handbook on the faculty web site. You should make sure that you

have the list relevant to the year in which you will sit your examinations, as

changes are sometimes introduced. It is advisable to check this with your

teachers.

The Biblical texts are in two groups, one for translation and detailed comment,

the other for translation only. The thinking behind this is that on the one hand you

need to learn the basic methods of modern textual study of a Biblical text,

including textual criticism, comparative philology and necessary historical and

literary criticism. Texts in this group are all taught in lectures, where the various

tools available and proper critical methods are introduced. On the other hand,

only a limited amount of text can be studied in this way in the time available, and

we want you to have read as widely as possible in the Hebrew Bible by the end of

the course; hence the second group of texts, ‘for translation only’. Some of these

are also taught in class, but you will be expected to prepare the others on your

37

own, with tutorial help if necessary on any particular problems. The exam also

includes one short essay on more general topics arising from the texts.

Preparation for this is undertaken by a tutorial essay each term on the text which

you are then studying.

Recommended Introductory Reading

J. Weingreen, A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew

R.J. Coggins, Introducing the Old Testament

K. Kenyon and R. Moorey, The Bible and Recent Archaeology

J. Rogerson and P. Davies, The Old Testament World

The following paragraphs offer some guidance on the different types of question

included in this paper:

Commenting on Biblical Texts

(FHS Papers 2 and 6; subsidiary Hebrew, papers 2 and 3)

1) ‘Translate with full annotation’

Detailed annotation deals with all aspects of a text — background, literary context, literary

form, language, textual criticism, and so on. Only texts from group (a) will be set. (NB In

subsid. Hebrew, the texts are not divided into groups; any text can be examined under any

of the three rubrics described here.)

2) ‘Translate with comments where necessary’

Necessary comments are directly concerned with the translation of a text; they do not

include general background information or discussion of the literary context and form of a

text. They should discuss briefly specific problems of text or language where there is

sufficient doubt for your translation to require some form of justification — for instance,

where there is doubt about the meaning of a word or phrase, or where there are major

textual variants, especially if you adopt them yourself. (Even if you do not, you should

remember that sometimes other scholars do because they find some problem in the MT,

and so this itself may require explanation.) Free translations of phrases which cannot be

translated literally into normal English may be annotated with a literal translation. Texts

may be set from any of those prescribed, (a) or (b).

3) ‘Comments on textual and linguistic problems’

Textual and linguistic comments deal with short passages that contain significant textual

and/or linguistic problems. They do not include general background information or other

general discussions unless these are directly relevant to textual and linguistic problems.

Students may translate the passage if this is helpful in discussing the problems, but

translation is not required. Passages from group (a) only will be set.

In all types of exercise, where variant readings or emendations are adopted, a translation of

the MT should be given in a footnote, with an explanation of why the variant reading is

preferred. Remember that you will often tell an examiner more about your knowledge of

38

Hebrew by setting out what is the problem with the text than by remembering a proposed

emendation. Standard abbreviations (e.g. MT, LXX) are perfectly acceptable.

8. Prepared Texts II: Rabbinic and Medieval Hebrew texts

The development of Hebrew in the post-biblical period is complex and

variegated, since many different Hebrews were written over the centuries. A

selection of texts (legal, philosophical and exegetical) from the rich field of

Hebrew literature of the post-Biblical/pre-modern period will be studied.

Students normally begin studying these texts in their third term when they have

mastered the fundamentals of Biblical Hebrew grammar and have acquired a

basic working vocabulary.

All texts are taught in lectures, where they are examined with attention not only

to grammar and translation but also to their style, content and historical

background. One tutorial hour is also arranged for each text, so that students have

the opportunity to explore the relevant literary and intellectual context. The

examination includes passages for translation and brief comment, as well as

essays on more general topics arising from the texts.

Recommended Introductory Reading

P. Alexander (ed.), Textual Sources for the Study of Judaism

M. Fishbane, Judaism: Revelations and Traditions

H. Maccoby, Early rabbinic Writing.

J.R. Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World: a SourceBbook, 315-1791 with

introduction and updated bibliographies by Marc Saperstein (1999).

9. Prepared Texts III: Modern Hebrew literature

The Hebrew literary texts for this paper (again, as specified for the BA in

Hebrew) range from the late 19th century to the present, and include fiction,

poetry and essays. These texts are read and analysed as literature rather than used

as language exercises, although their language is discussed as well. The majority

of these texts are taught in class, but you will be expected to prepare others,

predominantly poetry, on your own, with tutorial help if necessary, as with your

Biblical texts. The historical and cultural background of the texts is also

discussed, together with relevant critical and theoretical works. Your examination

will consist of passages for translation from some of your literary texts, passages

for comment, and essays on the texts and on the history and development of

modern Hebrew literature.

Recommended Introductory Reading

S. Halkin, Modern Hebrew Literature

Leon Yudkin, Beyond Sequence: Current Israeli Fiction

Gershon Shaked, Modern Hebrew Fiction

39

10. General paper: language, history, religion and culture

OR Any one of the papers from Jewish Studies Paper (b) (see the Jewish Studies

handbook for the full listing.

The aim of the General paper is to draw together the whole course in Hebrew

studies, giving you the chance to connect one aspect of the subject to another

and/or to reflect on wider issues arising from the detailed study of the particular

periods which interest you most.

The paper is currently in four sections (ancient, medieval, modern, and a final

section which cuts across all periods), with about six questions in each section.

You are required to answer four questions, selecting questions from at least two

sections.

The papers from Jewish Studies are mostly focussed on the history, literature or

religion of a particular period of Jewish history, and some of them require a close

familiarity with a number of relevant texts in Hebrew, Aramaic or Yiddish. If

you choose this option it will be taught by a series of eight tutorials.

PERSIAN

Introduction

This course aims:

1. To give you a thorough grounding in written and spoken Persian.

2. To provide you with a detailed knowledge of selected literary texts in both

classical and modern Persian.

3. To develop in general your skills of description, interpretation and analysis of

literary, historical, religious and cultural material.

In Years 3 and 4, you will broaden and deepen your command of written and spoken

Persian and you will begin to acquire a specialized knowledge of selected aspects of

and themes in Persian literature. You will study both classical and modern texts. You

will have the opportunity to design your bridging essay, with the advice of your tutors,

to suit your own interests and enthusiasms.

By the time you graduate you will have acquired a range of expertise. Linguistic

proficiency and knowledge of Persian literature and culture may lead some towards a

variety of jobs connected with the region, such as diplomacy, journalism, broadcasting,

banking, and business. This degree also provides an excellent foundation for those who

wish to extend their studies to the Masters level, and beyond.

Teaching Staff

Dr Dominic Brookshaw, University Lecturer in Persian Literature

40

Dr Stephanie Cronin, Departmental Lecturer in Modern Iranian History

Professor Edmund Herzig, Masoumeh and Fereydoon Soudavar Professor of Persian

Studies

Dr Sima Orsini, Instructor in Persian

The Year Abroad

You will spend a part of Year 2 (usually September to June) studying Persian in Iran,

on a course approved by the Faculty Board. Most students combine the year in Iran

with vacations spent studying in a country where their European language is spoken,

but there is room for some flexibility in balancing the periods spent studying each of

your two languages. For the Persian part of the year we recommend that you study in

Tehran, although some students have instead studied at the University of Isfahan.

Information on the centres is available from the teaching staff, who will provide

briefings and information in the course of year 1. You must finalise plans for your year

abroad early in Trinity Term, Year 1. The co-ordinator for the year abroad is Dr Sima

Orsini.

Accommodation

Usually the students are given a chance to stay in the British Institute of Persian Studies

(www.bips.ac.uk) for a relatively short initial period after their arrival to Teheran

before they find permanent accommodation, preferably with Iranian families.

NB Given the current unsettled political climate in Iran and the state of diplomatic

relations between Iran and the United Kingdom, it may prove to be impossible to

organize the year abroad in Iran in the usual way in 2012/13 and 2013/14. We will

continue to monitor the situation and decide by the start of Hilary Term 2013 what to

recommend in the way of study abroad for Persianists matriculating in MT 2012.

Course Outline

Prelims

Prelims in Persian and in your European language are taken at the end of your third

term (Trinity Term, Year 1).

The Persian Prelims consist of two papers:

1. Prepared and unprepared texts for translation from Persian. These are a selection

of modern and classical Persian texts, most of which will have been read and

discussed in class.

2. Grammar and translation into Persian. This paper consists of sentences to

translate into and from Persian and an essay (150 words) in Persian.

The first three terms (Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity Terms, Year 1) are devoted to

preparation for these examinations. There eight hours of Persian language instruction

41

each week, and a considerable amount of work is set each week to be completed in

your own time.

The Final Honour School

In years 3 and 4 you will work towards you Finals, developing your knowledge of

written and spoken Persian and preparing for the papers in Persian literature through a

combination of lecture, classes and tutorials.

This is the list of papers available. It is followed by a description of the course for each

paper.

6. Persian Prose Composition and Unprepared Translation. Passages for translation

from and into Persian and an essay (250 words) in Persian.

7. and 8. Any two of the following four papers:

(i) Classical Persian Poetry

(ii) Classical Persian Prose

(iii) Modern Persian Literature

(iv) Modern Social and Political Writing

9. Persian History and Culture: General Questions

Any one of the following four papers:

(i) The transition from Sasanian to Islamic Persia (up to the tenth century AD)

(ii) Iranian history 1501-1722

(iii) Iranian history from the rise of the Qajars to the end of the Constitutional

Revolution

(iv) Iranian history 1921-1979

10. Oral Examination

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

6. Persian Prose Composition and Unprepared Translation

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Throughout Years 3 and 4, prose composition, essay-writing

and translation classes are given in preparation for this paper. Students normally are

expected to write a weekly prose (translation from English into Persian), and a weekly

essay in Persian, which will then be discussed in a small class or tutorial with the

Persian Instructor. Unseen translation classes (Persian into English) introduce students

to a range of different kinds of Persian prose style, as the passages set in the FHS

examinations are drawn from modern fiction, literary criticism, journalism, historical

and philosophical writing, and politics.

7. and 8. (i) Classical Persian Poetry

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:

42

This paper is designed to provide a knowledge of the basic genres of Persian lyric and

narrative poetry and of their modes—panegyric, love poetry, epic, romance, homiletic,

didactic and mystical poetry—through a close reading of selected texts, accompanied by a

discussion of the cultural and political contexts of the poems and analysis of their style,

structure, and other literary features. You will be expected to prepare the texts in your own

time so that there will be ample time for in-depth discussion in class. You will also do a

considerable amount of outside reading, and will be expected to write analytical essays on

topics related to the texts.

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING

Andrews, W., 1985. Poetry’s Voice, Society’s Song: Ottoman lyric poetry, Seattle;

London: University of Washington Press.

Bausani, A., 1960. Storia della letteratura persiana, A. Pagliaro, A. Bausani, Milano:

Nuova accademia editrice.

de Blois, F., 1992. Persian Literature: A Bio-Bibliographical Survey. Begun by the

Late C. A. Storey. V vol., I part,: Poetry to ca. A. D. 1100. London: Royal Asiatic

Society.

—, 2009. Pre-Islamic Iranian and Indian Influences on Persian Literature, in History

of Persian literature, vol. 1: General Introduction to Persian Literature, ed. J. T. P. de

Bruijn, E. Yarshater, London: Tauris, pp. 333-344.

Bosworth, C.E., 1963, The Ghaznavids. Edinburgh.

Boyce, M., 1957. “The Parthian Gosan and Iranian Minstrel Tradition”, Journal of the

Royal Asiatic Society 15, pp. 10-45.

de Bruijn, J. T. P., 2000. “ḠAZAL i. HISTORY”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online

Edition, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gazal-1-history

Chalisova, N., 2009. Persian Rhetoric: Elm-e badi’ and Elm-e Bayan, in History of

Persian literature, vol.1: General Introduction to Persian Literature, ed. J. T. P. de

Bruijn, E. Yarshater, London: Tauris, pp. 139-171.

Clinton, J. W., 1972. The divan of Manuchihri Damghani: a critical study,

Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica.

—, 1989. “Shams-i Qays on the Nature of Poetry”, Edebiy…t 1, 2, pp. 101-128.

The Cambridge history of Iran, vols 4 and 5, Cambridge, 1968 and 1975. Especially

vol. 4, chapter 19 “The rise of the new Persian literature” (by G.Lazard); vol. 5, chapter

8 “Poets and prose writers of the late Saljuq and Mongol periods” (by J.Rypka).

Encyclopaedia Iranica, online: http://www.iranica.com/

Daudpota, U. M., 1934. The Influence of Arabic Poetry on the Development of Persian

Poetry, Bombay.

de Fouchécour, Ch.-H., 1986. La description de la nature dans la poésie lyrique

persane du XIe siècle, Paris: C. Klincksieck.

Glünz, M., Bürgel, J. C., (ed.), 1991. Intoxication, Earthly and Heavenly: Seven

Studies on the Poet Hafiz of Shiraz, Bern: Peter Lang.

Keshavarz, F., 1998. Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi,

43

Columbia, S. C.: University of South Carolina Press.

Katouzian, H., 2006. Sa‘di. The Poet of Life, Love and Compassion, Oxford:

Oneworld.

Lewis, F. D., 1999. Reading, Writing and Recitation: San…’† and the Origins of the

Persian Ghazal, Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Chicago.

Losensky, P. E., 1998a. Welcoming Fighani imitation and poetic individuality in the

Safavid-Mughal Ghazal, Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers.

Meisami, J. S., 1987. Medieval Persian Court Poetry, Princeton: Princeton University

Press.

—, 1995. “The body as Garden: nature and sexuality in Persian Poetry”, Edebiyat 6, pp.

245-274.

—, 1996. “Poetic microcosms: the Persian qasida to the end of the twelfth century”, in

Qasida Poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa: Classical traditions and modern meanings, I

vol., ed. S. Sperl, C. Shackle, Leiden: E. J. Brill, pp. 137-82.

—, 2003. Structure and Meaning in Medieval Arabic and Persian Poetry, London:

RoutledgeCurzon.

Rypka, J., 1969. History of Iranian Literature, Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

Schimmel, A., 1978. Mystical Dimensions of Islam, Chapel Hill: University of North

Carolina Press

—, 1992. A Two-Colored Brocade: The Imagery of Persian Poetry, Chapel Hill;

London: The University of North Carolina Press.

Shamisa S., 2001. Seyr-e ghazal dar she‘r-e farsi, Tehran.

—, 2004. Negahi taze be badi‘ , Tehran.

Tetley, G. E., 2009. The Ghaznavid and Seljuq Turks: Poetry as a Source for Iranian

History, London: Routledge.

Thackston, W. M.,1994. A millennium of classical Persian poetry: a guide to the

reading & understanding of Persian poetry from the tenth to the twentieth century,

Bethesda, Md: Iranbooks.

Thiesen, F., 1982. A Manual of Classical Persian Prosody, with chapters on Urdu,

Karakhanidic and Ottoman prosody, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

Yarshater, E., 1988. “The Theme of Wine-Drinking and the Concept of the Beloved in

Early Persian Poetry”, Studia Islamica 13, pp. 43-53.

—, 2006. “ḠAZAL ii. CHARACTERISTICS AND CONVENTIONS”, Encyclopaedia

Iranica, Online Edition, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gazal-2

7. and 8. (ii) Classical Persian Prose

44

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This course is designed to present students with a wide

selection from various types of medieval Persian prose writing, ranging from historical,

ethical, religious and biographical writing to belles-lettres. A close reading of a variety

of representative texts by writers of different periods and styles is accompanied by a

discussion of their cultural and political contexts and an analysis of their style,

structure, and other literary features. Students will be expected to prepare the texts in

their own time so that there will be ample time for in-depth discussion in class. They

will also do a considerable amount of outside reading, and will be expected to write

analytical essays on various topics related to the texts. Teaching for this paper will

involve both text-reading classes students and tutorials.

There will be a single three-hour written exam. 50% of the mark will be for questions

involving translation of and commentary on the set texts. 50% of the mark well be for

essay questions. See the examination conventions for more detail.

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING:

Beyhaqi, Abu’l Fazl, 2011. The history of Beyhaqi: the history of Sultan Masʿud of

Ghazna, 1030-1041, Trans. by C.E. Bosworth; Mohsen Ashtiany, Boston, Mass.: Ilex

Foundation; Washington, D.C.: Center for Hellenic Studies; Cambridge, Mass.;

London: Distributed by Harvard University Press.

de Fouchécour, Ch.-H., 1986. Moralia: les notions morales dans la literature persane

du 3e/9e au 7e/13e siècle, Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les civilisations.

Ghazali, Ahmad, 1986. Sawanih: Inspiration from the World of Pure Spirits, trans. by

N. Pourjavady, London: Octagon.

Kay-Ka’us b. Iskandar, 1951. A mirror for princes: the Qābūs nāma,trans. by Reuben

Levy, London, Cresset Press.

Lambton, A. K. S., 1971. “Islamic mirrors for princes”, Atti del convegno

internazionale sul tema: La Persia nel Medioevo (Roma, 31 marzo-5 aprile 1970),

Rome: Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, pp. 419-442.

Meisami, J.S., 1989. "Dynastic History and the Ideal of Kingship in Bayhaqi’s Tarikh-i

Mas’udi", Edebiyât, 1, 3, pp.37-78.

—, 1999. Persian Historiography to the End of the Twelfth Century, Edinburgh:

Edinburgh University Press.

Sa‘di, The Gulistan (Rose garden) of Saʿdi: bilingual English and Persian edition with

vocabulary, trans. by W.M. Thackston, Bethesda, Md.: Ibex Publishers.

Naser-e Khosraw, 1986. Nāṣer-e Khosraw's book of travels (Safarnāma), trans. by

W.M. Thackston, Albany: Bibliotheca Persica.

Nizami ‘Aruzi Samarqandi, 1921. Chahar Maqala, Four Discourses, trans. by E.G.

Browne. Gibb memorial series. London.

Nezām al-Molk, 1960. The book of Government or rules for kings (the Siyasat-nama

or Siyar al-Muluk). Trans. by H. Darke. New Haven.

45

Peacock, A. C. S., 2007. Mediaeval Islamic historiography and political legitimacy:

Balʿamī's Tārīkhnāma, London: Routledge.

Skellie, W. J., 1938. The Religious Psychology of al-Ghazali; Ph. D.; Hartford

Seminary Foundation, Hartford, Conn. Available online at:

http://www.ghazali.org/books/skillie.pdf

Utas, B., 1995. “Ambiguity in the Savanih of Ahmad Ghazali”, in Proceedings of the

second European Conference of Iranian Studies held in Bamberg, 30th September to

4th October 1991 by the Societas Iranologica Europaea, B. Fragner et al. (ed.), Roma:

Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, pp. 701-710.

7. and 8. (iii) Modern Persian Literature

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: These texts represent some of the most interesting and

important examples of twentieth-century Persian prose and poetry. A detailed, accurate

knowledge of the selected texts is expected, as well as an ability to place them in the

wider context of modern Persian literature. Essays will be written on the literary,

political, and historical background, as well as on particular writers, works, and general

literary themes. Teaching for this paper will involve both text-reading classes students

and tutorials.

There will be a single three-hour written exam. 50% of the mark will be for questions

involving translation of and commentary on the set texts. 50% of the mark well be for

essay questions. See the examination conventions for more detail.

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING:

Brookshaw D.P., Rahimieh, N., (ed.), 2010. Forugh Farrokhzad, poet of modern Iran:

iconic woman and feminine pioneer of new Persian poetry, London, I. B. Tauris.

Farrokhzād, F., 1981. Another birth: selected poems of Forugh Farrokhzad, translated

by H.Javadi and S. Sallee, Emeryville, Calif., Albany Press.

—, 1982. Bride of Acacias: selected poems of Forugh Farrokhzad, translated by J.

Kessler and A. Banani, introduction by A.Banani, afterword by F. Milani, Delmar,

N.Y., Caravan Books.

Ghanoonparvar, M.R., 1993. In a Persian Mirror: images of the West and Westerners

in Iranian Fiction, Austin, University of Texas Press.

Hillmann, H. C., 1987. A lonely woman: Forugh Farrokhzad and her poetry,

Washington, D.C., Three Continents Press.

Kamshad, H., 1966. Modern Persian Prose Literature, Cambridge, 1966.

Karimi-Hakkak, A., 1978. An anthology of modern Persian poetry, Boulder:

Westview.

46

—, 1995. Recasting Persian poetry: scenarios of poetic modernity in Iran, Salt Lake

City: University of Utah Press.

Karimi-Hakkak, A. Talattof, K., (ed.), 2004. Essays on Nima Yushij: animating

modernism in Persian poetry, Leiden: Brill.

Katouzian, H. (ed.), 1991. Sadeq Hedayat: the life and literature of an Iranian writer,

London: Tauris.

—, 2008. Sadeq Hedayat: his work and his wondrous world, London: Rutledge.

Nima Yushij, (tr. M. R. Ghanoonparvar), 2009. The neighbor says: Nima Yushij and

the philosophy of modern Persian poetry, Bethesda, Md.: Ibex Publishers.

Ricks, T. M., (ed.), 1984. Critical perspectives on modern Persian literature,

Washington, D.C .: Three Continents Press.

Sohrab Sepehri, 2004. The Water’s Footfall. Selected poems, trans. by Ismail Salami

and Abbas Zahedi, introd. by M. Turner. Tehrān.

Shafi‘i-Kadkani, M.-R., 2012. Bā cherāgh-o āyene: dar jostojuy-e rishehā-ye

tahavvol-e she‘r-e mo‘āsser-e irān, Tehrān: Sokhan.

7. and 8. (iv) Modern Persian Social and Political Writing

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING

Abrahamian, Ervand, A History of Modern Iran, Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 2008.

Ansari, Ali, Modern Iran: The Pahlavis and After, 2nd edition, London: Longman,

2007.

Avery, Peter; Hambly, Gavin; Melville, Charles (eds.), The Cambridge History of Iran,

volume 7, From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic, Cambridge: CUP, 1991; chapters

7, 20, 21.

Beeman, William O., The "Great Satan" vs. the "Mad Mullahs": How the United States

and Iran Demonize Each Other, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press,

2008; especially chapters 1 'Discourse and Demonization', and 4 'Discourse and

Rhetoric'.

de Groot, Joanna, Religion, Culture and Politics in Iran: From the Qajars to Khomeini,

London, I.B. Tauris, 2007; especially chapter 5 'A story of language, symbol and

discourse'.

Gheissari, Ali and Vali Nasr, Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty,

Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Kamrava, Mehran, Iran's Intellectual Revolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 2008.

47

Kashani-Sabet, Firoozeh, ‘Cultures of Iranianness: The Evolving Polemic of Iranian

Nationalism’, in Nikkie R. Keddie and Rudi Matthee (eds.), Iran and the Surrounding

World: Interactions in Culture and Cultural Politics, Seattle WA and London:

Washington UP, 2002, pp. 232-53.

Keddie, Nikki, Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution, updated edition, New

Haven and London: Yale UP, 2006.

Milani, Mohsen, The Making of Iran’s Islamic Revolution: From Monarchy to Islamic

Republic, second edition, Boulder Colorado: Westview Press, 1994.

Mottahedeh, Roy, The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran, London,

Chatto and Windus, 1986.

Ridgeon, Lloyd (ed.), Religion and Politics in Modern Iran: A Reader, London and

New York: I.B. Tauris, 2005.

9. Persian History and Culture: General Questions

(i) The transition from Sasanian to Islamic Persia (up to the tenth century AD)

(For the course description and reading list contact Prof. E.M. Herzig)

(ii) Iranian history 1501-1722

(For the course description and reading list contact Prof. E.M. Herzig)

(iii) Iranian history from the rise of the Qajars to the end of the Constitutional

Revolution

(For the course description and reading list contact Dr S. Cronin)

(iv) Iranian history 1921-1979

(For the course description and reading list contact Dr S. Cronin)

10. Spoken Persian

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: It will be expected that a good command of spoken Persian

will have been gained during the period abroad, and the purpose of the oral classes

provided at Oxford is to improve and practise the skills necessary for the oral

examination.

48

TURKISH

Introduction In order to understand the scope of the EMEL syllabus in Turkish, a brief explanation

is needed of the relationship between Turkish and Ottoman. Ottoman is the name given

to the various forms of Turkish that were used in the Ottoman empire (1300-1922). The

only common characteristic of the different styles of Ottoman is that they were written

in the Arabic script. (This continued during the first few years of the Turkish Republic,

until the adoption of the Latin alphabet in 1928.) Early Ottoman texts, although

showing some lexical and grammatical differences from modern Turkish, tend to be

fairly simple in style. Middle and late Ottoman texts contain a high proportion of

Arabic and (in poetry and the more ornate prose) Persian vocabulary, and some

grammatical constructions copied from those languages. During the last century of the

Ottoman empire the general movement of modernizing reform brought with it a

movement for simplification and rationalization of the written language, and by the

beginning of the 20th century the rise of Turkish nationalism began to turn this

movement into a drive for linguistic purification. The official language reform

programme launched by Atatürk in the 1930’s took the project of purification much

further than most Ottoman reformers had envisaged, and this movement has been

largely ‘successful’, so that the Turkish of the last five decades or so is very different in

terms of vocabulary from that of even the early years of the Republic.

The core part of the EMEL syllabus involves modern Turkish language skills, modern

Turkish literature and modern Turkish political thought. The texts studied for these

latter two papers include some in late Ottoman Turkish (studied in the Arabic script).

You thus gain an understanding of the political, intellectual and cultural transformation

of Turkish society from late Ottoman times to the present day. Beyond these core

papers and the ‘bridging’ essay you choose one more paper out of four options, either

penetrating into the earlier Ottoman cultural world, or looking at the language reform

movement of the 19th

-20th

centuries, or studying the modern history of Turkey from

1807 to 1980. .

Teaching staff

Dr Emine Çakır, Turkish Language Instructor. Oriental Institute, Room 212. Email:

emine.cakir@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Dr Laurent Mignon, University Lecturer in Turkish. Oriental Institute, Room 106. Tel.

(2)78213; Email: laurent.mignon@orinst.ox.ac.uk

49

The year abroad

Assuming that you decide to spend the major part of your year abroad in Turkey, there

are three institutions we particularly recommend, both of them in Istanbul. Istanbul is

unquestionably the most important city for undergraduates to get to know well, because

of its pre-eminent role in the cultural and intellectual life of Turkey from its conquest

by the Ottomans in 1453 right down to the present day. Your reading both of late

Ottoman history and of modern Turkish literature will be immeasurably enriched by a

close knowledge of the former imperial capital, still Turkey’s largest city and the centre

of its economic and cultural life. However, you should be aware that many

seismologists consider that Istanbul is likely to be affected by a major earthquake at

some time within the next thirty years or so. Suitable courses can be found also in other

Turkish cities.

(1) Boğaziçi University, Istanbul

http://www.intl.boun.edu.tr/?q=node/3

Boğaziçi University, which was founded as an American college in 1863 but has

been a Turkish state university since 1971, is one of the best universities in

Turkey, with a strong tradition of liberal scholarship, a wide range of student

activities, and a most beautiful campus situated on a wooded hillside overlooking

the Bosphorus. The medium of instruction here is normally English (except in the

Turkish Language and Literature Department), but the vast majority of the degree

students are Turkish, and Turkish is what is spoken outside the classroom.

The teaching and assessment is organized on a semester basis, as is the standard

pattern at Turkish universities; the first semester runs from late September to

mid-January, and the second from mid-February to the end of early June.

The Faculty of Oriental Studies has an agreement with the Faculty of Arts and

Sciences of Boğaziçi University under which undergraduates reading Turkish at

Oxford can enrol as ‘special students’ for one or two semesters at a reduced fee.

They are supervised by academics who are personally known to the teaching staff

at Oxford, and follow a curriculum of four or five courses per semester from

among those available to Boğaziçi undergraduates. At least three of these courses

are likely to be in Turkish for Foreigners and elementary Ottoman Turkish, and

additional options may include modern Turkish literature in English translation,

an introduction to linguistics, modern Turkish history or a period of Ottoman

history. However, if you have entered Oxford University with no prior

knowledge of Turkish, the provision in Turkish for Foreigners at Boğaziçi is not

at the level of intensity that you are likely to need in your first few months in the

country. For students in this situation a few months’ intensive study at DİLMER

or TÖMER (see below) is likely to be the most efficient way to achieve fluency

in everyday communication. If you are staying in Turkey until the summer you

will probably do best to transfer to Boğaziçi for the second semester, to take

advantage of the much richer academic provision that a university can offer.

(2) The DİLMER language school in Istanbul

http://www.dilmer.com/

50

DİLMER (Dil Öğretim Merkezi /Language Teaching Center) is modelled on the

TÖMER pattern (see below), with exactly the same hours per week and 4-week

terms. But DİLMER has only seven levels, which means that the structural

material is covered faster. In recent years student feedback from DİLMER has

been rather better than that from TÖMER, which makes it now the top

recommendation for the first four months.

(3) The TÖMER language schools

http://www.tomer.ankara.edu.tr/english/index.html

TÖMER (Türkçe Öğretim Merkezi [‘Turkish Teaching Centre’]) is an institution

which originated in the Faculty of Arts of Ankara University, and has become a

semi-autonomous organization with branches all over Turkey. The largest and

probably the most reliable are those in Ankara and Istanbul. All branches operate

the same system of courses at twelve levels, following a common curriculum and

using the same textbooks. As there are no specific entry requirements, you are

likely to find yourself in classes with students from a very wide range of

countries and educational backgrounds. The teaching is given entirely in Turkish,

and there is a strong emphasis on communicative skills.

TÖMER courses are organised in a rolling programme of four-week terms that

run continuously throughout the year. Each level is completed in one term, with

20 hours of teaching per week and an examination at the end. If you are able to

start at the beginning of September, this will enable you to take a month’s break

in December and still complete four levels by the end of January.

Accommodation

The best way to acquire fluency in Turkish during your year abroad is to live with

Turkish people - who are rightly famed for their hospitality. One way of doing

this is to stay with a Turkish family, perhaps in return for providing help with

English to members of the household. Such an arrangement can be set up in

advance, with the assistance of teaching staff at Oxford using academic e-mail

networks. Another possibility is to share accommodation with Turkish students.

Bogaziçi University has a modern ‘superdorm', with individual study bedrooms

arranged in flats, which provides just such an opportunity. Alternatively, rented

accommodation can be found over the internet, or through local estate agencies.

Rents are considerably lower than in Oxford.

51

Course outline

Prelims

The first three terms of your course are designed to give you a sound foundation in the

Turkish language, including some experience of reading authentic texts. The

examination comprises two written papers of 3 hours each:

1. Prepared and unprepared texts for translation from Turkish into English.

2. Turkish grammar and translation from English into Turkish.

You are expected to attend language classes up to 7 hours per week, and to work on the

course material systematically by yourself every day. You will be required to build up a

basic vocabulary, and to learn to handle all the basic grammatical structures during

these three terms. The teaching method combines grammatical exposition with oral

practice and conversation sessions. Written translation exercises are set on the material

covered each week. These are assessed and gone over in class. In the second half of the

year the prescribed texts for Paper 1 are read in detail. The set texts for Paper 1 consist

of some short poems, some traditional Nasrettin Hoca tales and three modern short

stories. Copies are available from the Faculty Office. All texts will be read in full in

class.

SET TEXTS: Orhan Veli, Bütün Şiirleri, İstanbul (12. basılış), 1973, pp. 73, 114, 186,

214, 196-7, 216; İlhami Soysal, 20. Yüzyıl Türk Şiiri Antolojisi, Ankara (3.

basım), 1988, pp. 179, 183; Erdoğan Tokmakçıoğlu, Bütün Yönleriyle Nasrettin

Hoca, Ankara 1981, pp. 88, 100, 135, 137, 162-3, 182; Aziz Nesin, ‘Sınır

Üstündeki Ev’. In Fil Hamdi (7. baskı, İstanbul 1982), pp.70-77; Aysel Özakın,

‘Berlin'de mi Yaşlanacağım?’ In Kanal Boyu, (İstanbul 1982), pp. 19-25; Erhan

Bener, ‘Bir Roman Kahramanı’. In Aşk-ı Muhabbet Sevda (İstanbul 1992), pp.

45-53.

52

The Final Honour School

Note: For FHS papers that require the study of set texts, the list of such texts is

finalized at the beginning of Hilary Term in the year before the examination. Your

teachers will provide you with the lists of texts for the papers that they teach. The lists

of set texts for EMEL are also published in the Turkish FHS Handbook, available on

the Oriental Studies Faculty website from Hilary Term of the year before the

examination, and additionally at the following address from the same date:

http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/general/set_texts.html.

The list of papers set for Turkish in EMEL is as follows (numbered as in Examination

Regulations):

6A. Unprepared translation from modern Turkish (half-paper)

6B. Translation into Turkish (half-paper)

7. Spoken Turkish

8. Turkish political and cultural texts, 1860 to the present

9. Modern Turkish literary texts

10. One paper chosen from the following:

(a) Ottoman historical texts

(b) Turkish and Ottoman literary texts, 1300-1900

(c) Turkish language reform and language politics from 1850 to the present day

(d) The Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey, 1807-1980

Below some information is provided about each of these papers.

6A. Unprepared translation from modern Turkish (half-paper)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Translation of a wide range of modern Turkish texts into

English forms a major part of the work of the ‘set texts’ classes which you will be

attending several hours a week throughout Year 3. The detailed guidance on translation

strategies and techniques that you will receive in these classes should, together with

your own work on vocabulary learning, provide you with sufficient skills and

knowledge to tackle unseen translations with confidence. You will also get ‘exam-type’

53

practice in unseen translation in collections. The examination involves translation into

English of two Turkish passages in prose which may be drawn from any genre.

.

6B. Translation into Turkish

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Your skills in translating from English into Turkish will be

built up gradually over this two-year period. You will be helped to learn how to make

appropriate vocabulary choices in both semantic and stylistic terms, and there will be

strong emphasis on grammatically correct sentence construction and the linking of

sentences together in a way that is cohesive and that develops the argument as required.

The living experience of Turkish that you will have acquired during your year abroad

will, of course, greatly assist you in the development of your writing skills.

The examination involves translating into Turkish one English prose passage.

7. Spoken Turkish (Oral)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The classes in ‘Spoken Turkish’ are designed to build upon

the oral and aural language skills that you will have acquired during your Year Abroad.

Much use is made of material from recent newspapers (‘Political and Cultural

Articles’), both in order to familiarise you with topics of current concern and debate in

Turkey, and also to provide you with the necessary vocabulary and structures to discuss

such issues yourself. A third type of language class is ‘Aural Comprehension’, which

trains you for part (i) of the oral examination.

The ‘Spoken Turkish’ component of FHS consists of the following parts:

(i) Listening comprehension.

Candidates will be presented with a list of factual questions, in Turkish, relating

to the content of the text that they are about to hear. They will be allowed five

minutes to study these questions. A recorded Turkish text, lasting about five

minutes, will then be played to them twice, with a pause of five minutes between

the two playings. Candidates will be required to write brief answers to each

question, in Turkish, in the spaces provided on the question sheet. A further ten

minutes after the end of the second playing of the recorded text will be allowed

for candidates to complete their answers.

(ii) Conversation

(a) Each candidate will be required to discuss with the examiner a topic chosen

by the candidate from a list of three announced one hour before the

commencement of the oral examination. (Approximate duration ten to fifteen

minutes.)

(b) Candidates will be presented with a brief written description, in English, of

a situation from everyday life in which they are required to imagine themselves.

54

The description will include instructions as to what they are trying to achieve by

verbal communication in that situation. Each candidate will be given five to ten

minutes’ preparation time, and will then be asked to conduct a dialogue with the

examiner, in Turkish, appropriate to the situation and goal specified.

(Approximate duration, excluding preparation time, five to ten minutes.)

(iii) Interpreting.

Each candidate will be required to interpret, in a non-technical subject area,

between a person speaking Turkish and a person speaking English. (Approximate

duration ten minutes.)

8. Turkish political and cultural texts, 1860 to the present

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The purpose of this paper is to give you a good understanding

of the processes of constitutional, ideological and cultural change that were involved in

the transformation from a traditional, pre-national, multi-ethnic empire to the modern,

national, and culturally diverse Republic of Turkey. The texts set for this paper include

excerpts from the Ottoman constitution of 1876, the provisional constitution of 1921

and the first constitution of the Republic of Turkey (1924). There is also a wide

selection of writings on political and cultural issues, ranging chronologically from the

1860’s to the 1990’s. The texts include an article by one of the oppositional Young

Ottoman writers of the 1860s, an essay on Ottoman Jewish identity by a leading

Ottoman Jewish intellectual, and writings from the early and late 20th century

representing a spectrum of nationalist, humanist, leftist and Islamist viewpoints on

questions of modern Turkish identity. The examination will contain passages from the

set texts for translation with annotation. There will also be a choice of essay questions

on the subject matter, style, purpose or historical importance of particular texts. Some

of the essay questions will ask for comment on a passage reproduced on the

examination paper.

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING

Ahmad, Feroz. The Making of Modern Turkey, London, 1993.

Davison, Roderic. Turkey: A Short History, 3rd edn., Huntingdon, 1998.

Hanioglu, Sukru. The Young Turks in Opposition. Oxford : Oxford University Press,

1995.

Heper, Metin et al. (eds). Turkey and the West: Changing Political and Cultural

Identities, London, 1993. (Chapters 4, 5, 11.)

Kadioglu, Ayse et al. (eds). Symbiotic Antagonisms: Competing Nationalisms in

Turkey. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2011.

Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey, 2nd edn, London, 1968.

Macfie, A.L., Atatürk, London, 1994.

Mango, Andrew. Atatürk, London, 1999.

Poulton, Hugh. Top Hat, Grey Wolf and Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish

Republic, London, 1997

Zürcher, Erik Jan. Turkey: A Modern History, Revised edn, London, 2004.

55

9. Modern Turkish literary texts

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The texts set for this paper consist of selected short stories,

poetry and excerpts from novels from the post-Tanzimat period to the present day. The

detailed class study of the texts makes it possible for any linguistic problems to be dealt

with, and also for attention to be paid to the ways in which a writer’s style and narrative

technique contribute to the meaning of a work. The texts are discussed both in terms of

their literary qualities and, where relevant, in relation to their historical or political

context. The texts will provide you with a firm background in Turkish literary history.

They will also introduce you to some of the major issues explored by contemporary

critics in Turkey, from debates about minority literature to controversies on “native

orientalism”.

The examination will contain translation, commentary and essay questions. In

commentary questions on short stories you will be expected to bring out the

significance of a particular passage in relation to the work as a whole, and to discuss

issues such as style, narrative technique, point of view, and characterization.

Commentaries on poetry may involve comparisons between two or more poems, and in

all cases you are expected to be able to identify and discuss the particular strategies that

contribute to a poem’s overall effect. Essay questions will focus on the set texts

themselves, but will assume some knowledge of their authors and of the historical,

literary and ideological contexts in which the works were produced.

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING

Göksu, Saime and Timms, Edward. Romantic Communist: The Life and Work of Nazim

Hikmet, London, 1999.

Evin, A.O., Origins and Development of the Turkish Novel, Minneapolis, 1983.

Heper, Metin et al. (eds). Turkey and the West: Changing Political and Cultural

Identities, London, 1993. (Chapters, 4, 5, 11.)

Kerslake, Celia. ‘New Directions in the Turkish Novel’, in Brian Beeley (ed.), Turkish

Transformation, Huntingdon, 2002.

Mignon, Laurent. ‘Lost in Transliteration: A Few Remarks on the Armeno–Turkish Novel and Turkish Literary Historiography’ in Evangelia Balta and Mehmet Ölmez. Between Religion and Language. Istanbul: Eren, 2011: 101-123.

Ostle, Robin (ed.). Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East 1850-1970, London,

1991. (Chapters 7 and 12.)

Seyhan, Azade. Tales of Crossed Destinies: The Modern Turkish Novel in a Comparative Context. New York: The Modern Language Association, 2008.

10(a) Ottoman historical texts

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This paper introduces students to the major topics in Ottoman

history and historiography of the 15th-17th centuries through a close reading of

selected primary texts. Selections are from three Ottoman chronicles, a book of travels,

a reform treatise, an autobiographical essay, and a dream diary. You will learn about

56

the historical contexts these texts reflect and explore how the Ottoman authors

responded to significant developments in Ottoman history. Topics will include the

nature of the early Ottoman expansion and the “gaza thesis”, the reconstruction of

Istanbul after the conquest, devşirme recruitment, the 1622 revolt that led to the

execution of Sultan Osman II, and the dreams of a 17th-century Ottoman princess.

The examination will contain passages from the set texts for translation with

annotation. There will also be a choice of essay questions on the subject matter, style,

purpose or historical importance of particular texts. Some of the essay questions will

ask for comment on a passage reproduced on the examination paper.

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING

Faroqhi, Suraiya. Subjects of the Sultan: Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire,

New York, 2000.

Finkel, Caroline. Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1923,

London, 2005.

Goffman, Daniel. The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, 2002.

Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power, New York,

2002.

İnalcık Halil. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600, translated by

Norman Itzkowitz and Colin Imber, London, 1989, c1973.

Kafadar, Cemal. Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State,

Berkeley, 1995.

10(b) Turkish and Ottoman literary texts, 1300-1900

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This paper is designed to give you an insight into the world of

pre-modern Turkish literature, where the favoured genre was indisputably poetry, and

also into the processes of change that entered that world in the second half of the

nineteenth century. In early Anatolian Turkish poetry religious themes are dominant.

The highly sophisticated classical divan literature that developed as the Ottoman state

grew into an imperial power drew its inspiration from Persian court literature, and

specialized in lyric and panegyric poetry and versified romances. Alongside this a

vigorous tradition of popular poetry produced by itinerant âşık poets gives glimpses

into the lives and concerns of various sections of the wider population. You will also

read an example of narrative prose of an epic character. In the nineteenth century

increasing exposure to European influences caused Turkish writers to question many

aspects of their literary heritage. Included, therefore, in this paper are some examples of

the new poetry of the Servet-i Fünun group, which displays an individualism not seen

before.

The examination will contain translation, commentary and essay questions. In

commentary questions on poetry you will be expected to show knowledge of the

literary conventions within which poets worked, or (in the case of the early modern

texts) the aims and concerns of particular writers.

57

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING

Andrews, W., Poetry’s Voice, Society’s Song: Ottoman Lyric Poetry, Seattle and

London, 1985.

Andrews, Walter G. and Mehmet Kalpaklı. The Age of Beloveds: Love and the Beloved in Early Modern Ottoman and European Culture and Society. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2005.

Halman, T.S. (ed.), Turkey: From Empire to Nation, New York, 1973. (Review of

National Literatures.) (Chapters by T.S. Halman, J.R. Walsh, and R.C. Clark.)

Holbrooke, Virginia. The Unreadable Shores of Love: Turkish Modernity and Mystic Romance. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.

Ostle, R. (ed.), Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East 1850-1970, London,

1991. (Chapters 1 and 2.)

10(c) Turkish language reform and language politics from 1850 to the present day

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Work for this paper includes the study of a selection of texts

concerned with the issue of language reform, beginning with the writings of Ottoman

intellectuals in the 1860s and continuing through the ‘New Language’ campaign of the

Young Turk period and the radical language reform programme launched by Atatürk in

the 1930s to the highly politicized controversies of the 1960s and 1970s. In your essays

you will read more widely around the subject, and consider topics such as the changing

concerns and priorities of reformers at different periods, the complex relationship

between language reform and nationalism, and the concerns of opponents and critics of

the movement.

The examination will consist of comment and essay questions. You will be expected to

be able to discuss specific issues of reform, such as the elimination of Arabic and

Persian grammatical forms and constructions, and the means of lexical substitution,

with appropriate terminology and supporting examples. Some questions may ask you to

comment on the style of an unseen passage or passages from the point of view of

language reform issues.

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING

Heyd, Uriel. Language Reform in Modern Turkey, Jerusalem, 1954.

Iz, Fahir. ‘Ottoman and Turkish’ in D.P. Little (ed.), Essays on Islamic Civilization

presented to Niyazi Berkes, Leiden, 1976.

Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey, 3rd edn., New York/Oxford, 2002.

Section ‘Script and Language’ in Ch. xii, ‘Religion and Culture’.

Lewis, Geoffrey, The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success, Oxford,

1999.

Mignon, Laurent. ‘The Literati and the Letters: A Few Words on the Turkish Alphabet

Reform’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 20/01 (2010):11-24.

Thomas, George. Linguistic Purism, London, 1991.

58

10(d) The Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey, 1807-1980

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: For this paper you will study the final century of the life of the

Ottoman empire, the ‘national struggle’ that followed the dismemberment of that

empire after defeat in World War One, and the development, down to the military

intervention of 1980, of the Turkish nation state that emerged under Mustafa Kemal

[Atatürk]’s leadership in 1923. Topics within the Ottoman period will include the 19th-

century modernizing reforms known as the Tanzimat, the effects on Ottoman state and

society of greatly increased political intervention and economic penetration by the

European powers, the causes and results of territorial contraction, the intellectual

renaissance accompanying the birth of the Turkish press, the new Islamic emphasis of

Abdülhamid II, and the efforts of the ‘Young Turks’ to save the empire by

constitutional government. Thereafter we shall examine how it was that the Republic of

Turkey emerged in the form that it did, the impact on state and society of the nation-

building measures of the one-party period, the transition to multi-party politics after

World War Two and the interaction between democratic development and military

intervention in the succeeding decades.

RECOMMENDED INTRODUCTORY READING

Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1923,

London, 2005. Chapters 13-16.

Hanioğlu, M. Şükrü. A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, Princeton/Oxford,

2008.

Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey, 3rd edn, New York/Oxford, 2002.

Mango, Andrew. Atatürk, London, 1999.

Macfie, A.L., The End of the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1923, London, 1998.

Poulton, Hugh. Top Hat, Grey Wolf and Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish

Republic, London, 1997.

Zürcher, Erik Jan. Turkey: A Modern History, Revised edn, London, 2004.

59

Appendix A: Faculty Information

Contents:

1. University complaints and appeals procedure

2. Student feedback form and notes

3. Use of external examiners

4. Note on voluntary submission of extended essay on CD

5. Weblink for regulations on use of IT

6. List of weblinks for study skills and other resources

7. University definition of plagiarism

8. Study abroad statement

9. Signed Statement of Safety Organisation

60

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Complaints and academic appeals within the Faculty of Oriental Studies

1. The University, the Humanities Division and the Oriental Studies faculty all hope

that provision made for students at all stages of their programme of study will make the

need for complaints (about that provision) or appeals (against the outcomes of any form

of assessment) infrequent.

2. However, all those concerned believe that it is important for students to be clear

about how to raise a concern or make a complaint, and how to appeal against the

outcome of assessment. The following guidance attempts to provide such information.

3. Nothing in this guidance precludes an informal discussion with the person

immediately responsible for the issue that you wish to complain about (and who may

not be one of the individuals identified below). This is often the simplest way to

achieve a satisfactory resolution for complaints; for appeals against assessment, please

see below.

4. Many sources of advice are available within colleges, within faculties/departments

and from bodies like OUSU or the Counselling Service, which have extensive

experience in advising students. You may wish to take advice from one of these sources

before pursuing your complaint.

5. General areas of concern about provision affecting students as a whole should, of

course, continue to be raised through Joint Consultative Committees or via student

representation on the faculty/department’s committees.

Complaints

3.1 If your concern or complaint relates to teaching or other provision made by the

faculty, then you should raise it with the chairman of the Undergraduate Committee

(Dr Laura Newby) or with the Director of Graduate Studies (Prof. Polly O’Hanlon) as

appropriate. Within the faculty/department the officer concerned will attempt to resolve

your concern/complaint informally.

3.2 If you are dissatisfied with the outcome, then you may take your concern further by

making a formal complaint to the University Proctors. A complaint may cover aspects

of teaching and learning (e.g. teaching facilities, supervision arrangements, etc.), and

non-academic issues (e.g. support services, library services, university accommodation,

university clubs and societies, etc.). A complaint to the Proctors should be made only if

attempts at

informal resolution have been unsuccessful. The procedures adopted by the Proctors for

the consideration of complaints and appeals are described in the Proctors and

Assessor’s Memorandum[http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/proctors/pam/] and the relevant

Council regulations [http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/statutes/regulations/]

[ 4. If your concern or complaint relates to teaching or other provision made by your

college, then you should raise it either with your tutor or with one of the college

officers, Senior Tutor, Tutor for Graduates (as appropriate). Your college will also be

able to explain how to take your complaint further if you are dissatisfied with the

outcome of its consideration. ]

61

Academic appeals

5. An appeal is defined as a formal questioning of a decision on an academic matter

made by the responsible academic body.

6. For undergraduate or taught graduate courses, a concern which might lead to an

appeal should be raised with your college authorities and the individual responsible for

overseeing your work. It must not be raised directly with examiners or assessors. If

it is not possible to clear up your concern in this way, you may put your concern in

writing and submit it to the Proctors via the Senior Tutor of your college. As noted

above, the procedures adopted by the

Proctors in relation to complaints and appeals are on the web

[http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/statutes/regulations/].

7. For the examination of research degrees, or in relation to transfer or confirmation of

status, your concern should be raised initially with the Director of Graduate Studies.

Where a concern is not satisfactorily settled by that means, then you, your supervisor,

or your college authority may put your appeal directly to the Proctors.

8. Please remember in connection with all the cases in paragraphs 5 - 7 that:

(a) The Proctors are not empowered to challenge the academic judgement of examiners

or academic bodies.

(b) The Proctors can consider whether the procedures for reaching an academic

decision were properly followed;

i.e. whether there was a significant procedural administrative error; whether there is

evidence of bias or inadequate assessment; whether the examiners failed to take into

account special factors affecting a candidate’s performance.

(c) On no account should you contact your examiners or assessors directly.

9. The Proctors will indicate what further action you can take if you are dissatisfied

with the outcome of a complaint or appeal considered by them.

G:\EPSC\Complaints and appeals template 2.doc

62

University of Oxford

Faculty of Oriental Studies

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT FEEDBACK ON LECTURES AND CLASSES

The Faculty values students’ views on the teaching it provides. Please complete one

form for each course of lectures and classes that you have attended this term. Mention

what you have found good as well as what you consider needs to be improved. You are

not obliged to indicate which year of your degree course you are in, but it makes the

feedback much more useful if you do.

The forms will be seen only by the Chairman of the Undergraduate Studies Committee

and the Academic Administrator: any comments will be passed to the teacher

concerned in an anonymous form. The form itself will not be seen by the teacher.

Further information about what will happen to your comments is provided in each

undergraduate subject handbook.

Students are encouraged whenever possible to discuss concerns directly with their

teacher, as this is often the quickest and most constructive way to deal with problems.

……… Term 200..

Title of lecture series or class:

Name of lecturer(s) /class teacher(s):

What year of your degree course are you in?

YOUR COMMENTS

This form should be returned to the Academic Administrator, Room 316, Oriental

Institute, Pusey Lane, by the end of each term. It can be emailed, sent by

messenger or handed in at the Lodge.

63

STUDENT FEEDBACK AND COMPLAINTS

The Faculty values students’ views on the teaching it provides. Feedback forms are

sent to all students each term, giving them an opportunity to comment on the

teaching they are receiving that term. Forms are sent out by e-mail from the

Faculty Officer, and are returned by students anonymously to enable them to

comment on individual teaching staff. Whenever possible students are encouraged

to discuss concerns directly with the teacher, as this is often the quickest and most

constructive way to deal with problems.

Feedback forms will be dealt with by the Faculty in the following way:

Completed forms are only seen by the Assistant Administrator and the Chair of the

Undergraduate Studies Committee. Any comments will be passed to the teacher

concerned in an anonymous form, and the teacher will not see the form itself.

During a member of teaching staff’s probationary period, all feedback is

anonymised and forwarded both to the member of staff concerned and their mentee,

together with the recommendation that, should there be any negative feedback, the

mentor and mentee should meet to discuss it and, if appropriate, meet with the

whole class from which the negative feedback was generated. The feedback forms

and recommendations are also copied to the Tutorial Secretary and will also

eventually be seen by the faculty committee responsible for reviewing the member

of staff’s initial period of appointment at the end of their probationary period.

Outside the member of staff’s probationary period (or for teachers who are not

members of staff in Oriental Studies), all anonymised reports are forwarded to the

member of staff concerned and to the Tutorial Secretary, with the same

recommendation that, should there be any negative feedback, the member of staff

and the Tutorial Secretary should meet to discuss it and, if appropriate, meet with

the whole class from which the negative feedback was generated.

Feedback forms commenting upon the teaching of a Tutorial Secretary are copied

to the Faculty Board Chairman.

General issues (but not those regarding individual teachers) raised by student

feedback forms should be brought by the Tutorial Secretary to Joint Consultative

Committee meetings, and a written report on the outcome of any complaints should

be published by the convenor of the JCC (even if no student members attend).

64

3. USE OF EXTERNAL EXAMINERS

Any student achievement that contributes to a named award will be moderated by an

external examiner, except for First Public Examinations (FPE) and M.Phil Qualifying

Examinations in Cuneiform Studies and M.Phil Qualifying Examinations in

Egyptology.

4. SUBMISSION OF ADDITIONAL COPY OF EXTENDED ESSAY ON CD

The Faculty of Oriental Studies requests students voluntarily to submit a copy of their

extended essay on CD (preferably in pdf).

5. USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES

Your attention is drawn to University regulations concerning the use of Information

Technology Facilities:

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/statutes/regulations/196-052.shtml

6. STUDY SKILLS AND OTHER RESOURCES

General Guidelines for Thesis (or dissertation) Writers

https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/access/content/group/a55c44d3-9f21-4dec-b48c-

2dc6fa4e4bee/Exams/General_Guidelines_for_Thesis_Writers.pdf

EPSC Study Skills Resources

(Access to the online (anti-)plagiarism course mentioned on this webpage is via the

SkillsPortal website (www.skillsportal.ox.ac.uk). You will need to create a user

account before taking an online course.)

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/epsc/plagiarism/electrores.shtml

Library Training and Workshops

http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/services/training

Careers and Skills Development

http://www.ox.ac.uk/current_students/careers_skills.html

Oxford University Language Centre

http://www.lang.ox.ac.uk/

Student Counselling Service

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/shw/counserv.shtml

Plagiarism

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/epsc/plagiarism/index.shtml

7. UNIVERSITY DEFINITION OF PLAGIARISM

Cf. http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/epsc/plagiarism

Plagiarism is the copying or paraphrasing of other people’s work or ideas into your own

work

without full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in

manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition. Collusion is

another form of plagiarism involving the unauthorised collaboration of students (or others)

in a piece of work.

Cases of suspected plagiarism in assessed work are investigated under the disciplinary

regulations concerning conduct in examinations. Intentional or reckless plagiarism may

incur severe penalties, including failure of your degree or expulsion from the university. In

their Memorandum, Essential Information for Students, the Proctors and Assessor draw

65

attention to the disciplinary regulations relating to plagiarism that must be observed by

both undergraduate and graduate students. Please read Section 9.5 on the weblink:

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/proctors/pam/index.shtlm

8.

Faculty of Oriental Studies

Study Period Abroad Statement

For Oriental Studies, the learning outcomes of the Study Period Abroad are for students

to:

Improve their language skills in a variety of practical contexts

Acquire first-hand knowledge of the culture of the target language(s)

Develop the ability to cope independently in the target language(s)

Assessment for the Study Period Abroad includes:

In-country assessment

Language collection in 0th

week after the student completes their study abroad.

Oriental Studies defines the sharing of responsibilities between the Faculty Board of

Oriental Studies and the Subject Groups as follows:

The Faculty Board of Oriental Studies is responsible for:

1. defining the learning outcomes and assessment of the Study Period Abroad;

2. maintaining a database of previous students’ reports on their experiences,

available to current students;

3. ensuring that appropriate study abroad opportunities are available for each of the

courses which include a mandatory period of study abroad

4. appointing a Study Abroad Coordinator for each of the languages for which the

Faculty offers courses requiring a Study Period Abroad.

The members of the Subject Groups are responsible for:

1. satisfying themselves that each undergraduate is enrolled for an appropriate

course of study for the required period and reporting this to the Board;

2. advising individual students and providing suitable induction before travel,

including guidance on cultural, social and political matters important for

successful fulfilment of the Study Abroad requirement of their course;

3. overseeing applications to courses;

maintaining pastoral advice and reviewing individual progress via email, mail

and/or telephone during the Study Period Abroad as necessary;

4. receiving complaints and addressing them or passing them on to the Board as

appropriate;

5. receiving from students at the end of their period abroad a report on their

experience and forwarding to the Board a review of the student feed-back with

their comments.

Oriental Studies expects students to be responsible during the period abroad:

1. as representatives of the University of Oxford and as members of the host

institution;

66

2. for fulfilling attendance requirements of the period of study, as set out by the

Faculty Board and Study Abroad Coordinator ;

3. for informing their Faculty tutors in the event of illness and/or any other reason

for absence from the required study abroad course.

4. for keeping in touch with their Faculty tutors, and for alerting them to any

problems which might hinder progress or satisfactory completion of the study

abroad course.

Further reading on other relevant University guidance and policy:

Information for Students’,

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/proctors/info/pam/section10.shtml;

The University Policy Statements on ‘Safety in Fieldwork’ and ‘Overseas Travel’,

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/safety/0507.shtml,

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/safety/0307.shtml);

Advice available from the Travel Clinic of the University Occupational Health Service,

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/uohs/services/travel.shtml;

EPSC’s ‘Brief Guidelines for Lecturers and Tutors’ on planning for students with

Special Educational Needs and Disability,

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/eop/disab/brief.pdf.

Role of colleges

The interface between Colleges and the Faculty is of great importance when students of

Oriental Studies are on their Study Period Abroad. This applies particularly in the

following circumstances:

If a student has a serious medical condition or has a disability, it is important that the

institution abroad be made aware of this, provided that due confidentiality is respected.

It is suggested that the College discuss with the Faculty any concerns in this respect so

that appropriate action may be taken.

If a student’s health gives serious cause for concern while on the year abroad or if a

student suffers an accident, the institution will communicate this to the Faculty, and the

Faculty will immediately contact the College. Normally, in the first instance, the

College will communicate with the family of the student if this is necessary.

If a student has serious problems of an academic nature during the year abroad, the

institution abroad will communicate this to the Faculty which will immediately inform

the student’s College. The College and the Faculty together will decide if it is necessary

to take any action.

Should a situation arise in the area or country of the Study Period Abroad that in any

way threatens the students’ safety, in addition to monitoring the situation daily via the

Foreign Commonwealth Office website and ensuring that it has regular communication

with the students, the Faculty undertakes to make regular reports to the Colleges.

If a College is aware that any of its students faces financial difficulties which may be a

cause for concern in relation to the year abroad, this should be communicated to the

Faculty.

67

In the course of the Study Period Abroad, any reports sent by the institutions abroad to

the Faculty relating to the conduct or progress of students, academic or otherwise, will

be communicated immediately to the relevant College. G:\Oriental Studies\A A - Maria\Study abroad and field trips\Study Abroad Statement\Study Abroad Statement