Author: NancyCouturier (Page 3 of 6)

Here is a documentary on a few of the most powerful women in the Ottoman Empire. Whether concubines, wives, or mothers, they wielded significant power over the empire from within the harem.

With any documentary, be careful; not everything said is 100% accurate. Conjectures can be touted as fact, and context is often manipulated or omitted. Take this documentary as a general introduction, not as a dissemination of canonized historical fact. Having said that, this is a beautifully done documentary with several legitimate and renown scholars who provide great insight.

The above documentary can be supplemented with this ten minute clip, from minute 39 to 49, which discusses the role women in the harem played, particularly as mothers of the sultan’s sons. (Login to the library first to ensure the link works properly.)

“Islam Through Its Scriptures” (Link)
From the intro page:
What you’ll learn
An introduction to the place of the Quran in Muslim cultures
Major themes of the Quran
The historical and cultural contexts of the Quran
Interpretive skills that enable a more nuanced reading of the Quran
Diverse approaches Muslims have adopted to engaging with Quranic texts, including issues in contemporary interpretation

These objectives all relate to the exploration of what Islam is.

In 2013, Marvel came out with Ms. Marvel, aka Kamala Khan, a Pakastani-American, Muslim super-hero. This year Ms. Marvel gets a pal: Arab-American Fadi Fadlallah.

You can read about them–and their importance in literacy–here.

This link takes you to the first episode of a Turkish television drama. The show ran for four seasons, beginning in 2011. It’s in Turkish but there are English subtitles. The plot is centered on Suleiman I (the Magnificent), but has much artistic license. 

Why watch:  

1. It’s done beautifully. The costumes, set (Topkapi Palace!), cinematography, score–it’s all great.
2. It’s good immersion for terminology. While to us words like imam, mufti, vizier, etc., are “vocab” words, they’re used in everyday speech in the show. Repeated exposure to these terms in their natural use helps us remember, understand better, and use them naturally ourselves. The same thing happens with place names–the more we hear it in context, the better we’ll understand and internalize.
3. It’s a good test of your knowledge: Since it’s based on facts, test it against what you’ve learned. What does the show get right, what’s almost right, what is super fictionalized, and what do you need to fact check?

Here’s it’s IMDB link.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1848220/

This is a (well done) 30 minute video review of lots of things we’ve covered in class. Focusing mainly on al-Ghazali, he also talks about (to name a few):

• Descartes
• Neoplatonism
• Sufism
• Ismailis
• Fatimids
• Seljuks
• Avicenna

Make sure you’re logged into the library first so you can watch on Kanopy.

The game gives you a country, and you click on it–easy peasy. I found it simplistic and exactly what I needed.

Happy Studying!

Karachi, Pakistan also was in the list of top ten least-liveable places.

Read here how these were ranked, and click on the link for the full report.

Quebec “has just passed a new law that bars civil servants in positions of ‘authority’ from wearing religious symbols [e.g. hijab] at work.”

Link

Kanopy is one of the databases we have access to from the library. Here is a list of documentaries, lectures, or lecture series that have to do with Islam, particularly in our time line.

I recommend The Great Courses videos the most; they have been invaluable to me with every history class I have taken. I cannot recommend them enough. They’re easy to understand, have lots of visuals, are often even entertaining, and so convenient since you can watch them anywhere!

Log in to the library before clicking on the links below so they will take you to the correct page instead of to Kanopy’s login page.

IF the links 404 on you, go to Kanopy and put in the search bar the words after the last forward slash in the URL. Example:

For the first URL below, type in the search box on Kanopy, “turning points middle eastern history.”

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/turning-points-middle-eastern-history

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/living-history-experiencing-great-events-anc

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/rise-and-flourishing-islam

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/751-talas-1192-tarain-islam-asia

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/1087-hattin-crusader-desert-disaster

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/islamic-expansion-and-rule

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/crusaders-capture-jerusalem

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/lunar-crescent-and-islamic-calendar

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/history-and-achievements-islamic-golden-age

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/living-history-experiencing-great-events–18

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/islam-and-scriptural-recitation

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/hadith-and-sufism

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/islam-and-caliphate

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/holy-quran

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/islam-violence-and-islamophobia

https://umw.kanopy.com/video/islam-comes-india

From NPR: “Marvel Comics’ first Muslim superhero is getting her own live-action TV show on Disney’s new streaming service. Ms. Marvel creator G. Willow Wilson discusses the groundbreaking superhero.”

(No official release date yet.)