Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ARA1038: Religious Minorities of the Middle East

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

  • What is Religious Literacy?
  • Late Antiquity and the Rise of New Religions
  • Islam and After
  • Religious Conflict in the 19th and 20th Centuries
  • Christian Groups
  • Non Christian Groups (Yezidis, Yaresanis, Alevis, Druze, Mandaeans)
  • Project Workshops
  • Project Presentations

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
22128

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled learning and teaching activities99 x 1 hour lectures
Scheduled learning and teaching activities99 x 1 hour seminars
Scheduled learning and teaching activities42 x project preparation workshops
Guided independent study128Private study or teamwork

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

The Worlds of Mandaean Priests: mandaeanpriests.exeter.ac.uk

The Yezidi photo archive: Yezidiphotoarchive.com

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Buckley, J.J. The Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and Modern People. Oxford: OUP, 20012.

The Great Stem of Souls: Reconstructing Mandaean History. Piscataway: Gorgias, 2006.

Courbage, Y. and P. Fargues. Christians and Jews under Islam. London: I.B. Tauris, 1998.

Dalrymple, W. From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East. New York: Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated, 1999.

Drower, E.S. The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran.

Ginkel, J. J. Van, and T. M. Van Lint. Redefining Christian Identity: Cultural Interaction in the Middle East since the Rise of Islam. Leuven: Peeters Publishing, 2006.

Griffith, S. H. The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.

J. S. Guest, Survival Among the Kurds: A History of the Yezidis, 2d ed. London: Routledge, 1993.

Joseph, J. Muslim-Christian Relations and Intra-Christian Rivalries in the Middle East: The Case of the Jacobites in an Age of Transition. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983.

Karabell, Z. Peace Be Upon You: Fourteen Centuries of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Coexistence in the Middle East. New York: Knopf Publishing Group, 2007.

Kreyenbroek, P. G. Yezidism—Its Background, Observances and Textual Tradition. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1995.

 Pacini, A. Christian Communities in the Arab Middle East: The Challenge of the Future. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Rowe, P.S. Routledge Handbook of Middle Eastern Minorities. London: Routledge, 2019.

Waterfield, R. E. Christians in Persia. New York: Allen & Unwin, 1973.