Beschreiben Sie kurz und prägnant, worum es in diesem Kurs geht.The aim of the course is to introduce students to the study of Islam and therefore no prior knowledge is required. The course covers key topics beginning with the origins of Islam, the life of the Prophet, the Quran, and its canonization, Hadith as the Muslim gospel, the early political crisis and the sectarian split, the emergence of early creed, communal identity, and ritual practice, the crystallization of the normative discourse of Sharia, Islamic mysticism, Islamic art as well as the emergence and development of intellectual debates in dialectical theology and philosophy (kalām and falsafa) with a focus on theodicy, God’s attributes, ethics, and Muslim Christian polemics. Finally, the course shall introduce students to some debates in Modern Muslim societies related to colonialism, the rise of the nation-state, and the project of political modernity and gender issues. The overall objective is to provide students with a good grasp of the variety of themes central to the study of Islam, its historical development, and the main religious and intellectual debates within Islamic societies. Students will also gain some basic knowledge to distinguish between approaches used by various scholars when conceptualizing about the human and historical phenomenon of Islam. The readings consist of a selection of secondary materials as well as translated primary texts. Films and audio will be also solicited.