UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Degrees Offered
MA
Mlitt
PhD
MSc

Middle East Languages
Arabic
Persian

Courses
Pre-Honors/Non-Honors Undergraduate Courses (annually)
Islamic History 1
Modern Middle Eastern History 1
Islam 2, 3, 4
Special Subjects for Honors Degrees (subject to demand/availability) 
Islamic  Spain
Arabic  Linguistics
Early Development of Islamic Law
Early Arab Historiography
Islamic Philosophy and Theology
Language and Society in the Middle East and North Africa
Shi'ite Islam
Islamic Art
Political Theory and Practice in the Middle East

Fields in which Postgraduate Supervision is Available
The fields in which we can offer supervision for research include: medieval Islamic history
certain aspects of modern Arab history
early Islamic law
Islamic religion
Islamic philosophy and theology
Arabic language and linguistics
Arabic literature
Persian language, literature, history and current affairs

Faculty
R. Hillenbrand (Islamic art, with particular reference to Iranian architecture and painting, Umayyad architecture)
M. Y. Suleiman (Arabic language and linguistics, modern Arabic literature, teaching Arabic as a foreign language, the practice and theory of translation)
C. Hillenbrand (Islamic history, especially the History of the Crusades, Medieval Historiography, Islamic Political Thought, Sufism)
Y. Dutton (Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies) Islam in its pre-Islamic context, Islamic law, particularly its early development, The Qur’anic text, particularly the variant readings, Islam and the Environment, Traditionalism v. modernism in contemporary Islam).
P. Lalor (Lecturer in Contemporary Arab Studies) The history and politics of the Middle East and North Africa in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, The politics of conflict resolution, The Arab-Israeli conflict/peace process, Palestinian-Jordanian relations, Black September 1970, Arabic nicknames, myths, folktales, jokes and graffiti as research material
I. Muhawi (Lecturer in Translation Studies) Translation Studies (Theories of Language, Comparative Arabic/English Stylistics, Translation Criticism) Literary Criticism and Critical Theory, Rhetoric (Theory of  Tropes), Folkloristics (Palestinian and Arabic Forklore), Orality/Literacy Studies (Ethnography of Speaking), Iconicity, Theories of Humour
A. Newman (Lecturer in Islamic and Persian Studies), Evolution of the legal bases of Islamic medical theory and practice, Shi’ism, Islamic Law, Persian language and literature, Modern Arabic literature, Modern history of Egypt, the debate over World Market theory and its relevance to non-Western history and politics.
A. Noorani (Lecturer in Arabic Literature), Arabic and Persian Literature, Literary Theory (Marxism, Postcolonial, Psychoanalysis) Social Theory.
P. Hinchcliffe (Honorary Fellow), International relations and politics in the Middle East.
F. Karanasou (Honorary Fellow), History and politics of the Middle East and North Africa in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, Civil Society in Egypt, Gender issues, especially activist women’s organizations
Professor Emeritus (Columbia) W.R. Roff (Honorary Fellow), History of Malaysia and Indonesia, Comparative Study of Islamic Societies

Degree Requirements
MSc by Research: One year full-time, 2 years part-time on a topic to be agreed with supervisor. MLitt in Arabic and Islamic Studies: This is normally a two-year course. Examination for the degree is by dissertation on a subject to be arranged with the supervisor. Normally the choice will be made from the following: the edition and annotating, with critical introduction, of an unpublished Arabic text
a linguistic, literary or historical topic in the field of Medieval, post-Medieval or modern Arabic studies.
PhD: Supervision is available in the areas of staff members' research interests. In recent years there has been a notable growth of interest in Islam in South East Asia, and it is hoped that this will continue to develop.

Chair
C. Hillenbrand

Scholarships/Graduate Support
Few University of Edinburgh post‑graduate studentships
fee support scheme for overseas post‑graduates of outstanding merit
fee support scheme for self‑financing post graduate students from developing countries

Special Features
The University Library contains an extensive collection of books in the fields of Arabic, Persian and Turkish Language and Literature, Islam and Islamic and Modern Middle Eastern History. In addition, all the main periodicals in the field are available. The Department has its own Class Library which, in addition to essential texts and reference works, contains a considerable number of Islamic texts. Access to computer facilities is widely available in the University. The Department has three computers of its own together with Arabic and Persian Programs. The Language Laboratory has a large number of materials available for use in addition to video facilities. Edinburgh has excellent facilities for the needs and requirements of the Muslim community. The Edinburgh Central Mosque is close to the Department. There is an active Islamic community and many shops supply halal commodities.

Last updated Wednesday, December 08, 2004