History 435.001: Special Topics

History of Pilgrimage: Sacred Landscapes in the Ancient, Medieval, and Islamic Eras

St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Fall 1999 Dr. Linda Jones Hall MWF 1:20-2:30 Kent Hall 312

Course description

This course will analyze and compare the practice of religious pilgrimage in the ancient and medieval periods. Special emphasis will be placed on sacred journeys in classical paganism, Late Antique and early medieval Christianity, and Islam. The core landscapes of the eastern Mediterranean, such as Greece, Syria, the Holy Land, and Arabia will receive special attention. Peripheral areas, such as European and Asian sites, will also be addressed. Primary narratives, as well as objects of material culture (icons, religious objects, archeological remains), will be studied for the evidence they provide concerning the deliberate movement through time and space for religious purposes.

Required texts

PAUSANIAS = Pausanias. Guide to Greece. Vol. 1: Central Greece. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0140442251. (required)

Pausanias. Guide to Greece. Vol. 2: Southern Greece. Penguin Classics. ISBN 014044226x. (optional)

TEXT = Simon Coleman and John Elsner. Pilgrimage: Past and present in the world religions. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995, pbk. ISBN 0674667662

BROWN = Peter Brown. The Cult of the Saints (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1982). Pbk. ISBN 0226076229

READER - available at the SMCM bookstore.

CONTENTS OF THE READER

1) Colin Renfrew and Ezra B. W. Zubrow, eds. The Ancient Mind: Elements of Cognitive Archaeology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Colin Renfrew, "Towards a Cognitive Archaeology,’’ pp. 3-12; Alain Schnapp, "Are Images Animated: the Psychology of Statues in Ancient Greece," pp. 40-44; Colin Renfrew, "The Archaeology of Religion," pp. 47-54. ISBN 0521456207

2) Christopher A. Faraone. "Binding and Burying the Forces of Evil: the Defensive Use of Voodoo Dolls in Ancient Greece," Classical Antiquity 10 (1991) 165-205.

3) Victor and Edith Turner. Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: Anthropological Perspectives. (New York: 1978), pp. 1-39. ISBN 0231042868.

4) John Wilkinson. "Jewish Holy Places and the Origins of Christian Pilgrimage," in R. Ousterhout, ed., The Blessings of Pilgrimage (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990), 41-53. ISBN 0252016645.

5) Benjamin of Tudela, "Travels," in M. Komroff, Contemporaries of Marco Polo (New York: 1928), pp. 252-322. OCLC# 487130.

6) John Wilkinson. Egeria's Travels to the Holy Land. Rev. ed. (Warminster: 1981), pp. 89-147, 213-232. ISBN 0856681690.

7) Speros Vryonis, Jr., "The Panegyris of the Byzantine Saint: A Study in the Nature of a Medieval Institution, its Origin and Fate." in S. Hackel, ed., The Byzantine Saint (London: Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius, 1981), pp.196-222. ISBN 0704404516.

8) Gary Vikan. "Art, Medicine, and Magic in Early Byzantium," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 38 (1984) 65-86.

9) Michael Wolf, ed. One Thousand Roads to Mecca (New York: Grove Press, 1997), pp. xiii-67. ISBN 0802116116.

a) Naser-e Khosraw, Persia, 1050 (11-32)

b) Ibn Jubayr, Spain, 1183-84 (33-50)

c) Ibn Battuta, Morocco, 1326 (51-78)

10) Najib Mahfuz. "The Mistake," in Elizabeth Warnock Fernea and Basima Qattan Bezirgan, eds., Middle Eastern Women Speak (Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1977), pp. 95-123. ISBN 0292750331.

COURSE EXPECTATIONS

Regular attendance is expected. Read the assignments in advance in order to participate fully in class discussion. As we will discuss the primary sources in detail, bring those texts to class as indicated on the syllabus. Organize your time in such a way that you can meet the deadlines for your assignments. Intellectual honor and honesty are demanded in all your work. See the Student Handbook for guidelines and penalties.

GRADING

QUIZZES as announced. The lowest will be dropped if all are taken. = 100 points

ANNOTATED BIBILOGRAPHY (minimum of 10 items) = 100 points

ATTENDANCE AND DISCUSSION = 100 points

FIRST TEST = 150 points

FINAL EXAM = 150 points

ORAL PRESENTATION = 100 points

FINAL PAPER = 300 points

RESEARCH RESOURCES

STANDARD REFERENCE WORKS:

See the Oxford Classical Dictionary (1 vol., 3rd ed.) [OCD] and the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (3 vols.) [ODB]for articles that indicate current trends in historiography and refer you to important bibliography. See also the Encyclopedia of Religion, The Encyclopedia of Islam,and The Encyclopedia of Judaism. These reference works are available in the Reference section of the SMCM library. At the front of these volumes is a key list of abbreviations of journals and other works that you will need for preparing the annotated bibliography and research paper.

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

Journals at SMCM (on the second floor of the library near the stairs at the rear of that floor) include Archaeology, American Journal of Archaeology, Americal Journal of Philology, Arethusa,Classical Journal, Classical Review, Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies, and others. You need to plan to order others by Interlibrary Loan. Use TOCSIN to get the citations.

PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTIONS

See the Loeb library volumes in the PA section of the library. Consult also the bibliographies in the reference works and in your various texts.

ONLINE ACCESS TO PRIMARY SOURCES AND JOURNAL ARTICLES

Paul Hassall’s website http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/byzantium

ARGOS, a search engine for ancient topics http://argos.evansville.edu

PERSEUS, huge archive of ancient texts & art http://perseus.tufts.edu

TOCSIN, a wonderful bibliographical search program

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/amphoras/tocfind

DIOTIMA http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/gender.html

VOICE OF THE SHUTTLE http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/shuttle/classics.html

Timothy E. Gregory's course http://www.acs.ohio-state.edu/history/isthmia/teg/mrs694/

GUIDELINES FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENTS

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: You are required to produce an annotated bibliography of ten items. One item must be a website. Three items must be journal articles. You will find some on reserve; others may be selected from our journals, may be ordered by Interlibrary Loan, or may be downloaded from the worldwide web. The remaining items in this bibliography may be websites, journal articles, articles in books, or chapters in books. It is wise to try to do this project on a steady basis, that is, about one a week. You will be expected to present one article to the class the day the assignment is due.

1) EXAMPLE OF A CITATION FOR A WEBSITE

Williams, T., et al. 1996. "Archaeological excavations in the Souks area of downtown Beirut 1994-1995: Interim Report." http://www.aub.ac.lb/aub-online/faculties/arts_and_sciences/archaeology/index.html

2) EXAMPLE OFTHE CITATION FOR A JOURNAL ARTICLE.

Kennedy, Hugh. "From Polis to Madina: Urban Change in Late Antique and Early Islamic Syria." Past and Present 106 (1985): 3-27.

3) EXAMPLE OF A CITATION FOR AN ARTICLE IN A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS

Donner, Fred M. "The Role of Nomads in the Near East in Late Antiquity (400-800 C.E.)," in Tradition and Innovation in Late Antiquity, edited by F. M. Clover and R.S. Humphreys. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989, 73-85.

4) EXAMPLE OF A SUMMARY PARAGRAPH

Donner produces an almost anthropological analysis of the variations in nomadic lifestyle (from nearly sedentary to trans-humant to totally nomadic) in a variety of setttings (steppe to lowland to desert). He describes the nomad as a conservative, "purifying" influence in his interactions with townspeople and suggests that the nomad is responsible for linguistic and religious mores in the East. The greatest value of the article may be in the synthesis of previous studies.

ORAL PRESESENTATION: The total allotted time per student is twenty minutes. You may wish to speak for ten minutes and leave ten minutes for discussion and questions. Please be prepared to give everyone a one-page handout. Give your intended title and outline five points you wish to make in your final paper. Please also list up to five books and/or articles which you consider to be the major sources for your final paper.

FINAL PAPER: The required length is ten to fifteen pages, double-spaced in a normal font (12). Use any standard method for bibliographies and footnotes. The History Dept recommends Turabian as a useful guide. Be sure to include a bibliography at the end of your paper.YOumust use both primary and secondary sources in your paper.

SCHEDULE FOR HIST 435.001, FALL 1999, PROF. LINDA JONES HALL

Week 1 Introduction; ways of knowing; beginning with the classical world

Mon. Aug 30 Kinds of evidence and ways of seeing TEXT (6-9)

Wed. Sep 1 Sacred travel in the classical world TEXT (10-29)

Fri. Sep 3 Archaeology as a way of knowing READER, Renfrew, selection 1

Week 2 Methods of analysis

Mon. Sep 6 Religion and magic READER, Faraone, selection 2

Wed. Sep 8 Anthropological perspectives READER, Turner, selection 3

Fri. Sep. 10 Film on Eleusis; PAUSANIAS "Attica" (9-125)

Week 3 Primary sources for classical pagan pilgrimage

Mon Sep 13 PAUSANIAS "Corinth and the Argolid" (127-223)

Wed. Sep. 15 PAUSANIAS "Achaia" (225-306)

Fri. Sep. 17 PAUSANIAS "Phokis" (403-513)

Week 4 From pagan to Christian

Mon. Sep 20 RESERVE READING Timothy E. Gregory, "The Survival of Paganism in Christian Greece: A Critical Essay," American Journal of Philology 107 (1986) 229-242.

Wed. Sep 22 READER, Vikan, "Art, medicine, and magic" selection 8

Symeon Stylites http://wesley.nnc.edu/noncanon/fathers.htm

Fri. Sep. 24 TEXT, "Gospels embodied" (78-103)

Week 5 Egeria and others

Mon Sep 27 READINGS ON THE WEB

Bordeaux pilgrim http://christusrex.org/www1/ofm/pilgr/bord/10Bord01MapEur.html

Egeria http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mikef/durham/egeria.html

Wed Sep 29 READER, "Egeria," (89-122, 213-230) selection 6

Fri. Oct. 1 READER, services "Egeria," (123-147, 230-232) selection 6

Week 6

Mon Oct 4 RESERVE READING Articles on Egeria and other 4th c. pilgrims

Wed Oct 6 FIRST TEST (covers readings and discussions to date)

Fri. Oct. 8 BROWN, Cult of the Saints (1-68)

Week 7

Mon Oct 11 SMCM READING DAYS - NO CLASSSES

BROWN, Cult of the Saints (69-127)

Wed Oct 13 READINGS ON THE WEB

"The World of Gregory of Tours"

http://www.unipissing.ca/department/history/4505/gregory.htm

Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks

http://www.celtic-twilight.com/gregory_of_tours/index.htm

Fri. Oct. 15 RESEARCH DAY FOR ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Week 8

Mon. Oct. 16 TEXT, "Geographies of sainthood," (104-135)

Wed Oct 20 READER, Vryonis, "Panegyris of the Byzantine Saint" Selection 8

Fri. Oct. 22 Jewish pilgrimage

READER, Wilkinson, selection 4, "Jewish holy places"

Week 9

Mon. Oct. 25 TEXT, "Exile and return" (34-47)

Wed Oct 27 READER, Benjamin of Tudela, selection 5

Fri. Oct. 29 Islamic pilgrimage Film on the Haj

Week 10

Mon. Nov 1 TEXT, "Muslims and Mecca," (49-76)

Wed Nov 3 READER, Wolf, Selection 9a-b, Naser-e Khosraw & Ibn Jubayr

Fri. Nov. 5 RESEARCH DAY

Week 11

Mon Nov 8 READER, Wolf, Selection 9c, Ibn Batutta

Wed Nov 10 READER, Mahfuz, selection 10

Fri. Nov. 12 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES ARE DUE

Week 12

Mon Nov 15 TEXT, "Epilogue" (196-220)

Wed Nov 17 Non-western pilgrimage Film on India

Fri. Nov 19 TEXT, "Indian religions" (136-169)

Week 13

Mon. Nov 22 TEXT, "Buddhist world" (170-195)

Wed Nov 24 & Fri. Nov. 26 THANKSGIVING BREAK * NO CLASS

Week 14

Mon Nov 29 ORAL PRESENTATIONS

Wed Dec 1 ORAL PRESENTATIONS

Fri. Dec. 3 ORAL PRESENTATIONS

Week 15

Mon Dec 6 General class discussion

Wed Dec 8 FINAL PAPER DUE

Fri. Dec. 10 Final review

Week 16 Exam Thurs Dec 16, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Cumulative, but with emphasis on material since first test

ADDITIONAL PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTIONS

Alice-Mary Talbot, ed. Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints’ Lives in English Translation (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Center Studies, 1996).

Elizabeth A. S. Dawes, ed. Three Byzantine Saints: Contemporary Biographies of St. Daniel the Stylite, St. Theodore of Sykeon, and St. John the Almsgiver (St. Vladimir’s Seminary, 1997).

Eusebius. The Ecclesiastical History and The Martyrs of Palestine. Trans. H. J. Lawlor and J. E. L. Oulton. (London: SPCK, 1928).

Gingras, George E. Egeria: Diary of a Pilgrimage. Ancient Christian Writers Series. (New York: Newman Press, 1970)

Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks. Translated with an Introduction by Lewis Thorpe. (London and New York: Penguin Books, 1974).

Ovid. Fasti.

ADDITIONAL READING OF GREAT VALUE

Check the bibliographies at the end of each chapter in the main text book.

Look for articles and books on travel, on calendars and festivals, on magic, on pilgrimage, and the sacred organization of time and space

Barbara Abou-el-Haj. The Medieval Cult of Saints. Formations and Transformations (Cambridge 1994)

Susan E. Alcock and Robin Osborne, eds. Placing the Gods: Sanctuaries and Sacred space in Ancient Greece (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).

Sebastian P. Brock and Susan Ashbrook Harvey. Holy Women of the Syrian Orient. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: 1987.

Peter Brown. The World of Late Antiquity A.D. 150-750 (Norton, 1989, with revised bibliography).

Averil Cameron and Amelie Kuhrt, eds. Images of Women in Antiquity. (London and Canberra: Croom Helm, 1983; rev. ed., Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993.)

Averil Cameron. The Later Roman Empire, A.D. 284-430 (Harvard, 1993).

Averil Cameron. The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity A.D. 395-600 (London and New York: Routledge, 1993)

Lionel Casson. Travel in the Ancient World. 2nd ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1994).

John Davis. The Landscape of Belief: Encountering the Holy Land in Nineteenth-Century American Art and Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).

L. de Ligt. Fairs and Markets in the Roman World. (Amsterdam: 1993).

Matthew Dillon. Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in Ancient Greece. (London and New York: Routledge, 1997).

Konstantinos Apostolou Doxiades, Architectural Space in Ancient Greece. (Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press [c1972]).

D. F. Eickelman and J. Piscatori, eds. Muslim Travellers: Pilgrimage, Migration, and the Religious Imagination. (London, 1990).

P. C. Finney. The Invisible God: The Earliest Christians on Art. (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).

Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink. Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion. (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).

Frankfurter, David, ed. Pilgrimage and Holy space in Late Antique Egypt.(Leiden, boston, and Koln: Brill, 1998).

David Freedberg, The Power of Images. Studies in the History and Theory of Response (Chicago: 1989).

John G. Gager, ed. Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World (1992).

Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra (Princeton: 1978).

Patrick J. Geary, Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages (Cornell 1994).

Timothy E. Gregory. Co-editor, Panathenia: Studies in Athenian Life and Thought in the Classical Age (1979)

Kenneth G. Holum. Theodosian Empresses: Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity. (Berkeley: 1982).

E. D. Hunt. Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire AD 312-460 (Oxford 1982).

Benjamin Z. Kedar and R.J. Zwi Werblowsky, eds. Sacred Space: Shrine, City, Land (New York: New York University Press, 1998).

Bruce kuklick. Puritans in Babylon: the Ancient Near East and American Intellectual Life, 1880-1930. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).

Artemis Leontis. Topographies of Hellenism: Mapping the Homeland (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995)

Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant, eds. Women’s Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2nd ed., 1992).

Bernard Lewis, ed. and trans. Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Culture of Constantinople. Vol. II. Religion and Society. (New York: Harper and Row, 1974: New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).

Ramsay MacMullen. "Women in Public in the Roman Empire." Historia 29 (1980): 208-218.

Alexander Callender Murray, ed. After Rome’s Fall: Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval History: Essays Presented to Walter Goffart. (Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1998).

V. S. Naipaul. Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey. (New York: Knopf Books, 1981; New York: Vintage Books [Random House], 1982).

George Nash, ed. Semiotics of Landscape: Archaeology of Mind (Oxford 1997).

Jennifer Neils, ed. Goddess and Polis: the Panathenaia Festival in Ancient Athens. (Princeton: 1992).

Robin Osborne Classical Landscape with Figures: the Ancient Greek City and its Countryside. (London: George Philip, 1987).

R. Ousterhout, ed., The Blessings of Pilgrimage (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990).

Erwin Panofsky, Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism.(Latrobe, PA: 1951).

H. W. Parke. Festivals of the Athenians.(London: 1977).

R. Parker. Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion.(Oxford: 1983).

Noel Robertson. Festivals and Legends: The Formation of Greek Cities in the Light of Public Ritual. (Toronto, Buffalo, and London: University of Toronto Press, 1993).

Michele Renee Salzman. On Roman Time: The Codex Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity. (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1990.)

Vincent Joseph Scully, The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods; Greek Sacred Architecture. Rev. ed. (New York: Praeger, [1969]).

Chrisopher Tilley, A Phenomenology of Landscape: Places, Paths, and Monuments (Oxford 1994).

Sumner B. Twiss and Walter H. Conser, Jr., eds. Experience of the Sacred: Readings in the Phenomenology of Religion. (Hanover and London: Brown University Press, 1992).

Raymond Van Dam. Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).

P. W. L. Walker. Holy City, Holy Places? Christian Attitudes to Jerusalem and the Holy Land in the Fourth Century. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990).

Susan Walker. Memorials to the Roman Dead. (London: British Museum Publications, 1985).

Wilkinson, J. (1977). Jerusalem Pilgrims: Before the Crusades. (Warminster: 1977).

Wilkinson, J. (1981). Egeria's Travels, 2nd ed. (Jerusalem and Warminster: 1981).