-Topic of paper is open-ended and flexible but the submission should conform to high standards of citation, organization, style, and spelling. Should have a title, a clearly-stated thesis, and use a minimum of 6 academic sources.
-You will also be expected to provide a long “abstract”. This abstract should include your thesis stated clearly in a paragraph, along with a 1-2 page narrative discussion of the sources you’ve found and how your research makes use of them and fits into the existing scholarship, and a bibliography.
About this course:
This course examines the relationships between religious ideologies and institutions, on one hand, and states, rulers, and political structures, on the other, throughout Iranian history. Beginning with the Achaemenids and Sasanians, under whom a kind of imperial Zoroastrianism was developed, the course will progress through the early Islamic era to the Safavids and Qajars, and finally to the various states of 20th century Iran. Concentrating on how the major political structures of these eras expressed religious ideologies, consolidated power via relationships with religious institutions, and exerted control over various minority groups (including Jews, Christians, Manichaeans, Baha’is, and Zoroastrians), students will engage with primary texts from a spectrum of political and religious contexts on the way to theorizing more generally about state-religion relationships throughout history.
*see attached*
