Teaching Islamic Civilization with Information Technology 

New types of information technology such as the Internet and CD-ROM can be used to enhance survey courses in colleges and universitites.  A large amount of primary material about Islam and Islamic Civilization, for example, is available to students through the Internet, including full texts of the Qur'an in various translations, several collections of Hadith (records of the Prophet Muhammad's words and deeds), Shi`i and Sufi religious texts, and classics works of Islamic literature. Using this material provides students with access to primary source and research material that is often unavailable at smaller institutions. The challenge for already overextended professors is figuring out how to locate these materials and incorporate them into their courses.

Primary Materials for Teaching Islamic Civilization

The Qur'an on-line

There are several translations of the Qur'an that one can access through the Internet. Reading Qur'an on the Internet, rather than (or in addition to) buying a copy, enables students to read and compare different translations, quickly locate passages on topics of interest by using forms or subject indexes linked to the text, view the Arabic text, and hear Qur'an recitation. Searchable, full text translations of the Qur'an by Muhammad Shakir, Marmaduke Pickthall, and Yusuf Ali, for example, are available through several home pages on the Internet. A web page maintained by the Muslim Students Association of N.Y.U. at Buffalo includes links to all three translations arranged by surah: go to the address http://wings.buffalo.edu/sa/muslim/isl/texts.html and click on the section "Qur'an." Translations of the Qur'an  by Pickthall , and Yusuf Ali translations can also be accessed through the Alim homepage maintained by the M.S.A. at the University of Pennsylvania. This homepage, at http://qibla.msa.upenn.edu/alim_online/alimhome.htm, includes links to both of these translations as well as a subject list linked to the Yusuf Ali translation. You can find the Yusuf Ali translation and subject list at yet another site, http://www.umr.edu/~msaumr/Quran/, maintained by the M.S.A. at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Another copy of Shakir's translation is located at http://info.uah.edu/msa/quranShakir.html.

Other English translations of the Qur'an are available through the Internet. A readable translation by Dr. T.B. Irving is available at http://www.safaar.com/quran.html, with a short introduction to each surah that includes information about when the surah was revealed. A translation by Muhammad Taqi ud-Din al-Hilani and Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan with a glossary is available from the U.N.N. Islamic Society in the United Kingdom at http://www.unn.ac.uk/societies/islamic/quran/neindex.htm.

The M.S.A. at U.S.C. maintains a helpful site that enables students to compare different translations of the Qur'an. To access this site, go to the address http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran and chose a surah. Translations of each line of the surah by three different translators, Shakir, Pickthall, and Ali, appear listed together line by line. The site includes a comprehensive index as well as a search function.

The M.S.A. at U.S.C. provides another useful source at the same address; they have put Syed Abu-Ala' Maududi's introduction to each sura from The Meaning of the Qur'an on-line. Maududi's introductions can also be accessed through the Islamic Society's site in the U.K. at: http://www.unn.ac.uk/societies/islamic/quran/intro/iindex.htm and through the M.S.A. site in Buffalo at http://wings.buffalo.edu/sa/muslim/isl/texts.html

Students who want to read what the Qur'an has to say about women's issues without spending hours leafing through an index can go to a home page that contains a collection of ayahs (verses) related to women. To access this site, visit the Muslim Sister's home page at https://www.albany.edu/~ha4934/sisters.html, scroll down in the first section, and click on the article entitled "177 Ayahs about Women in the Qur'an."

If you like students to read the Bible for comparative purposes, you can also direct them to sites on the Internet where they can read full text versions of the King James edition of the Bible with search capabilities at http://www.hti.umich.edu/relig/kjv, or at http://estragon.uchicago.edu/ Bibles/KJV.form.html. The Revised Standard edition of the Bible with search capabilities is also available on-line at http://www.hti.umich.edu/relig/rsv.

In case you want your students to read (or at least see!) the Qur'an written in Arabic, there are several sites which include full text versions of the Qur'an in Arabic. Perhaps the easiest way to access these sites is through Ibrahim Shafi's comprehensive "Islam Page." Go to this page at http://www.wam.umd.edu/~ibrahim and click on the section "Qur'an." The Islam Page also includes a link to the Muslim Society site in the U.K. where each ayah is written both in Arabic and in an English translation. To reach this site directly, go to http://www.unn.ac.uk/societies/islamic/quran/naeindex.htm.

The "Qur'an" section of the Islam Page includes links to sites where one can hear the Qur'an recited by various shaykhs, if your university's computers have multimedia capabilities. Downloading Qur'an recitations can be quite time consuming and complicated. If you would like your students to hear Qur'an recitation, in my opinion, it is preferable to use a CD ROM such as Alim (see below for more discussion of this CD ROM).

Hadith and Fiqh on-line

A large amount of material from various Hadith collections, records of the Prophet Muhammad's words and deeds, is available through the Internet. The Muslim Students Association (M.S.A.) at U.S.C. has put a full text translation of Hadith collections by al-Bukhari and Malik's al-Muwatta on-line through the following address: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/ fundamentals/hadithsunnah. This site also contains partial translations of Hadith collections by Muslim and Abu-Dawud; all of these collections are arranged by subject and can be searched. Other interesting primary source material is available through this site, such as 40 Hadith Qudsi and a translation of Muhammad's last sermon. The Alim homepage at the University of Pennsylvania (http://qibla.msa.upenn.edu/alim_online/alimhome.htm) provides another copy of Malik's al-Muwatta and the complete collection of Hadith by al-Bukhari, both with linked subject lists, as well as Hadith Qudsi. Bukhari's hadith is also available at http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~calmsa/sahih.html.

To my knowledge, extensive collections of works of fiqh , Islamic jurisprudence, are not yet available on-line. In addition to Malik's al-Muwatta mentioned above, one can access a full text translation of a book written by the 13th century Shafi`i scholar, al-Imam Nawawi, through a home page maintained by the M.S.U. at the University of Hartford (http://linux.hartford.edu/~grant/islam/mqsd/mqsd.html). This book, entitled al-Maqasid: Ma Yajibu Ma`rifatuhu min al-Din (The Objectives: What is Necessary to Know of the Religion), includes commentary translated from `Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveler) by Ahmed ibn Naqib al-Misri.

Material about Shi`ism

Thanks to the efforts of the Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project, a lot of primary source material related to Shi`ism is available on the Internet. Ahlul Bayt's homepage, at http://www.al-islam.org/organizations/dilp contains links to many full length classic texts such as Nahjul Balagha, a collection of over 200 sermons, letters, and saying by `Ali ibn Abu Talib, Sahifa al-Kamilah, a collection of supplications by `Ali ibn Husayn, considered to be one of the oldest Islamic prayer manuals, and the Supplication of Kumayl, with commentary. It also includes links to full text translations of more contemporary material, from Peshawar Nights to legal rulings by Ayatallah `Ali al-Sistani. This site also contains information about pilgrimage, with maps, information, and pictures of Shi`i shrines and graves in a number of Middle Eastern countries.

A related site, at http://www.al-islam.org/, includes links to some of the same translations, as well as additional works. Click on the section entitled "The Infallibles," for example, then click on "Writings and Sermons." There are a number of useful links here, including translations of Nahjul Balagha, al-Sahifa al-Kamila, and Du`a Kumayl (with a recitation), and Husayn's "Sermon of Mina." The "Biography" section in "The Infallibles" includes links to lists of the Imams, biographies of the Imams, information about the graves and shrines of the Imams, and a geneology of the Quraysh and the Imams. "Sayings" has selections (but not the full text) of Hadith from various Imams, such as selections from Usul al-Kafi; "Pearls of Wisdom" includes stories of the infallibles and their companions.

Material about Sufism

Most of the material on the Internet related to Sufism that I have located is more contemporary in nature; nonetheless, there are still a few sites and sources that could be used in courses on Islamic civilization. Several Sufi orders have web pages with lots of information about their order, including biographies of their current shaykh and information about the order's history, philosophy, practices, dhikrs, etc. Some of these sites are among the most beautiful I've seen on the Internet, and are worth visiting for that reason as well. The Haqqani Foundation has a beautiful homepage with a large amount of information about Sufism and the Naqshbandi order at http://www.best.com/~informe/mateen/haqqani.html. The Naqshabandi order has another site at http://www.naqshbandi.org/. Other Sufi orders that have developed web pages including the Nimatullahi order, which has a site at http://www.nimatullahi.org and the Qadiri-Rifa`i order, which has a site at http://www.qadiri-rifai.org/index.html. A web page at http://www.armory.com/~thrace/sufi/index.html includes translations of a number of poems by Mevlana Jamal al-Din al-Rumi, a few pictures from Konya, and links to a number of selections of Mevlevi music (you need access to Real Audio to hear these).

Islamic Literature

Since there are many older translations of classic works of Islamic literature, where copyright is not an issue, one can also access translations of Islamic literature that might be of use for courses on Islamic civilization. There are several sites, for example, that contain translations of 1001 Nights. A hypertext version of Sir Richard Burton's translation is available at http://www.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/techfak/ags/ti/personen/mfreeric/m/an/a_index.html and a hypertext version of Andrew Lang's turn of the century translation is available at the same site, http://www.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/techfak/ags/ti/personen/mfreeric/m/an/ lang/lang.index. Project Gutenberg, which puts full-text versions of works without copyright on-line, has links to translations of 1001 Nights at http://tom.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/book/lookup?num=128. Sir Richard Burton's translation of Arabian Nights is also on-line at gopher://gopher.vt.edu:10010/02/56/1. Since this translation is not in hypertext, however, one has to download the whole file, which takes a long time; it is also difficult to direct students to a story in the middle of the text.

Scholars seem to have been most active in putting classics of Persian literature and poetry on-line, both in Persian and in translation. A site entitled "Treasures of Persian Literature," at a university in Japan, http://knight3.cit.ics.saitama-u.ac.jp/hobbies/iran includes links to full text originals and translations of an impressive number of Persian classics, including Ferdowsi's Shahname, The Gulistan of Saadi, Ghazels by Hafiz, and the Rubiat of Omar Khayyam. Some of these works, along with examples of modern Persian poetry, can also be accessed through the Persian Literature Page, at http://www.iranonline.com/literature/index.html. Full text translations of the Shahnameh by Firdausi is available at gopher://gopher.vt.edu:10010/02/83/1 and the Gulistan of Sa`di can be reached at gopher://gopher.vt.edu:/10010/02/140/1. Again, since these gopher texts are not in hypertext format, they are of limited use for courses.

Turkish scholars have put some material on-line, but most of what I have found is contemporary poetry. A Turkish poetry homepage at http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~sibel/poetry contains mostly modern poems, but they have also put a poem from Walter Andrew's book on Ottoman lyric poetry on-line. As mentioned above, a site at http://www.armory.com/~thrace/sufi/index.html includes translations of a number of poems by Mevlana Jamal al-Din Rumi.

Islamic Art and Architecture

In addition to the written texts listed above, there is information and graphic material about Islamic arts and architecture that can be accessed over the web. A site entitled "Islamic Arts and Architecture" at http://www.islamicart.com  calligraphy, carpets, and architecture. There are also sites with pictures and information about various Islamic cities. A site on Isfahan at http://www.anglia.ac.uk/~trochford/isfahan.html provides a "virtual tour" through Isfahan, with photographs and descriptions of its incredible art and architecture, including mosques and shrines. The "On-line Guide to al-Haram ash-Sharif" at http://www.al-aqsa.com/index.html contains pictures and information about al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, drawn from a CD-ROM sold through this site.

Miscellaneous Tools

In addition to the primary source material listed above, a variety of tools that may be useful for courses on Islam can be accessed through the Internet. Biographies of Muhammad's companions are available through three home pages on the Internet: the U.S.C. page at http://www.usc.edu/dept.MSA/history/, the Alim page at http://qibla.msa.upenn.edu/alim_online/alimhome.html, and the U.M.R. page at http://www.umr.edu /~msaumr/reference/companions. The U.S.C. and Alim pages also include links to a detailed chronology of Islamic history from the 6th to the 20th centuries. If you want your students to compare the Hijri and Gregorian calenders, look at a site at http://www.assirat.org/Hcal/hdate_gr.cgi, where you can type in any day-month-year and find the equivalent date in the Hijri or Gregorian calender.

Maps of the Middle East are also available on the Internet. A collection of historical maps that could be useful for courses is available through the University of Pennsylvania at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/map.html. This site includes links to about fifteen clear, color maps, including maps of Muslim expansion to 661 A.D., the Umayyad Dynasty ca. 750, the Abbasid Empire in 900, the Muslim world in 1300 and 1500, the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, etc. The Perry Castanda map collection at the University of Texas has a collection of maps of the Middle East at http://www.lib.utexas.edu:80/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/middle east.html. Most of these maps are contemporary; the section entitled "Historical maps" mostly includes maps from the Middle East and the Fertile Crescent from the early 20th century.

Incorporating Internet Material into Courses

I have tried to demonstrate that there is a lot of material on Islam and Islamic history available to students through the Internet. When I first began using these materials, I directed students to the various sites by including web addresses in the syllabus. Students often had difficulty reaching the sites; they would not understand all the symbols, type the address incorrectly and in general, became very frustrated. A better approach is to develop a web page for the course, with links to the required readings, or sites. From this page, which can be a complete on-line syllabus as well, students simply click to reach the sites.

Developing a web page used to be a complicated process that required knowledge of HTML. With the web authoring programs available now, such as AOL Press and Microsoft Word 97, writing a web page is not that different from using a word processor. By using the tutorials and help sections of AOL Press, for example, I was able to put together a simple web page in a day. (The time consuming part, as always, was locating materials I wanted to use and developing assignments based on those materials.) Since so many students know how to create web pages, you could also hire a student worker to develop a web page for your course.

Even with a course web page, students may encounter a variety of other problems while using the web.  Students may have difficulty accessing sites; the university's system could be overloaded, there could be problems at the site itself, or there could be a traffic jam on the Internet "superhighway." When the same material is available at several sites or through several entry points, as is often the case, you could include links to different locations in hopes that at least one of them will be working. You could also put back up copies of the material on reserve in the library for students who are having trouble accessing the sites, or who prefer to read the material in print.

In addition, some of the material discussed in the first section is available through a CD ROM entitled Alim, published by the ISL Software Corporation. (They have a web site at http://qibla.msa.upenn.edu/alim_online/alimhome.htm, and their phone number is (800)443-3636). The Alim CD ROM includes the Qur'an in Arabic and in three translations, including simultaneous translations for comparative purposes, M.Maududi's introductions to the Surahs, complete texts of Hadith from al-Bukhari, Muslim, and others, biographies of Muhammad's companions, a chronology of Islamic history, etc. It also includes 30 hours of Qur'an recitation, which is easy for students to access, compared to downloading audio files from the Internet.

The problem with CD ROMs is deciding how to make them available to students. You can put them in the computer lab, but it may not be convenient for students to come to the lab, and the CD ROM could be lost or stolen. One CD ROM is not adequate for a large survey class, and it may be expensive to purchase more. At some universities, it is possible to put CD ROMs on a university wide server, often through the library, but not all companies allow their CD ROMs to be networked and others charge extremely high fees. Because of these problems, I tend to assign students material from the Internet, and list Alim in my on-line syllabus as a backup for students who are having difficulty accessing sites.

In short, using the Internet can provide students with easy access to large amounts of primary source and multimedia material related to Islam and Islamic history.  Teachers and professors can use these sources in courses on Islam, Islamic Civilization, or World History as they would any printed material: assign it and assume students  prepare for class, or force students to prepare by requiring them to submit notes or by developing written assignments based on the material. (go to the syllabus for my course on Islamic Civilization  and click on "Internet Assignments" for examples of exercises based on Internet materials)  Feedback from students has generally been very positive: once they become familiar with using the medium, most students are excited to find that they can have access to such vast resources at their fingertips.