Summer Program : « The Last Empire of Islam », University of California, Davis Summer Abroad Program , Istanbul, Turkey, July 2007. Deadline :  April 13, 2007.

Students of the "Last Empire of Islam" will earn eight upper division credits upon the completion of the four-week program. HIS 190C, the first course of the program, explores the history of the Middle East from the foundations of the Ottoman Empire up to the early eighteenth century and is taught by Baki Tezcan, an assistant professor of Middle Eastern History and Islam at UC Davis. The second course, HIS 198, is an independent study entitled "Istanbul in and between guides and travelogues" which will be conducted under the direction of Professor Tezcan who will teach students basic conversation skills in Turkish and lead them in tours of numerous historical sights in the afternoons and weekends. The medium of instruction is English.

While the course work is geared towards an understanding of late medieval and early modern Middle Eastern history, issues facing contemporary Turkey will be explored by guest lecturers. Accomplished young professionals from the private, public, and non-profit sectors who work on such topics as progressive social reform, the popular media, transnational feminism, ethnic and religious minorities in Turkish history, society, and culture, and the contemporary Turkish Islamist movement, will provide the students with fresh perspectives on modern Turkey.

In addition to several city tours in Istanbul, which was the imperial capital of the Ottomans after 1453, there will be two day trips, the first one to Iznik (Nicaea) and Bursa, and the second one to Edirne, three cities which had been capitals of the Ottoman Empire in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries - Nicaea is better known as the site for the first two Ecumenical councils in the early history of the Christian church. In the last two weeks of the course, the students will be joined by Turkish students in exploring the historical sights of Istanbul. The sights to be visited in Istanbul include, but are not limited to, the Haghia Sophia, once the largest cathedral of Christianity, the Topkapi Palace where Ottoman sultans resided from the mid-fifteenth century through the first half of the nineteenth century, the Ecumenical Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, the Armenian Patriarchate, and the Ahrida Synagogue. The city's cathedral mosques to be visited include the mosque of Sultan Ahmed, better known as the Blue Mosque, where Pope Benedict XVI prayed towards Mecca during his recent visit to Istanbul, the mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent, built by the Ottoman master architect Sinan, who was most probably an Armenian by birth, in the sixteenth century, and the mosque of Ayyub al-Ansari, named after a companion of Muhammad who is believed to have died there at the site of the mosque during an Arab siege of Constantinople in the second half of the seventh century.

After the completion of the two courses on Friday, July 27, the students will tour western and central Turkey for four long days with a professional guide. This tour includes visits to Gallipoli, where the Allied Forces failed to subdue the Ottoman defenses during the First World War as was made unforgettable in the movie Gallipoli with Mel Gibson, the ancient city of Troy where Achilles killed Hector as was recently enacted by Brad Pitt and Eric Bana, Assos where Aristotle started working on his book "Politics" around 348 BCE, Ephesus, where the Virgin Mary is believed to have spent her last days, and Cappadocia, an area well known for its wondrous rock formations and cave settlements.

Instructor:

Baki Tezcan is a native of Istanbul where he graduated from the High School of Istanbul (Istanbul Lisesi) in 1989. He holds a B.A. in International Relations (Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies (Princeton University). He taught modern and Ottoman Turkish in the US as well as Turkey. Since 2003 he has been teaching courses on Ottoman history, Islam, and the Middle East at UC Davis where he holds a joint appointment in the Department of History and the Religious Studies Program.

Program Fees:

The total estimated fees charged to students amount to $ 3,626, which includes $ 1,000 program fee, $ 1,176 course fee ($ 147/unit x 8 units), and $ 1,450 accommodations and activities fee, which covers housing, emergency health insurance, select publications, and all the planned excursions including the western and central Turkey tour. Airfare is not included.

Application: The application process may be initiated online at

http://summer-abroad.ucdavis.edu/apply.cfm April 13, 2007, is the deadline for submitting complete enrollment packets. The UC Davis

Summer Abroad programs fill on a first-completed, first-reserved basis. The "Last Empire of Islam" program has an enrollment cap of 28 students.

Questions:

For detailed information on the two courses, see the syllabus on the

program website at

http://summer-abroad.ucdavis.edu/programs/2007/Istanbul_Turkey.cfm

Questions regarding the application process and fees may be directed

to Erin Schlemmer at eschlemmer@ucdavis.edu; academic content- and

site-specific questions may be directed to Baki Tezcan at btezcan@ucdavis.edu

Baki Tezcan

Assistant Professor of History & Religious Studies

University of California

Department of History

Davis, CA 95616-8611

USA

Tel. (1-530) 752-9981

Fax: (1-530) 752-5301

E-mail: btezcan@ucdavis.edu

http://history.ucdavis.edu/btezcan

http://summer-abroad.ucdavis.edu/programs/2007/Istanbul_Turkey.cfm