Storytelling is a timeless human activity that is older even than writing and the Muslim world is home to one of the oldest, richest and most culturally diverse storytelling traditions in existence. This course will explore a selection of central texts from this tradition, from medieval times to the present. We will read classic popular narratives that have circulated across the Muslim world and interpret them in relation to enduring questions about power, justice, identity, knowledge and love
(both human and divine). We will also explore some of the ways in which the Islamic story has passed into European narrative genres and forms in the modern period.
