Certificate in Persian

This is a basic introductory language acquisition module for absolute beginners in the written and spoken language; students are not assumed to have any previous knowledge of the language. The module covers several basic constructions of the language, enabling students to acquire basic skills in reading, writing, comprehension and speaking. Successful students will gain the ability to read and write short simple texts and communicate on simple everyday topics.

Persian 1 B

This module is designed to equip first-year students of languages and linguistics with the tools they need to succeed in the acquisition and study of language, throughout the course of their time at SOAS, and beyond into their post-study careers.

This module introduces students to key topics in global linguistic diversity, enabling students to put into a global context the language, region or culture that their degree programme focuses on.

This module introduces students to fundamental concepts and approaches in the study of the links between language and society. Using numerous examples, students will learn about the interplay of language with social factors such as class, gender, ethnicity and age, including how language varies and changes.

This module give students an understanding of the fundamental ways in which words and sentences are associated with meaning and interpretation in context. It will acquaint them with the assumptions and goals that underlie different approaches to lexical semantics and with the relationship between semantics at the lexical, sentential and discourse levels.

This module introduces the principle and theory of translation. It covers the history of recent theoretical development in translation studies. It analyses the major concepts, issues and theories of translation in relation to its historical context. The course will also assist students making the connection between translation theories and practice to ensure effective use of the theories and to make an informed decision in translation activities.

This module is an introduction to the history of the late medieval, early modern and modern era Middle East. It begins roughly around the time when Islamic empires became the dominant powers in the region and explores thenceforth the political, social, and cultural developments up to the present. While the module is structured around events that are primarily of military and political nature, it gives ample importance to the broad social and cultural currents, as well as the circumstances of everyday life as shaped by the former. Throughout the semester, we will also (re)visit, question, and complicate some of the main concepts and debates, such as modernity and the decline thesis, that have informed the field in the past decades.

This module is an introduction to the history of the early modern and modern era Middle East. It begins roughly around the time when Islamic empires became the dominant powers of the region and explores thenceforth the political, social and cultural developments up to the present.

This module focuses on aspects of the intellectual history of the medieval Islamic world, above all the history of philosophy and systematic theology. It will examine various thinkers and schools of thought of the classical and post-classical periods, including Aristotelianism, Mu‘tazilism and Ash‘arism, and will introduce key concepts, problems and debates, particularly in metaphysics, natural philosophy, epistemology, ethics and anthropology. These topics will be approached analytically, situated and interpreted within their broader contexts, and read through representative primary texts in translation. Attention will be given to contemporary scholarly methodologies and debates in the field.

The overall aim of the course is to introduce students to Zoroastrianism - its doctrines, rituals and observances within a historical framework. The teachings of the religion will be discussed on the basis of the Zoroastrian sacred text, in particular the Avesta and Pahlavi literature, in the context of the Indo-Iranian religious system from which the religion emerged. The history of Zoroastrianism will be traced from its prehistoric roots in Indo-Iranian times through its development under the rule of three great Iranian empires, Achaemenian, Parthian and Sasanian, its gradual development into a minority religion after the Muslim conquest of Iran, the subsequent migration and re-settlement of a diaspora community in India, and from there up to the present day.

This module introduces students to a range of skills: designing an independent study project laying the foundation for writing an ISP or dissertation, either in their year abroad or in their final year taking up some other form of extended research. The classes will be based very much on group work, with students encouraged to explore the issues and questions raised each week through a combination of peer discussion and shared homework exercises. Students will be encouraged to think about what makes a good research question consider different approaches to tackling their questions evaluate extant literature consider the types of sources that might be available consider how to analyse and work with data collected.

In this module, students will begin their studies of the areas of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The module will use the city-spaces and urban life of London to begin to engage with cultures from these regions as they are transported and transformed as they find roots in this post-imperial centre.

This module takes the specific topics of health, well-being, embodiment, resilience, human relations to the environment and questions of climate change and views and analyses them through the lens of culture studies. The module is team taught by lectures with expertise in language-based cultural studies with reference to Asia, Africa and the Middle East, whose research and teaching incorporates a focus on areas of health and well-being such as HIV-AIDS, cancer, Covid-19, public health discourses and their relation to difference cultural perspectives on embodiment. The module interweaves these concerns into the study of the need for human resilience in response to current global crises, first and foremost among which are questions of environmental destruction and climate change. The module concludes with an emphasis on the need for cross-cultural communication and intercultural understanding for global collaboration to find effective solutions to the problems of our times.

This module will examine a range of genres and forms, and aims to provide students with an insight into motif and interpretation of love and loss by looking at specific selection of texts in English translation (in poetry and prose) by different authors from across the regions of Africa, the Middle East, South and South East Asia, from the ancient times to the present day.

This module is an introduction to the literary history of Iran and Persian poetry and the different schools of poetry, as well as the major genres related to the mediaeval period, from its origins to c.1500. A selection of poems by well-known poets of the genres of epic, romantic, didactic, spiritual & mystical writing will be read, and discussed.

This module will explore genres such as the oral epic, the graphic novel, puppet theatre, and internet literature with particular attention to the ways that texts interact with other forms of expression from music and dance to the visual arts. Each of the stories studied will be presented in its cultural context, and connections between cultures will be interrogated in an effort to solidify conceptions of the universal and the local.

The course will offer a survey of films from the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, and Israel, as well as an overview of the historical development of film in the region and a grounding in the socio-cultural contexts in which films have been produced. Films will be analysed aesthetically, with an awareness of multiple aspects of film technique, and meanings will be interrogated through a number of interdisciplinary and theoretical prisms.