Middle Eastern Classics Reading Lists

The selected texts below may not include every text on the current reading list. Prospective students can request a detailed reading list using this form.

Selected Texts

Epic of Gilgamesh

Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Esther, and Job 

Philo, On the Creation

Talmud

Gospel of Matthew

Gospel of John

Origen, On First Principles

Pseudo-Dionysius, The Divine Names, The Mystical Theology

Mu‘allaqāt (Desert Tracings) 

Aṭṭār, Memorial of God’s Friends

Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj, poems

Zohar

Ibn Gabirol, The Font of Life

Judah Halevi, The Kuzari (selections)

‘Abd al-Jabbār, Book of the Five Fundamentals

al-Sanūsī, Foundational Proofs

Ibn Sīnā, The Metaphysics of the Healing

Ibn Ṭufayl, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān

al-Ghazālī, Deliverance from Error, The Alchemy of Happiness, The Incoherence of the Philosophers

Ibn Rushd, The Decisive Treatise, The Incoherence of the Incoherence

Ferdowsi, The Book of Kings

‘Omar Khayyām, Rubā‘iyāt

Niẓāmī, Layla and Majnūn

‘Aṭṭār, The Conference of the Birds

Sa‘dī, Gulistān

Ibn al-Fāriḍ, The Wine Ode, Poem of the Sufi Way, Poem of the Sufi Way

Ḥāfiẓ, poems

Jahān Malik Khātūn: poemsSuhrawardī, The Philosophy of Illumination

Mullā Ṣadrā, The Book of Metaphysical Penetrations

Ibn Khaldūn, Muqaddimah

Preceptorials

Fall

Preceptorials remain the same each fall. Select works of Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus are read during the first eight weeks, and the Qur’ān and Ibn ʾIsḥāq, The Life of Muhammad are read during the second eight weeks. 

Spring

Preceptorials remain the same each spring. Select works of al-Fārābī, & Maimonides are read during the first eight weeks, and Ibn al-‘Arabī’s Ringstones of Wisdom and selected works of Rūmī are read during the second eight weeks. 

Summer

Elective preceptorials will be available during the summer semester.