2019-20

The course presents the history of the so-called "Islamic world", i.e. those areas where Islam raised and prevailed. The course examines the periods of Islamic history from the pro-Islamic era in Arabia (6th c.) until the 16th century, when most of the Islamic territories are incorporated into    the Ottoman state. The course is historical and not theological, it deals with the history of regions conventionally called "Islamic world" and not with Islam as a religion.

The course deals with the gradual penetration by Latins of the Byzantine empire and the conquest of Byzantium by the Crusaders in 1204. It examines in detail Venetian rule in Crete, the Ionian Islands and the Peloponnese, with emphasis upon various matters regarding the administrative and social organization, relations between Orthodox and Latins, the cultural environment and the economic activity of Venetian citizens. The course rests on the examination of archival sources, which it employs to justify the various conclusions that it draws.

The first part of the course deals with the nature and methodology of ancient Greek history, with emphasis being placed upon the nature and range of coverage provided by the primary sources and thus on the appropriate approach and use of such sources by the ancient historian. The second part of the course offers a survey of ancient history from the Archaic period to Hellenistic times. Here stress will be laid upon how the subject matter of the survey is affected by the nature of the primary sources.

The course offers basic information on archaeology for the beginning student.

Geography is the study of interactions between environment and society. As one of the social sciences, geography is influenced by other sciences, such as sociology, history, economy and political sciences. The result is the emergence of many geographies, that is, social geography, historical geography, political geography and so on, which result in many ways of studying complex geographic (spatio-temporal) phenomena.