Graduate students in the Program in Islamic Studies enjoy full access to the faculty of Yale University and the extensive resources of her library. Yale’s Near Eastern Collection boasts of over 150,000 volumes, with a particularly high quantity of early Arabic printed materials. Additionally, the Near Eastern manuscripts collection at Yale’s Beinecke Library consists of well over 5,000 manuscripts, while works specific to the field of Arabic and Islamic Studies form the principal strength of the collection. Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library also maintains an Arabic and Islamic Studies reading room that houses important reference works in the field.

Beyond its impressive library collections, Yale University sponsors a number of colloquiums and working groups pertinent to the field of Islamic Studies. These include the Center for Middle East Studies (CMES) Colloquium, housed at the MacMillan Center, the Iran Colloquium, and the Arabic Philosophy Working Group, sponsored by the Whitney Humanities Center.

Students in Islamic Studies are expected to develop both a comprehensive knowledge of Islamic intellectual history and religious thought, as well as mastery of a field of specialization and the requisite tools for critical scholarship on Islam. They are expected to demonstrate competency in Islamic religious thought (focusing on Islamic philosophy and theology, including normative and heterodox developments such as Shi’ism and Sufism); Islamic religious history (focusing on the development of Islamic civilization, law, society, and institutions in the period from the origins of Islam to 1500 A.D.) and the study of Islamic scripture and tradition (focusing on the composition, redaction and interpretation of the Qur`an as well as on the development of Hadith literature). Recent dissertation topics in Islamic Studies include: Sufi Thought and Practice in the Teachings of ‘Ala’ al-Dawla al-Simnani; The Greeks in Medieval Islamic Egypt, 640-1095; The Fabulous Gryphon: An Early Maghribine Work by Ibn al-‘Arabi; Slavery in Islamic Law: An Examination of Early Maliki Jurisprudence; Between Mysticism and Messianism: The Life and Thought of Muhammad Nurbakhsh; The Qur’an Commentary of al-Tha’labi; Mystical Language and Theory in the Sufi Writings of al-Kharraz; The Travels and Teachings of Makhdum-i Jahaniyan Jahangasht; Ahmad Ghazzali: Mystical Poet and Philosopher of Medieval Islam; ‘Abd al-Jabbar’s Critique of Christian Origins; The Doctrine of the Soul in the Thought of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi; Mir Dard: Sufi Mystic and Urdu Poet in 18th century India; The Theology of al-Ash’ari; the legal reforms of Ubn Abu Zayd al-Qayawani; the Life and Thought of Abu Rayhan al-Biruni.

Students admitted to the Ph.D. program in Islamic Studies are expected to possess or quickly acquire a proficiency in two scholarly languages, normally German and French. Specific requirements for Islamic Studies are the following: No later than the end of the second year, each student must have passed an examination in advanced literary Arabic and must show the equivalent of two years of course work in Persian (Farsi). Under certain circumstances, a third Islamic language, such as Turkish or Urdu, may be extremely useful for research in the field as well.

Students are required to take twelve courses, and this is normally done during the first two years of study. The purpose of course work is to prove that the student possesses a survey knowledge of Islamic Studies, and this must be shown before taking qualifying examinations. In addition to taking the regular courses offered by the Department of Religious Studies, students may remedy gaps in knowledge through directed readings or by auditing appropriate courses.

Nature and Purpose

The qualifying examinations in Islamic Studies are taken after the conclusion of required course work and must be completed before admission to candidacy. Ordinarily, students take the examinations in their third year of residence. Preparation for the qualifying examinations is comprised of a combination of course work and supplementary individual readings. The scope and focus of each examination is a matter for discussion and negotiation with individual examiners. As a general rule of thumb, the student should strive for a level of knowledge and expertise such as would be required to construct and teach a course on the subject. The examinations are not meant to test the students’ ability as a research scholars. Course work, research papers, and the dissertation will do that. Passage of the qualifying exams is one requirement demanded of all students seeking the Ph.D., but it is not the only requirement, nor is it the most important. The dissertation is. Therefore, the exams should be kept within their proper proportions, and the following guidelines are designed to help with this.

Descriptions and Procedures

The qualifying examinations include three written field examinations and one oral examination in a particular field of specialization, given on the basis of a statement submitted by the student. The following examination format is intended to strike a balance between comprehensive knowledge of Islamic intellectual history and religious thought, mastery of a field of specialization, and the requisite tools for critical scholarship on Islam. The specific format of each examination will be tailored to individual student needs, interests, and background. 

1. The field examination in Islamic Religious Thought focuses on Islamic tradition, philosophy and theology, including normative and heterodox developments. It begins with the doctrinal disputes of the early schisms of Islam, leads through the major schools of Islamic religious doctrine, such as Mu’tazila, Falsafa, Isma’iliyya, Ash’ariyya, etc., and encompasses the intellectual syntheses of Islamic thought elaborated by great Muslim scholars, such as Ibn Sina, al-Ghazali, Ibn al-‘Arabi, Nasiruddin al-Tusi, Ibn Taymiyya, Mulla Sadra, etc. 
2. The field examination in Islamic Religious History focuses on the development of Islamic civilization, law, society and institutions in the period from 750 A.D. to 1517 A.D. It includes questions such as the nature of Islamic leadership and authority, the definition of the Islamic state and community, the norm of shari’a and its applications, the system of social organization and education. 
3. The field examination in Islamic Scripture and Tradition focuses on the study of Qur`an and Hadith, the composition and redaction of the Qur`an, the history of the text, and the major trends of its interpretation, e.g. traditional, dogmatic, mystic, sectarian and modernist trends. It also encompasses the study of the life of Muhammad in the faith of his community and the study of the religious tradition of Islam incorporated into Hadith literature. 

For each of these three field examinations, students prepare a bibliography of about 25 monographs and about 10 major articles in the field, which they submit to their advisor and eventual examiners six months before actually taking the qualifying examinations. Responsibility for formulating exam questions will rest with faculty members specializing in Islamic Studies, and others who are appropriate in individual cases. Students will submit a list of questions, issues, thinkers, etc., on which they wish especially to be examined. Faculty members will attempt to do justice to this list, and include these questions in some form, though they may also rework them substantially and add other questions. Every effort will be made to assure comprehensiveness without surprise or misunderstanding. 

The student may opt for either of two modes of the actual examination: 

1. After the questions are distributed to the student he or she will have a 15-day period to prepare answers. He or she may consult whatever books and articles are deemed most helpful. The answers finally submitted will comprise in total no more than 60 typewritten double-spaced pages. 
2. Questions will be distributed to the student, one third on the first day of the 15-day period, the second third on the 6th day of the same period, and the third on the 11th day. In preparing answers, the student may, again, consult whatever books and articles are deemed most helpful. On the 5th day, the 10th day, and the 15th day, the student will appear at the departmental office and obtain paper provided on which the answers will be written. The student may write for six hours on each of these three days, and will submit his or her answers by the end of each day. During these six-hour exams the student may not consult books, articles or notes. 

The oral examination in the student’s particular field of specialization follows within two months after the successful completion of the written field examinations. The student will provide a written statement of about 20 typewritten pages as the basis of the oral exam, with appropriate faculty members present. The oral exam will not exceed two hours and will concentrate intensively on a precise cluster of problems, or a small set of figures, or a limited body of literature. The topic will be selected because of its importance as background for the student’s probable dissertation topic.

The dissertation proposal, accompanied by a working bibliography, is prepared following the completion of the qualifying exams. It is worked out in consultation with the faculty, and submitted to the teaching group in the field, who meet with the student for a two-hour colloquium to assess the scope, significance, and feasibility of the topic and the student’s preparation to accomplish it in a reasonable time. After approval by the teaching group, a two-page, single-spaced summary of the proposal is submitted to the entire graduate faculty in Religious Studies and thence, if none object, to the Dean of the Graduate School. Once accepted this prospectus becomes the basis for the eventual assessment of the completed dissertation. After acceptance of the prospectus, the student is admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. Students must be admitted to candidacy by the beginning of the fourth year of study.