This course explores the global past from the emergence of agriculture to the challenges of the contemporary period. Students will examine key events, and themes that have shaped human society, focusing on the interactions and interconnections between various civilizations across time and space. The course places equal emphasis on the histories of the Middle East, East Asia, Africa, and the Western world. Students will develop an understanding of political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental aspects of world history. The course cultivates critical thinking, and historical reasoning enabling students to interpret the complexities of our shared human experience. 

This course covers the methods and theories of Islamic civilizations that stretched from Spain to India. This course focusses on the architecture and decoration of the societies across this vast area, from the early centuries of Islam in the seventh century to present. It covers major architectural masterpieces and how they differed and changed with regards to their geographic locations, traditions, and how they developed. The course covers major monuments of the Umayyad, Abbasid, Tulunid, Fatimid, Samanid, Seljuk, Ghaznavids, Ayyubid, Mamluk, Ilkanid, Timurid, Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal and Modern periods.