by Andrew Seguin
If you were a Lafayette College student taking a class with religious studies professor Asma Sayeed, you could have a hard time keeping up.
Professor Sayeed, a member of Chapin’s Class of 1987, might have you reading about the role of women in religion. She could assign you to contemplate the concepts of war, peace and reconciliation or to consider the existence of a god. “I encourage students to develop and hone their abilities to think analytically and critically about sensitive issues that do not lend themselves easily to rational, logical debates,” she said.
Students in her courses this year have even more material with which to sharpen their minds: Professor Sayeed recently spent five months conducting research in Damascus, Syria. Supported by a Fulbright fellowship, Professor Sayeed studied a community of Muslim religious scholars that was active in the 12th to 14th centuries.
“What was most exciting to me was the extent to which the history of this community has been preserved — not just in terms of archival material, but also in terms of the architecture, urban landscapes and material relics that can help me reconstruct the life of this community,” she said.
In her research, Professor Sayeed learned that women played a vital part in the Syrian community and actively passed on their religious knowledge. While that particular discovery is important in its own right, Professor Sayeed has also benefited from her research in a broader sense: It has offered her an aperture through which she can view larger political and religious issues. The community’s history, she explained, “is intertwined with the history of other major events, such as the Crusades and the forging of new patterns of Muslim political rule.”
Professor Sayeed’s students will learn what their professor uncovered about ancient Muslim women and about their counterparts in modern-day Damascus. “Muslim women from all over the world flock to Syria to learn Arabic and Islamic studies, and it continues to be one of the most vibrant centers of Islamic learning today,” she said. ”It’s important to understand that in terms of contemporary debates about Muslim women’s agency and empowerment, and that’s an understanding I hope to promote in my classes.”
Professor Sayeed hopes, ultimately, to instill far more than an understanding of Islamic culture in her students. She sees teaching as a way to help young people expand their vision of themselves and of the world they live in. “The value of a liberal arts education is not just in creating citizens who are well-equipped for the job market,” Professor Sayeed said. “It also promotes a heightened awareness and nuanced understanding of the world around us, so that we can embrace and learn from those who are different from us.”