Fred Astren

Fred Astren takes obvious pleasure in teaching. He’s clearly fascinated with Islamic History and provides a great sense of how vast, rich, and complex this is – that we can only get a mere overview in one course on medieval Islamic history, but he presents very effectively the main influences and trends of that history. His teaching style is very open, engaging, at times humorous. He radiates a warmth, assurance, and expertise that suggests that he is not only a wonderful teacher, but would probably make a good advisor.

This class is taught for undergrad and grad. It is supposed to be for all levels, but it definitely led towards the advanced subject matter. The grad students took over the class and I was completely lost. There were short discussion papers, a research paper and a final. All were very hard and he was a hard grader. The readings were extensive and long. I would only recommend this class to someone who has a strong backgroung in Jerusalem's politics and the three main religions there