Learner Reviews & Feedback for The Cosmopolitan Medieval Arabic World by Universiteit Leiden

I learned much about the islamic world and the reasons for the rise of Islam as a word religion. Many of my stereotypes were shattered e.g. about harems and slavery. The many linked scientific texts helped me understand about core concepts of this hegemony.

One possible addendum could be a general outlook on the further fate of the Arabic world after the time period that was discussed in the course. As it stands, I found the course to end somewhat sudden.

Great course with a wide array of materials that allowed me to understand better the important of Arab influence in Europe and worldwide.

Even to an "Arab" who is well read about the "Medieval" part of this world, this course was interesting and quite informative.

If you want to understand more about the Islamic empire at its zenith, this is as good of a place as any to start

I owe gratitude for the Leiden University team for creating the lovely course content and the excellent reading material. Rarely have I seen an MOOC that is this well-researched and thought through. This is in addition to the excellent resources provided and the creative media. I finished the course and presently doing the honors-track.

I am a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Ryerson Univeristy, Canada and this really felt like the 100-level electives I took in that it really is a university-level course.

i have bought a few books that I have read about in your course and that meant that I have something else to do in this corona-imposed hiatus. After

Well structured course, elaborate in terms of areas covered and exercises. But, I think some of exercises needed more time (the two about Orientalism and Slavery) as both the topics were very important and required more research and reading. Instructors presented the materials in an eloquent and clear manner. What I liked the most was instructor's speaking at the right pace, and this was very convenient to me as a non-native English speaker. I learned a lot, so thank you very much! and I will definitely try to take future courses from your university.

This course is very informative, showing the ancient Arab world from many angles.The teachers' way of giving lectures was lively and interesting, which made the course infinitely charming. I quickly finished all the courses.It's so interesting.This course has also increased my desire to know more about the Arab world, which I plan to explore further in the future.Thank you for teaching.

Excellent course, I greatly appreciate the unbiased viewpoint, I really can't thank you enough. I took this course as a means of knowing what questions to ask, rather than to answer preexisting questions. Thank you very much again, and I look forward to taking more courses.

I love this class! It gives me easy access to a wealth of information I wasn't taught in school, and it's the perfect pacing for me.

Fascinating and good structured course, in the tradition of the Great European Orientalists

Enjoyable, unique, kind of fun.

The course is just rubbish. Very vague. Looks like a basic introduction. Not even a general timeline of main events is given. The student wouldn't understand what the medieval arabic world was geographycally, which peoples and countries comprised it, who were the main actors, what administration system looked like and so on. The lectures are too short. Many of them are devoted to side topics like orientalism or harem. The student is requested to read too many articles instead of listening to lectures. If I wanted to read about the arabic world I would read, but the precise purpose of subsribing to the course is to listen, not to read.

A really interesting topic! I learned a lot, although I missed some basic information at the beginning about the exact region and exact period of time which will be covered. The content in the modules is jumping between times and countries, so you can get lost, if you are not searching information on your own. At least, the quizzes are very easy, so no challenge to pass the class :-)

It was one of the best Coursera courses I have ever taken I enjoyed and learned a lot.

The content was awesome even for the learner who is native Arabic and contain a lot of valuable information.

I'm completely surprised that Leiden University could create wonderful course with nice team are specialist's in Arabic language, Islamic studies, Middle East civilization etc.

Which is unbelievable that Leiden University has Center for Islamic studies and society, special library and Leiden Islam blog all of these lead me to believe that Leiden University is one of the best universities around world.

The course works on many levels. It is an introduction to the subject but also includes references and materials which make it possible to follow some topics at a much deeper level. The visual materials were well chosen and presented beautifully, with real scholarly enthusiasm. The course was a real pleasure

The English transcriptions of the lectures have a number of errors - they seem to be machine transcriptions. It would be quite quick to correct them

It has been a wonderful,excellent course.I have been able to do it without haste,due to the flexibility of Coursera.I recognize that you have known me a titlle.There are few courses in my country,I hope that one dayI will take a course on Al Ándalus.See you soon. Espero que entiendan el castellano,mis mas sinceras gracias a la profesora Petra,y a todos los que colaboraron para hacer este curso.

This course was inspiring! I wished it went on longer, I was fascinated by the readings and it shared a great amount of information. I have always loved the Arabic world and this course definitely help me understand better the influence it had during the medieval times and the incredible inheritance Europe has received form the Arabic world. I greatly appreciated it, thank you!

A very nice introduction to the "islamic" civilization in the Middle Ages by prof. Petra Sijpesteijn and her team! It´s especially interesting to see how interconnected islamic and European societies were during that time period. And it makes you think how and why the islamic "Other" has been systematically marginalized by many European narratives in the last centuries...

An excellent course. Well paced and well organized. I learned so much from this course. The lecturers were good and knew their course work. Great videos and podcasts. I enjoyed the library readings. The quizzes were too easy I feel. Possibly some extracurricular work would be gratefully accepted. Overall I am very pleased with this course

I was responsible for online training at a big company and I am familiar with online courses. This was the best online course so far in Cursera and I did other very good ones. Combination of good materials, different tasks and evaluations make a great course. I want to congratulate the teachers of the University of Leyden on this course.

It is an excellent course. I wish some of the material were more diverse to cover a wider range of subjects such as the Islamic law, philosophy, social life, schools of thought. I recognize that the information presented in the course are more than enough for someone who had had just dim ideas about The Cosmopolitan Medieval Arabic World

It is one of my favorite courses! It brings together in a very balanced way all the elements of adult education. Very interesting material, presented in an exceptional way. It motivated me to continue studying the Islamic world, even though I started out of a simple curiosity and search for new knowledge. I will miss the lessons!

I really enjoyed the course, it gave me a lot of insight and fun. I highly recommend it if you want to open your mind and appreciate the diverse human civilizations. It goes beyond shallow introduction and contains a lot of scholastic contents. Thank you very much for putting together this beautiful course.

Beautiful, beautiful course on the Medieval Arabic World. I especially enjoyed the lectures on Orientalism and all the information on the history of medicine. Proud to be a Leiden alumnus and to see the university sharing knowledge, freely and widely, across the Internet. Thank you!

A very interesting introduction to the study of the Medieval Arabic World, covering multiple subjects. The course approached complex issues with respect and depth, offering competing views on theses subjects, allowing the student to make their mind on them. Very recommended.

Course was well organized and presented. Videos and reading supplemented each other. Speakers were easy to understand and had a good grasp of the material. I came to this course knowing little about the subject matter, and believe I now have a good overview of the period.

The best Coursera course I have taken. I learned information and I learned how to be a more critical thinker; in other words a historian. Fabulous all around, and also very exciting the way the course linked to scholarly resources. I very highly recommend it.