Civilisation Musulmane / Muslim Civilization

Attentive to contemporary issues, the concerns of citizens and institutions, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya is constantly expanding its fields of education. At a time when Europe is witnessing a setback in learning about Islamology and Arabic language, education in the Muslim world is often subject to ideological considerations or limited to a traditional approach.

Despite numerous studies conducted by orientalists and scholars of Islam in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Islamic civilisation, with which one in five people around the world have ties, from all ethnicities, cultures and countries, is still poorly understood. Islam took part in the formation of the Mediterranean civilisation over five centuries (from the eighth to the thirteenth). Controversial, polemical and heterogeneous, with political and security issues, the Muslim world deserves to be made the object of scientific study for its proximity, risks and common interests. This is the idea behind the International Master's in Arabic and Islamic Studies, taught in French at the UOC since October 2009 and now with the possibility of being taught in Spanish as of October 2010.

Ignorance is often the source of the problem, the cause of the "clash of civilisations" and the weakness of cultural exchanges. Initiatives like the Barcelona-based Euromed process, the crisis of modernity (which is not limited to finance), and issues such as the new minority in European cities, immigration, globalisation, multiple belongings, the geographical proximity between the two cultures and the need to relearn how to work and live together are just some of the reasons why it is interesting to study the religion, civilisation, societies, cultures, economics and geopolitics of the Muslim world.

The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, with its interdisciplinary scientific programme and the collaboration and participation of internationally renowned experts, aims to contribute to this task of education, research and acquisition of knowledge.



This Master's seeks to provide students with a basic knowledge of the complexities of the Islamic world, enabling them to learn elements and criteria for understanding, interpreting and objectively analysing this context in political, social and economic terms. The course will prepare professionals and experts to carry out their duties in all professional environments related to Islam and its civilisation, cultural diversity, immigration, cultural interaction and mediation or understanding the current political processes between the Mediterranean countries and Europe.