Podcasts by The Golden Age of Islam

68 - (6.2) Muslim-Christian Encounters II from 2022-09-21T18:59:15

The Caliph al-Mahdi and Patriarch Timothy I had a famous debate at the height of the Abbasid Caliphate about the differences between Christianity and Islam, over a thousand years ago.  It stands...

67 - (6.1) Christian-Muslim Encounters I from 2022-08-21T15:47:20

One of the first Christian writers to write about Islam was the Orthodox monk, St. John of Damascus.  Writing from the center of the Umayyad Caliphate, he offered harsh warnings about Islam in h...

66 (0.3) - The early life of The Prophet from 2022-08-05T17:30:53

In this episode, we look at the early biographies of The Prophet Muhammad from his origins to the beginning of his prophetic ministry.

65 - (0.2) The Religions of Pre-Islamic Arabia from 2022-07-21T12:03:06

On the eve of Islam, Arabia was a mixture of hundreds of competing tribal gods, monotheism, Christianity and Judaism.  Sorting the history from the legends of this pre-Islamic past remains a cha...

64 - (0.1) The Bedouin Culture of Arabia from 2022-07-06T17:21:34

Like any religion, Islam was shaped by the culture in which it emerged.  The rules and values of the Bedouin - from the treatment of women to concepts of honor and leadership - would impact the ...

63-Ottoman Origins III from 2021-08-01T21:05:16

In this episode, we look at the third of the founding sultans of the Ottoman empire, Murad I, whose victory over the Serbs at Kosovo would be invoked 600 years later as a cause for war.

62 - Ottoman Origins II from 2021-07-07T17:31:19

As a divided Europe fights among itself, the Ottoman state continues to establish itself as the new power of the age.  In this episode, we discuss Orkhan I, second of the three founding sultans ...

61 - The Ottoman Empire - The Beginning from 2021-06-24T21:28:37

The great empire that would rule from North Africa to Arabia and threaten the gates of Vienna started from the most humble origins.  The leader of a small Turkish tribe escaping the Mongol advan...

60 - Khadija, Wife of The Prophet from 2021-04-09T16:24:14

The richest merchant of Mecca and the first person to convert to Islam, Khadija was one of the most important people in the early history of Islam.

59 - The Fall of Granada from 2021-03-04T11:47:45

In 1492, seven centuries of Muslim rule in Spain come to an end and History takes a very sharp turn.  Today we discuss the reasons for the fall of Granada and its implications on all sides.

58 - The Emirate of Granada from 2021-02-01T12:04:57

Despite the constant threat of the Christian Reconquista from the north, the last Muslim foothold in Spain, the Emirate of Granada, managed not only to survive, but to flourish for over two cent...

57-The Reconquista, The Battle for Spain II from 2021-01-17T18:24:58

The fighting in Spain and Portugal turns into a bona fide Crusade, with both sides seeing themselves appointed by God to save the true religion.  In this episode, we look at the lesser known, bu...

56 - The Reconquista - the Battle for Spain I from 2020-12-01T12:22:56

Almost immediately after the Muslims conquered Iberia, the long fight for control began.  What would be called by Europeans a "Reconquest" would take nearly eight centuries and leave lasting mar...

55 - The Case of the Animals against Man from 2020-11-11T13:51:09

A thousand years ago, the mysterious philosophical group Ikhwan al-Safa' imagined humankind put on trial for its treatment of the animals.  Far ahead of their time in thinking about rights and c...

54 -An Encyclopedia of Everything from 2020-10-21T16:00:58

The Brethren of Purity, or Ikhwan al-Safa' were one of the most mysterious, yet influential groups of philosophers.  A secret society of eclectic thinkers, they attempted to reconcile all the wo...

53 - Journey to Heaven and Hell from 2020-10-02T15:40:08

Before Dante and long before Bill and Ted, the great Arab writer Abu 'Alaa' al-Ma'arri described a mythical journey into Heaven and Hell that challenged the views of religious officials of his d...

52 - Good Behavior in the Golden Age from 2020-09-03T11:19:07

Proper values and behavior of the elite in the Golden Age capitals of Baghdad and Cordoba was not just a matter of trial and error.  Detailed manuals of adab taught what was expected in respecta...

51 - Religion vs. Philosophy II from 2020-08-14T13:54:55

In the conflict between philosophers and religious writers of the Golden Age, no question was more divisive than the eternity of the world.  Although it may seem abstract today, this was the ult...

50 - Philosophy vs. Religion from 2020-07-16T14:53:11

In this episode, we look at the conflict between religious traditionalists and rationalist philosophers for the upper hand in Islamic society.  What was at stake in the heated debates about the ...

49 - Ibn Rushd: Defender of Rationalism from 2020-06-27T15:42:22

The battle between Philosophy and Religion; Reason and Revelation; it has been at the heart of debate within Muslim circles throughout the Golden Age.  This episode looks at one of the last, and...

48 - The Almohads from 2020-05-18T15:26:03

The mighty Almoravid dynasty lasted only a century before it was overthrown by another another great Berber dynasty- the Almohads.  In this episode, we look at the fearless and determined founde...

47 - The Almoravids from 2020-04-29T16:58:40

The Amoravid Berber dynasty established an empire that stretched from Ghana to the north of Spain.  For centuries they would fight against the Christian conquest from the North and leave a lasti...

46 - Hayy Ibn Yaqdhan II from 2020-04-10T13:31

The continuation of the influential philosophical work Hayy Ibn Yaqdhan, in which the hero discovers the deepest truths of the universe while on a desert island, without the aid of teachers or l...

45 - Hayy Ibn Yaqdhan I from 2020-03-25T16:07:38

One of the most influential Arabic works of the Middle Ages, Ibn Tufayl's "philosophical novel" Hayy Ibn Yaqdhan has influenced Western literature from Rousseau to Tarzan.  An allegory for Class...

44 - The Accounts of China and India from 2020-03-14T13:44:19

In the 800s, Baghdad sat at the center of an international trading empire stretching from Europe to China.  In this episode, we look at how travelers saw the countries of the Indian Ocean and Fa...

43 - The Excellence of the Arabs from 2020-03-02T16:25:55

In the continuing disagreements over the role of ethnicity in the Muslim Empire, the 9th Century classic "The Excellence of the Arabs" was seen as a definitive word.  This book, by a renown Bagh...

42 - Ethnic Pride in the Islamic Empires from 2020-02-13T12:17:05

While Arab pride was growing in the Abbasid empire, similar movements of ethnic and cultural pride among Persians and other groups were also emerging.  This episode looks at the reaction to expr...

41 - Ethnicity in Islam: Arabness and Islam from 2020-01-30T20:06:35

Arab culture and Islam are often associated in our minds, but has this always been so?  In this episode we look at the emergence of the "Arab" identity in early Islam and the reaction of other p...

40 - The Boundaries of Sufism from 2020-01-16T15:48:36

A popular Sufi teacher was executed in eighth century Baghdad for publicly declaring "I am the Truth!"  Yet today, many consider him a visionary with knowledge beyond normal understanding.  Mans...

39 - Rumi, The Sufi Master from 2019-12-27T16:34:10

The best-selling poet in the United States is the 13th century Islamic mystic, Jalal al-Din al-Rumi, who taught a path of devotion to God leading to merging of one's self with God.  Centuries la...

38 - The Father of History from 2019-11-29T14:20:40

Ibn Khaldun is one of the rare Muslim intellectuals who is famous in the West, cited by everyone from Arnold Toynbee to Ronald Reagan.  He has been called the father of the modern discipline of ...

37 (Fixed!) - The Great Traveler (Complete) from 2019-11-19T21:11:11

UPDATE: This episode is now complete! It was partially cut off when it was originally published.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Moroccan born Ibn Battuta traveled over 75,000 miles, to 44 ...

36 - Ibn Taymiyya and the Philosophy of Jihad from 2019-08-29T15:25:44

Among the most controversial of Muslim thinkers, Ibn Taymiyya has been lumped with al-Ghazali as responsible for "what went wrong."  In this episode, we look at the reality of a man whose quotes...

35 - Baybars, Defender of Islam from 2019-08-10T13:11:41

Among the great Muslim warriors of history, few could match Baybars al-Bunduqari.  A slave in the empire of Salah al-Din, born neither Arab nor Muslim, he would defeat the Crusaders, stop the Mo...

34 - the Mongol Invasion from 2019-07-26T12:27:22

As the Mongols devastated the great capital of Baghdad, killing thousands and throwing the contents of its great libraries into the river, the Muslim civilization received a blow from which it w...

33 - Rise of the Mamluks from 2019-07-19T11:03:56

For nearly six centuries, an empire of slave soldiers dominated the Muslim world and stopped all conquerors.  The era of the Mamluks was one of contradictions - a time of constant instability bu...

32 - Salah al-Din from 2019-07-02T12:54:37

The great hero of the Crusades, and the exemplar of the Muslim warrior for generations to come was Salah al-Din, known as Saladin in the West.  Today's episode looks at how he ends a century of ...

31 - The Crusades, Part 2 from 2019-06-22T13:56:30

After the disaster of the First Crusade, Muslim resistance develops very slowly.  Only after two generations will Muslim leaders become more interested in fighting the Crusaders than each other....

30 - The Crusades from 2019-05-22T17:48:50

Certainly the darkest period of Muslim-Christian interaction, the two centuries of religious wars known as the Crusades continues to color attitudes toward the West today.  While these campaigns...

29 - The Demise of Islamic Science? from 2019-05-02T18:14:58

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali has been blamed for closing the door on Islamic science and starting an era of conservatism that continues to hold back the Muslim world.  Is this harsh reputation warranted...

28 - A New Order from 2019-04-19T19:10:41

The mighty Abbasid Caliphate had disintegrated into a collection of warring city states, while Shi'ite authorities had come to dominate the Muslim world.  A new power was rising in the East, how...

27 - The Glory of Cordoba from 2019-04-05T10:16:58

This episode looks at how the Umayyads forged Muslim Spain into a great emirate, separate from the Caliphate in Baghdad, and which would be the cultural rival to the great Abbasid Empire.  Their...

26 - Muslim Spain from 2019-03-09T18:20:57

The place where Christian Europe and the Muslim world had the most interaction was the Iberian Peninsula during the nearly 800 year reign of Islam there.  When the Muslim forces landed in 711, S...

25 - The Mad Caliph from 2019-02-09T20:20

The Fatimid Caliphate reached its height under the rule of al-Hakim, known in Western history as "The Mad Caliph."  Jews, Christians and Sunnis felt the harsh nature of his oppression, while a n...

24 - The Fatimid Caliphate from 2019-01-17T14:44:04

A fugitive Imam in a remote prison in the Sahara was an unlikely candidate to establish the most powerful state in the Muslim world. With the Abbasid Caliphate in decline, the Isma'ili Shi'a est...

23 - The Shi'ite Opposition - the Isma'ilis from 2018-12-26T14:15:32

By the eleventh century, the great Abbasid empire was beginning to crumble.  The Caliphs had been weakened, the Turkish military dominant.  On the periphery of the empire, rebellious groups were...

22-Reconciling Rationalism and Tradition - Al-Ash'ari from 2018-12-05T16:12:02

In the Golden Age of Islam, Rationalist Mu'tazilites and Traditionalist Hanbalis debated the proper direction of Islamic thought, theology and exploration.  The man who tried to bridge the gap, ...

21 - Ibn Sina, The Renaissance Man from 2018-11-21T18:09:42

Ibn Sina (known as Avicenna in the West) represents the ideal of Classical Muslim intellectual.  His Qanun of Medicine would be the primary medical textbook in Europe for 500 years.  And though ...

20 - Writing the History of Islam from 2018-11-10T16:06:12

The Islamic empire not only made history, but was deeply involved in the study of history.  In this episode we look at the early chroniclers of Islamic history and how they viewed their place in...

19-Classical Islamic Civilization - Writing for the Elite from 2018-10-25T15:09:57

Members of elite society in the Islamic empire were expected to follow a highly developed code of behaviors.  The current word for "Literature" - al-adab - refers to the values and behaviors of ...

17 - The Sword, The Poet and the Philosopher from 2018-10-06T15:33:49

With the central authority of the Caliphate in decline, Emirs of regional and city states prospered.  One of the most successful of these was Aleppo in Syria, where warrior prince Sayf al-Dawla ...

16 - The Anarchy at Samarra: Decline of the Caliphate from 2018-09-26T16:40:20

From the hieght of its power, the Abbasid Caliphate was to begin a slow decline, with caliphs reduced to virtual figureheads.  Yet during this time, some of the greatest achievements of Islamic ...

15 - The Muslim Economy from 2018-09-01T17:15

The Muslim empire not only dominated the world politically, militarily and scientifically, it was also the economic powerhouse that tied together Europe, Asia and Africa.  This abundance of weal...

14 - Sufism, the Inner Dimenson of Islam from 2018-08-20T18:06:07

Islam is known in the West for its laws and community rituals, with thousands praying in neat rows.  Yet the picture is not complete without the emotional or personal dimension of Islam.  Arisin...

13-The Great Caliph from 2018-08-04T18:03:34

The peak of Golden Age power and achievement came in the reign of the seventh Abbasid caliph, al-Ma'mun, who sponsored the arts and sciences, debated the great intellectuals of the day, consider...

12 - Defending the Faith: Islamic Theology from 2018-07-23T12:47

At the height of the Islamic Golden Age, Muslim scholars debated some of the greatest Christian and Jewish theological minds on the very principles of their faith.  These experts in rationalism ...

11 - The Shar'ia: Islamic Law from 2018-07-05T13:02:07

In this episode, we take a realistic look at the development of one of the most comprehensive and detailed legal codes in history, the Shar'ia of Islamic Law.  Although the subject of alarmist w...

10 - The Arabic Scientific Revolution from 2018-06-24T16:06:42

Did the Muslims invent the modern sciences that fueled the European Renaissance, or were they merely translators and transmitters of knowledge from the ancient Greeks?  In this episode, we consi...

9 - "The Prophet Says...", The Hadith of the Prophet from 2018-06-12T18:55:04

Why was the Muslim community beset by divisions even though the Qur'an had been preserved exactly as revealed?  This episode examines the emergence of the second, and most controversial source o...

8 - Beginnings of the Islamic Intellectual Revolution from 2018-05-23T14:50:14

The Islamic intellectual movement that rescued the works of Classical Greece and Rome and sparked the European renaissance took off with the founding of Baghdad in 750 AD.  The Abbasid caliphs p...

7 - The Abbasid Revolution from 2018-05-16T16:07:32

The true Golden Age of Islam is considered the Abbasid Caliphate, which lasted from 750 to 1258 AD and whose capital, Baghdad was the grandest city on earth - the center of intellectual, scienti...

1 - The Foundations of Islam from 2018-05-03T18:41:39

When Europe was in the depths of the Dark Ages, a civilization emerged from the Arabian desert that would change History forever.  The greatest military, political and economic power the world h...

2 - The First Muslim Community from 2018-05-03T18:27:33

The Islamic calendar begins when the first Muslim community is established in Medina.  From that day forward, Islam will be not only a religion, but an independent state, with its own military a...

3 - The First Caliphs from 2018-05-03T18:15:09

The first Caliphs after the Prophet Muhammad established a Muslim state that would grow to cover much of the world. These critical leaders--the Rashidun--set the precedent for what Islamic leade...

4 - The Sunni/Shi'a Split from 2018-05-03T18:05:02

Few concepts in Islam are as misunderstood today as the split between Sunni and Shi'a. Yet this division plays a very important role in the politics and social dynamics of the Muslim world. In t...

5 - The Muslim Conquests from 2018-05-03T17:50:42

From a small community in the desert city of Medina, the Muslim state established an empire larger than the world had yet seen. This amazing conquest--from Spain to the edge of China--was made p...

6 - The Umayyad Caliphate from 2018-05-03T17:06:05

While Europe lay in the Dark Ages, the Umayyad Caliphate established the largest empire the world had yet seen, the political, military, economic and cultural superpower of its day.  It also set...