The Golden Age of Islam

28 - A New Order

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, however, which would bring about a Sunni revival and stretch to the gates of the Byzantine Empire.  The rising Seljuk Turkish state would come to dominate the Caliphate, institute a new era of Sunni conservatism and frighten Europe enough to spark the Crusades.  

27 - The Glory of Cordoba

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 capital, Cordoba, was the largest city in Europe, surpassing Constantinople, and a center for transmission of knowledge into Europe.  It was a time when the greatest world powers were rival Muslim states.

26 - Muslim Spain

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, Spanish did not exist.  Over the next eight centuries, al-Andalus, as it was known, was one of the great centers of learning and culture, rivaling Baghdad and Cairo to the East, and was the point of the greatest transfer of knowledge from the Muslim world into Europe.  This episode looks at the conquest and establishment of the Muslim province of al-Andalus.

25 - The Mad Caliph

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 new religion developed with him as a god.  But the sciences and arts also reached a peak during his reign.  Al-Hakim remains a controversial, but important figure.

24 - The Fatimid Caliphate

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 established a rival Caliphate whose capital, Cairo, would grow to be the largest city in the world and the center of the Arab/Islamic world for centuries.  Although we associate Shi'a with Iran and Persia today, this Arab Shi'ite empire would be the foundation of the modern Arab world as we know it.  

23 - The Shi'ite Opposition - the Isma'ilis

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 forming new states.  Among these, the Isma'ili Shi'a would become the most powerful, establishing a rival caliphate that overshadowed the Abbasids.  The line of Isma'ili Imams continues to this day.  In this episode, we look at the Isma'ili Shi'a: where they came from, what they believe and why they posed a threat to the Abbasid Caliphate.

22-Reconciling Rationalism and Tradition - Al-Ash'ari

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, and whose name today is synonymous with Orthodox Sunni theology was Al-Ash'ari.  His answers to the tough questions of the nature of the universe, of the Qur'an and free will would come to be the definitive positions of Sunni Islamic doctrine until today.  In this episode, we look at the man, his task and his theology.

21 - Ibn Sina, The Renaissance Man

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 he wrote on a huge range of subjects, it is for philosophy he is best known.  Before him, philosophers commented on Aristotle; after him, they commented on Ibn Sina.

20 - Writing the History of Islam

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 history, names like Ibn Ishaq, Ibn al-Nadim and al-Tabari, who are frequently quoted today.

19-Classical Islamic Civilization - Writing for the Elite

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 the elite.  A huge body of Literature was produced in Arabic in the Abbasid period that gives us a window into those values, and the master of Arabic prose was the great al-Jahiz.  In this episode we look at the rags-to-riches story of this great writer and the values he exalted.