
In Our Time: 25 Journeys Through the History of the Islamic World
A BBC Radio 4 Collection
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Narrated by:
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Melvyn Bragg
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Various
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By:
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Melvyn Bragg
About this listen
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the history of the Islamic world through its religion, thinkers, poetry, empire and rulers.
Since 1998, In Our Time has been the go-to radio programme for knowledge seekers and inquiring minds. Tackling big topics with a light touch, it has introduced weekly audiences of over 2 million to subjects ranging from Romulus and Remus to the Renaissance.
This special themed collection provides a focussed, wide-ranging introduction to 25 of the ideas and events that shaped the Islamic world, highlighting the numerous connections between Islamdom and the West throughout history. We learn the origins of Sharia law, and how prophets became important to Islam, Judaism and Christianity alike; discover how the Translation Movement introduced the Arabic world to Greek philosophy, medicine, engineering and maths; and find out how settlers and invaders from both East and West transformed and refashioned the civilisations they touched, from the Arab Conquest, Muslim Spain and the Volga Vikings to the Third Crusade and the Siege of Vienna.
Here, too, are key scholars and writers, among them al-Kindi, the first significant thinker to reconcile philosophy and Islam; Averroes, who worked to integrate Islamic theology with the rationality of Aristotle; Maimonides, a titan of Jewish intellectual history who was much influenced by the Islamic world; and Rumi, the Persian poet and Sufi mystic whose work transcends borders of time, faith, language and geography.
Hosted by Melvyn Bragg with a panel of experts including Mona Siddiqui, Jim Al-Khalili, Tariq Ali and Amira Bennison, these enlightening, accessible discussions will illuminate, inspire and surprise.
Production credits
Presented by Melvyn Bragg
Produced by Thomas Morris, Simon Tillotson, Victoria Brignell
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the following dates:
Part I: Religion
Islamic Law and its Origins - 5 May 2011
Sunni and Shia Islam - 25 June 2009
Prophecy - 13 June 2013
Part II: History of Ideas
Maths in the Early Islamic World - 16 February 2017
The Translation Movement - 2 October 2008
Al-Kindi - 28 June 2012
al-Biruni - 10 June 2010
Avicenna - 8 November 2007
Al-Ghazali - 19 March 2015
Averroes - 5 October 2006
Maimonides - 17 February 2011
Ibn Khaldun - 4 February 2010
Part III: Literature
Antarah ibn Shaddad - 28 February 2019
Rumi's Poetry - 11 February 2016
Part IV: Empire
The Sassanid Empire - 13 December 2007
The Arab Conquests - 26 June 2008
Muslim Spain - 21 November 2002
The Battle of Tours - 16 January 2014
The Volga Vikings - 11 November 2010
The Almoravid Empire - 3 May 2018
Third Crusade - 29 November 2001
The Siege of Vienna - 14 May 2009
Part V: Rulers
The Abbasid Caliphs - 2 February 2006
The Mamluks - 26 September 2013
The Safavid Dynasty - 12 January 2012
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