Let's Talk Religion

In this episode, we talk about the famous Andalusian philosopher Ibn Rushd.Sources/Further Reading:Kennedy, Hugh (1996). "Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus". Routledge.Genequand, Charles (1986). "Ibn Rushd's Methaphysics". Brill."Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa nihayat al-Muqtasid" (The Distinguished Jurist's Primer) Vol. 1 by Ibn Rushd. Translated by Professor Imran Ahsan Khan Niazee. Garnet Publishing.Taylor, Richard C. (2005). "Averroes: religious dialectic and Aristotelian philosophical thought". in "The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy". Edited by Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor."The Decisive Treatise" by Ibn Rushd (Averroes). Translated by Charles E. Butterworth. Islamic Translation Series. Bringham Young University Press. 2008."Tahafut al-Tahafut (The Incoherence of the Philosophers)" by Ibn Rushd (Averroes). Translated by Simon Van den Bergh. Gibb Memorial Trust Arabic Studies. 2008. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Perhaps the most requested figure here - al-Ghazali - is finally getting a treatment!I talk about his life, some of his teachings, ideas and legacy and discuss some common misconceptions and opinions about him today.Sources/Further Reading:Al-Ghazali - "Deliverance from Error" (al-Munqidh min al-Dalal). Translated by Richard J. McCarthy. American University of Beirut.al-Ghazali - "The Incoherence of the Philosophers". Translated by Michael E. Marmura. Islamic Translations Series. University of Chicago Press.al-Ghazali - "The Niche of Lights". Translated by David Buchman. Islamic Translations Series. University of Chicago Press.Leaman, Oliver (2008). "The developed kalam tradition". In "The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Theology". Edited by Tim Winter. Cambridge University Press.Lumbard, Joseph E.B. (2016). "Ahmad al-Ghazali, Remembrance, and the Metaphysics of Love". Suny Press.Mamura, Michael E. (2005). "Al-Ghazali". In "The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy". Edited by Peter Adamson & Richard C. Taylor. Cambridge University Press. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I will do my first deep dive into one of the many Sufi orders - the Naqshbandiyya.Sources/Further Reading:Abun-Nasr, Jamil (2007). "Muslim Communities of Grace - The sufi brotherhoods in Islamic religious life". Hurst & Company, LondonMalik, Jamal & John Hinnells (2006). "Sufism in the West". Routledge.Sorgenfrei, Simon (2016). "Sufism i Sverige". Nämnden för statligt stöd till trossamfund. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this unusual episode, we explore the history of coffee and its connection to Sufism, as well as the similar origins of tea.Good to remember: While this episode is still based on the most widely accepted views by historians, research on the matter is somewhat lacking and this light-hearted episode should not be taken as gospel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The long awaited second part of my series about music in the Islamic world!Sources/Further Reading:Hammarlund, Anders, Tord Olsson & Elizabeth Özdalga (1997). "Sufism, Music and Society in Turkey and the Middle East". Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul. Saeed, Yousuf. "Amir Khusrau and the Indo-Muslim Identity in the Art Music Practices of Pakistan". Schofield, Katherine Ruth (2003). "Hindustani music in the time of Aurangzeb". King's college London.Sharma, Sunil (2005). "Amir Khusraw: the Poet of Sultans and Sufis". In "Makers of the Muslim World" Series. Oneworld.Soydaş, M. Emin (2011). "Musical performance at the Ottoman court in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries". SOAS (University of London).Wright, Owen (1994). "'Abd al-Qādir al-Marāghī and 'Alī B. Muḥammad Binā'ī: Two Fifteenth-Century Examples of Notation (Part 1 & 2)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 57, No. 3 (1994), pp. 475-515. Cambridge University Press.Wright, Owen (1996). "On the Concept of a 'Timurid Music'". Wright, Owen (1978). "The Modal System of Arabic and Persian Music A.D. 1250-1300". Oxford University Press.Wright, Owen (2018). "Music Theory in the Safavid Era: The taqsīm al-naġamāt". Routledge; 1st edition. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this first part of a new series, we talk about the earliest centuries of Islamic civilization - Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid caliphates - and the different forms of music that flourished at this time.Sources/Suggested Reading:al-Faruqi, Louis Ibsen (1985). "Music, Musicians and Muslim Law". Asian Music, Vol. 17, No. 17, p. 3-36.Avery, Kenneth S. (2004). "A Psychology of Early Sufi Sama': Listening and altered states". Routledge.Davila, Carl (2009). "Fixing a Misbegotten Biography: Ziryab in the Mediterranean World". Al-Masaq, Vol. 21, No. 2, August 2009.Jenkins, Jean & Paul Rovsing Olsen (1976). "Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam". World of Islam Festival Publishing Company Ltd.Shiloah, Amnon (1995). "Music in the World of Islam: a Socio-cultural study". Scolar Press.Shiloah, Amnon (1997). "Music and Religion in Islam". Acta Musicologica, Vol. 69.The Brethren of Purity. "On Music: An Arabic Critical Edition and Translation of Epistle 5". Edited and Translated by Owen Wright. Oxford University Press.Wright, Owen (1978). "The Modal System Of Arab and Persian Music a.d. 1250-1300". Oxford University Press. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we talk about the short-lived religion founded by the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten.Sources/Further Reading:Hornung, Erik (2001) "Akhenaten and the Religion of Light". Cornell University Press.Hoffmeier, James K. (2015). "Akhenaten and the Origins of Monotheism". Oxford University Press. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As requested by the audience, in this episode we talk about the very early development of Speculative Islamic theology, or "Kalam".Support me on Patreon if you so wish: https://www.patreon.com/letstalkreligionSources/Suggested reading:Winter, Tim (2008). "The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Theology". Cambridge University Press. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we continue our series on some of the less known (and sometimes controversial) Sufis of the Middle Ages, we reach the Andalusian poet Abu-l Hasan al-Shushtari. He was a student of Ibn Sab'in but is also famous as a master-poet and Sufi master in his own right.Sources/Suggested Reading:Alvarez, Lourdes Maria (2009). "Abu-l Hasan al-Shushtari: Songs of Love and Devotion". In the "Classics of Western Spirituality" series. Paulist Press.Alvarez, Lourdes Maria (2005). "The Mystical Language of Everyday Life": Vernacular Sufi Poetry and the Songs of Abu Al-Hasan Al-Shustari". Exemplaria. 17:1, 1-32, DOI: 10.1179/exm.2005.17.1.1.Johnson. N. Scott (1995). "Ocean and Pearls: Ibn Sab'in, Shustari and the Doctrine of Absolute Unity". In "Sufi: Journal of Sufism" Issue 25. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we talk about the controversial Andalusian Philosopher/Sufi Ibn Sab'in (d. 1270) and his teachings.Sources:Ceballos, Carlos Berbil (2015). "Journeying from the Apparent to Absolute Being: Ibn Sab'in and his predecessors". Journal of the Muhyddin Ibn 'Arabi Society Vol. 58.Cornell, Vincent J. (2007). "The All-Comprehensive Circle (al-Ihata): Soul, Intellect and the Oneness of Existence in the Doctrine of Ibn Sab'in". In "Sufism and Theology" (ed. Ayman Shihadeh). Edinburgh University Press.Johnson. N. Scott (1995). "Ocean and Pearls: Ibn Sab'in, Shustari and the Doctrine of Absolute Unity". In "Sufi: Journal of Sufism" Issue 25.Westerveld, Govert (2014). "Ibn Sab'in of the Ricote Valley: the First and Last Islamic Place in Spain". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.