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Islamic Studies
Medieval History September 30, 2023

Medieval Marvels and Fictions in the Latin West and Islamic World

Michelle Karnes

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
Marvels like enchanted rings and sorcerers’ stones were topics of fascination in the Middle Ages, not only in romance and travel literature but also in the period’s philosophical writing. Rather …

Islamic Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Islam about their new books.

Canadian Studies September 28, 2023

Gifts from Amin

Ugandan Asian Refugees in Canada

Shezan Muhammedi

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
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In August 1972, military leader and despot Idi Amin expelled Asian Ugandans from the country, professing to return control of the economy to "Ugandan citizens." Within ninety days, 50,000 Ugandans …
Indian Ocean World September 27, 2023

The Medieval Persian Gulf

Brian Ulrich

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
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The Persian Gulf today is home to multiple cosmopolitan urban hubs of globalization. This did not start with the discovery of oil. The Medieval Persian Gulf (ARC Humanities Press, 2023) …
Middle Eastern Studies September 27, 2023

Placing Islam

Geographies of Connection in Twentieth-Century Istanbul

Timur Warner Hammond

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
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For centuries, the Mosque of Eyüp Sultan has been one of Istanbul’s most important pilgrimage destinations, in large part because of the figure buried in the tomb at its center …
Islamic Studies September 22, 2023

Merchants of Virtue

Hindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia

Divya Cherian

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
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In her formidable and fiercely well-argued new book Merchants of Virtue: Hindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia (U California Press, 2023), Divya Cherian shows with meticulous detail and in lyrical …
Intellectual History September 17, 2023

Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna)

A Very Short Introduction

Peter Adamson

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
Peter Adamson's book Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna): a Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP, 2023) provides an introduction to the most important philosopher of the Islamic world, Ibn Sīnā, often known in English …
Islamic Studies September 15, 2023

Bosnian Hajj Literature

Multiple Paths to the Holy

Dženita Karić

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
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Dženita Karić's new book Bosnian Hajj Literature: Multiple Paths to the Holy (Edinburgh University Press, 2023) maps the diverse understandings of the hajj in relation to Islamic geography by Bosnian …
Indian Ocean World September 9, 2023

The Owl and the Occult

Popular Politics and Social Liminality in Early Modern South Asia

Divya Cherian

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Today I talked to Divya Cherian about her article "The Owl and the Occult: Popular Politics and Social Liminality in Early Modern South Asia" published in Comparative Studies in Society and History (June …
Islamic Studies September 8, 2023

Colonizing Kashmir

State-building under Indian Occupation

Hafsa Kanjwal

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
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In her scintillating and brilliant new book, Colonizing Kashmir: State-Building Under Indian Occupation (Stanford UP, 2023), Hafsa Kanjwal details and showcases the discursive and institutional means and mechanisms through which …
Islamic Studies September 1, 2023

Wives and Work

Islamic Law and Ethics Before Modernity

Marion Holmes Katz

Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani
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In this interview, I speak with Marion Holmes Katz about her latest book Wives and Work: Islamic Law and Ethics Before Modernity (Columbia UP, 2022). This fascinating book explores the …
Islamic Studies August 25, 2023

I Cannot Write My Life

Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar Ibn Said's America

Mbaye Lo and Carl W. Ernst

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
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Carl Ernst’s and Mbaye Lo’s new book I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar Ibn Said's America (UNC Press, 2023) is a fascinating and rivetting book …
Islamic Studies August 18, 2023

Sufi Women, Embodiment and the 'Self'

Gender in Islamic Ritual

Jamila Rodrigues

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
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Jamila Rodrigues's new book Sufi Women, Embodiment and the “Self”: Gender in Islamic Ritual (Routledge 2023) uses her dance and performance studies background to study women’s hadra or zikr experiences …
Anthropology August 10, 2023

Subcontractors of Guilt

Holocaust Memory and Muslim Belonging in Postwar Germany

Esra Özyürek

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz
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At the turn of the millennium, Middle Eastern and Muslim Germans had rather unexpectedly become central to the country's Holocaust memory culture—not as welcome participants, but as targets for re-education …
Islamic Studies August 4, 2023

Unruly Women

Race, Neocolonialism, and the Hijab

Falguni A. Sheth

Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani
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In Unruly Women: Race, Neocolonialism, and the Hijab (Oxford UP, 2022), Falguni Sheth explores the multiple ways that liberalism is understood and exploited, and liberalism’s origin as a project of …
Asian Review of Books August 3, 2023

Angels Tapping at the Wine-Shop's Door

A History of Alcohol in the Islamic World

Rudi Matthee

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
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When meeting an expatriate friend on my first trip to Dubai, the host at the restaurant where we were meeting quickly ushered me up to the second floor. For foreigners …
Anthropology July 26, 2023

Sexual Self-Fashioning

Iranian Dutch Narratives of Sexuality and Belonging

Rahil Roodsaz

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz
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Sexuality and gender have come to serve as measures for cultural belonging in discussions of the position of Muslim immigrants in multicultural Western societies. While the acceptance of assumed local …
African Studies July 23, 2023

Invoking the Invisible in the Sahara

Islam, Spiritual Mediation, and Social Change

Erin Pettigrew

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
In Invoking the Invisible in the Sahara: Islam, Spiritual Mediation, and Social Change (Cambridge UP, 2023), Erin Pettigrew utilizes invisible forces and entities - esoteric knowledge and spirits - to …
Middle Eastern Studies July 23, 2023

Circumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey

Oyman Başaran

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
In Turkey, circumcision is viewed as both a religious obligation and a rite of passage for young boys, as communities celebrate the ritual through gatherings, gifts, and special outfits. Yet …
Psychology July 23, 2023

The Muslim, State and Mind

Psychology in Times of Islamophobia

Tarek Younis

Hosted by Catriona Gold
Mental health is positioned as the cure-all for society’s discontents, from pandemics to terrorism. But psychology and psychiatry are not apolitical, and neither are Muslims. This book unpacks where the …
Islamic Studies July 21, 2023

Translating Rumi Into the West

A Linguistic Conundrum and Beyond

Amir Sedaghat

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
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Amir Artaban Sedaghat’s Translating Rumi into the West: A Linguistic Conundrum and Beyond (Routledge, 2023) engages Rumi, the 13th-century Muslim Persian mystic and a best-selling poet, and the paradoxes of …