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About Elliot Bazzano

NBN Episodes hosted by Elliot:

Islamic Studies November 9, 2020

Ibn Taymiyya

Jon Hoover

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Ibn Taymiyya is one of the most prolific and influential Islamic thinkers to date, and was even the only pre-modern Muslim author cited in the 9/11 Report. His supporters and …
Islamic Studies June 25, 2018

The Qur’an and the Just Society

Ramon Harvey

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Ramon Harvey's new book The Qur’an and the Just Society (Edinburgh University Press, 2017) tackles a topic as big and meaningful as the title of the book suggests. What is …
Islamic Studies March 8, 2018

Sufis, Salafis and Islamists

The Contested Grounds of British Islamic Activism

Sadek Hamid

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
In Sufis, Salafis and Islamists: The Contested Grounds of British Islamic Activism (I.B. Tauris, 2016), Sadek Hamid explores the contours of "Islamic activism"---and indeed the meaning of this key term---in …
Islamic Studies July 26, 2017

Tafsir and Islamic Intellectual History

Exploring the Boundaries of a Genre

Andreas Gorke and Johanna Pink

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
What does it mean to interpret the Qur'an? What kinds of literary genres have produced and continue to produce such inquiry? Is tafsir only a line-by-line commentary or could it …
Islamic Studies June 13, 2017

Tripping with Allah

Islam, Drugs, and Writing

Michael Muhammad Knight

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Michael Muhammed Knight writes this book from a first-person perspective, as a piece of creative non-fiction. The book includes a liberal amount of swearing and sexual references, and Knight's writing …
Islamic Studies March 24, 2017

The Study Quran

A New Translation and Commentary

Joseph Lumbard et al.

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary (HarperOne, 2015) represents years of effort from a team of dedicated translators and editors (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Joseph Lumbard, Maria Dakake, Caner …
Islamic Studies December 23, 2016

Muslims and the Making of America

Amir Hussain

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Muslims and the Making of America (Baylor University Press, 2016) offers a succinct and gripping account of Muslim presence in the United States. The book gives attention to the contemporary …
Islamic Studies November 21, 2016

Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions

Christian Lange

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Christian Lange's Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions (Cambridge University Press, 2015), which was recently awarded the British-Kuwaiti Friendship Society's Book Prize, presents a rich, challenging, and meticulous account of …
Islamic Studies October 3, 2016

Living Sufism in North America

Between Tradition and Transformation

Rory Dickson

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Rory Dickson's Living Sufism in North America: Between Tradition and Transformation (SUNY Press, 2015) is the first monograph in English to focus on Sufism in North America. On this note …
Islamic Studies August 17, 2016

The Fear of Islam

An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West

Todd Green

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Islamophobia, both as a term and concept, has a storied and complicated history, and understanding its many layers in our current historical moment remains important for any number of audiences …
Islamic Studies July 12, 2016

Gender and the Construction of Exegetical Authority

A Rereading of the Classical Genre of Qur'an Commentary

Aisha Geissinger

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Aisha Geissinger's monograph, Gender and the Construction of Exegetical Authority: A Rereading of the Classical Genre of Qur'an Commentary (Brill, 2015), contributes to the growing field of intersections between gender …
Islamic Studies June 15, 2016

American Qur'an

Sandow Birk

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Could the Qur'an--understood, according to Muslims, as the verbatim word of God in Arabic--acquire a nationality? Specifically, could it be American? And written in English? Contemporary visual artist Sandow Birk's …
Islamic Studies May 4, 2016

Contemporary Issues in Islam

Asma Afsaruddin

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
As the title of the monograph suggests, Contemporary Issues in Islam (Edinburgh University Press, 2015) by Asma Afsaruddin, guides the reader through an organized and compelling narrative of reflections on …
Islamic Studies December 17, 2015

Islam's Jesus

Zeki Zaritoprak

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
In Islam's Jesus (University of Florida Press, 2015), Zeki Saritoprak explores an old topic from a fresh perspective. The status of Jesus in Islam has been of interest for centuries …
Islamic Studies November 12, 2015

Gender Hierarchy in the Qur'an

Medieval Interpretations, Modern Responses

Karen Bauer

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
In Gender Hierarchy in the Qur'an: Medieval Interpretations, Modern Responses (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Dr. Karen Bauer tackles one of the foremost hot-button questions of the day: What is the …
Islamic Studies May 6, 2015

Qur'an in Conversation

Michael Birkel

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Michael Birkel's Qur'an in Conversation (Baylor University Press, 2014) challenges its readers to think deeply about the Qur'an. The book will likely leave the reader with many answers but also …
Religion March 15, 2015

DMT and the Soul of Prophecy

A New Science of Spiritual Revelation in the Hebrew Bible

Rick Strassman

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
DMT and the Soul of Prophecy:A New Science of Spiritual Revelation in the Hebrew Bible (Park Street Press, 2014) asks a number of provocative questions about drugs, consciousness, prophecy, and …
Islamic Studies March 10, 2015

Muslims in the Western Imagination

Sophia Rose Arjana

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
In Muslims in the Western Imagination (Oxford University Press, 2015), Sophia Rose Arjana explores a variety of creative productions--including art, literature, film--in order to tell a story not about how …
Islamic Studies January 23, 2015

Understanding Qur'anic Miracle Stories in the Modern Age

Isra Yazicioglu

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
In Understanding Qur'anic Miracle Stories in the Modern Age (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013), Isra Yazicioglu draws connections between an array of scholars, from different time periods and cultures, in …
Islamic Studies September 18, 2014

Henry Stubbe and the Beginnings of Islam

The Originall and Progress of Mahometanism

Nabil Matar

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
In Henry Stubbe and the Beginnings of Islam: The Originall and Progress of Mahometanism (Columbia University Press, 2014), Nabil Matar masterfully edits an important piece of scholarship from seventeenth-century England …
Islamic Studies August 22, 2014

Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought

The Taymiyyan Moment

Ovamir Anjum

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
In Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought: The Taymiyyan Moment (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Ovamir Anjum explores a timely topic, even though his focus is hundreds of years in …
Islamic Studies June 10, 2014

Where The Two Seas Meet

Al-Khidr and Moses

Hugh Talat Halman

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
In Where The Two Seas Meet (Fons Vitae, 2013), Hugh Talat Halman unpacks one of the most provocative narratives in the Islamic tradition. In the 18th chapter of the Qur'an …
Islamic Studies April 15, 2014

Islam is a Foreign Country

American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority

Zareena Grewal

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Zareena Grewal's monograph Islam is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority (NYU Press, 2013), seamlessly interweaves ethnographic research with an in-depth historical perspective in order …
Religion April 7, 2014

God in Proof

The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet

Nathan Schneider

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Nathan Schneider's monograph, God in Proof: The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet (University of California Press, 2013), explores the timeless challenge of how to explain …