The Banu Musa

<p>This 2019 episode covers Thomas Cook, a pioneer of the idea of a travel agency to manage tourist holidays. But Cook was initially motivated by his support of the temperance movement and his deeply held religious beliefs.&nbsp;</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener ... Show More

<p>Tracy and Holly talk about the proclivity for destruction that was part of the balloon craze. They also discuss cat trees and how hard it is to find one that's cute.&nbsp;</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.< ... Show More

<p>Cat litter, it could be argued, kicked off the pet products industry. After its invention in the 1940s, other inventors started to come up with products that today are standard in the homes of people with pets.</p> <p><strong>Research:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Caminiti, Kasey. &l ... Show More

<p>In this episode, we explore the most (in)famous book of occult sciences in the history of the Islamicate World: the Shams al-Ma’arif (Sun of Knowledge).</p><p>WARNING: I am quoting from the book in this episode. Those concerned about its dangers might want to avoid listening t ... Show More

Of the available sources for Islamic history published before the 9th century of the Christian Era, few are of greater importance than Kitab Futuh al-Buldan (The Book of the Conquest of Lands), by al-Baladhuri, a ninth-century administrator at the Abbasid court. The text has been ... Show More

Of the available sources for Islamic history published before the 9th century of the Christian Era, few are of greater importance than Kitab Futuh al-Buldan (The Book of the Conquest of Lands), by al-Baladhuri, a ninth-century administrator at the Abbasid court. The text has been ... Show More

A wealth of scholarship has highlighted how commercial, political and religious networks expanded across the Arabian Sea during the seventeenth century, as merchants from South Asia traded goods in the ports of Yemen, noblemen from Safavid Iran established themselves in the court ... Show More

<p>In this episode, we finally explore the vast and important religious tradition of ancient Mesopotamia!</p><br><p>Sources/Suggested Reading:</p><ul><li>Bottéro, Jean (2004). "Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia". Translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan. University of Chicago Press.</li ... Show More

How did it happen that, in the 13th century, Europe's largest library owned fewer than 2,000 volumes while Baghdad alone boasted of several libraries holding from 200,000 to 1,000,000 books each? In The Rise of the Arabic Book (Harvard UP, 2020), Beatrice Gruendler traces the sto ... Show More

The work of Charles Darwin, together with the writing of associated scholars of society and its organs and organisms, had a particularly global reach in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Marwa Elshakry‘s new book offers a fascinating window into the ways that thi ... Show More

How is science fiction from the Arab and Muslim world different than mainstream science fiction from the West? What distinctive and original contributions can it make? Why is it so often neglected in critical considerations of the genre? While other books have explored these ques ... Show More

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 that offers the most authoritative account to date of the life and Arabic writings of Omar Ibn Said, a scholar ... Show More

<p>This is the first in a series of episodes exploring the world of Occult Sciences in the Islamicate World, including such topics as Alchemy, Astrology, Talismanic Magic &amp; the Science of Letters.</p><br><p><br></p><p>Sources/Suggested Reading:</p><ul><li>Melvin-Koushki, Matt ... Show More