During the Middle Ages, the Iberian Peninsula was home not to Spain and Portugal but rather to al-Andalus. Ruled by a succession of Islamic dynasties, al-Andalus came to be a shorthand for a legendary place where people from the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe; Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived together in peace. That reputation is not entirely deser ... Show More
Yesterday
Radio ReOrient 15:3: The Othered Woman, with Shahed Ezaydi, hosted by Amina Easat-Daas and Chella Ward
In this episode, Amina and Chella had a wide ranging conversation with Shahed Ezaydi about her recent book, which explores the interconnectedness between white feminism and Islamophobia, and how Muslim women are frequently harmed by both. This episode took us into discussions aro ... Show More
1h 5m
Oct 28
The New Byzantines: The Rise of Greece and Return of the Near East with Sean Mathews (Hurst, 2025)
Caught between wars raging in both Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Greece is an island of relative stability. Popularly considered the cradle of Western civilisation, this is a Christian Orthodox state on the edge of the Islamic world. And, after a half-century of integration ... Show More
1h 38m
Oct 21
Rooted Movements: The Radical Poetics of Palestinian Space with Amanda Batarseh (Syracuse UP, 2026)
A Conversation with the author Amanda Batarseh about Rooted Movements: The Radical Poetics of Palestinian Space (Syracuse UP, 2026).Present in the heart of modern Palestinian literature is a pervasive sense of rootedness, sustained and nurtured by a deep care for land stewardship ... Show More
36m 50s
Oct 2023
Ep 8: Muslim Spain with Professor Brian Catlos
Muslims governed for almost a thousand years in the Iberian Peninsula, with Arabo-Islamic culture leading the way in science and art, philosophy and theology. It’s a period known for its cosmopolitanism – where Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived and worked together in peaceful c ... Show More
54m 6s
May 2018
Al Andalus and Islamic Spain
What is Al Andalus and the history of Islam in the Iberian Peninsula? Join us as we take a closer look at the Muslim expansions into Portugal and Spain. In part one of two of discussing Islam in the Maghreb, we examine the Berber and Moorish influences on art, architecture, cultu ... Show More
1 h
Oct 2019
Ussama Makdisi, "Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World" (U California Press, 2019)
Building on nearly two decades of scholarship about sectarianism and communal relations in the Modern Middle East, Ussama Makdisi’s latest book, Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World(University of California Press, 2019) dispels the myth ... Show More
51m 56s