Between the 1850s and World War I, about one million North Caucasian Muslims sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire. This resettlement of Muslim refugees from Russia changed the Ottoman state. Circassians, Chechens, Dagestanis, and others established hundreds of refugee villages throughout the Ottoman Balkans, Anatolia, and the Levant. Most villages still exist ... Show More
Sep 12
Han Hsien Liew, "Preaching Pious Rulership in Medieval Islam: Ibn Al-Jawzi's Political Thought" (Edinburgh UP, 2026)
Han Hsien Liew’s fascinating and insightful new book, Preaching Pious Rulership in Medieval Islam: Ibn al-Jawzi’s Political Thought (Edinburgh UP, 2026) offers a new way of understanding the political thought of one of medieval Islam’s most influential preachers, Ibn al-Jawzi. Al ... Show More
1h 29m
Sep 9
Ashish Koul, "Reinventing Caste: Islam and Hierarchy in Late Colonial India" (Stanford UP, 2026)
Reinventing Caste: Islam and Hierarchy in Late Colonial India (Stanford UP, 2026) reveals that caste, usually assumed to be a feature of Hindu society, was in fact a trans-religious phenomenon in colonial India, as it is today. Even in an Islamic religious milieu that was suppose ... Show More
1h 27m
Aug 28
Matthew Thomas Miller, "Feeling like Lovers: Affect in Medieval Sufism" (U California Press, 2026)
Matthew Thomas Miller's new book Feeling like Lovers: Affect in Medieval Sufism (U California Press, 2026), and is available as an open access book (see link below), considers how for many medieval Sufis, Sufism was the “path of love”, and God was the Beloved, and so one had to b ... Show More
1h 11m
Nov 2021
7-1: The Bosnia War - Turks and Ottomans
From the steppes of Central Asia, thousands of Turkish people migrate to Anatolia and the Middle East. These new arrivals become first the Seljuk Turks, then the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, and finally, the Osmanlis.
36m 24s
May 2025
S2 Ep 9: Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe
When we think about modern Europe, we tend to think about Muslims as newcomers to the continent. Professor Emily Greble, chair of the history department at Vanderbilt University, turns the tables on this assumption. This episode looks at the Muslim communities that were living in ... Show More
56m 24s
Dec 2023
Ilkay Yilmaz, "Ottoman Passports: Security and Geographic Mobility, 1876-1908" (Syracuse UP, 2023)
In Ottoman Passports: Security and Geographic Mobility, 1876-1908 (Syracuse University Press, 2023), İlkay Yılmaz reconsiders the history of two political issues, the Armenian and Macedonian questions, approaching both through the lens of mobility restrictions during the late Ott ... Show More
51m 41s