In this episode, hosts Claudia Radiven and Amina Easat-Daas were joined by Farid Hafez to discuss his most recently published book Governing Islam in Austria and Germany: From Colonial Times to the Present (Oxford UP, 2026). Hafez’s recent work centres on the comparative analysis of the Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the German rule in Tanza ... Show More
Oct 18
Islamic Ethics and Spiritual Sovereignty: Genres of Tradition in Muslim South Asia with Ali Altaf Mian (U Notre Dame Press, 2026)
Islamic Ethics and Spiritual Sovereignty: Genres of Tradition in Muslim South Asia (U Notre Dame 2026) explores the rich vast textual archive of Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanavi, a South Asian Muslim theologian and Sufi. Mian’s deep and careful reading of Thanavi’s diverse genres of te ... Show More
1h 12m
Oct 11
The French Médersa: Islamic Education and Empire in Northwest Africa with Samuel D. Anderson (Cornell UP, 2026)
The French Médersa: Islamic Education and Empire in Northwest Africa (Cornell UP, 2026) explores how the French state pursued a century-long project of bicultural Franco-Muslim education in its northwest African colonies, resulting in a new type of school, the médersa, that combi ... Show More
55m 48s
Oct 5
The Crusader Storm: A Global History of the Wars for the Middle East with Nicholas Morton (Pegasus, 2026)
From their foundational era in 1097 to Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem almost a century later, the Crusader States transformed the Middle Eastern world. In an era shaped by many conflicts, this was not simply a war between Christianity and Islam, but an epic contest among multipl ... Show More
56m 11s
May 2023
Waqas Butt, "Life Beyond Waste: Work and Infrastructure in Urban Pakistan" (Stanford UP, 2023)
Over the last several decades, life in Lahore has been undergoing profound transformations, from rapid and uneven urbanization to expanding state institutions and informal economies. What do these transformations look like if viewed from the lens of waste materials and the lives ... Show More
55m 51s
Aug 2022
Trying To Heal The Wounds Of Partition, 75 Years Later
75 years ago this week, British colonial rule ended in India. Two new nations emerged - Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. But that freedom was followed by chaos and bloodshed. Partition triggered a mass migration across a shared border, as millions of Muslims fle ... Show More
11m 22s
Oct 2021
How Hindustan became India
Manan Ahmed Asif discusses his book The Loss of Hindustan, the Invention of India, which has just been shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize
Historian Manan Ahmed Asif discusses his recent book The Loss of Hindustan, the Invention of India, which has just been shortlisted for ... Show More
59 m
May 2019
The Three A’s Of Pakistan
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan was born on August 14, 1947, with the partition of British India. This partition divided the former British colony into two nations, India and Pakistan. There is a saying in Pakistan that the country is run by the Three A’s: Allah, the army and Am ... Show More
1h 12m