In this episode, we explore Solomon as an occult authority in the Islamicate world: from the Quranic stories of Sulayman commanding the jinn and the winds, to the legendary Seal of Solomon, to his role in Islamic magic, talismans, letter science (ʿilm al-ḥurūf), and grimoires. We ...Show more
Satan in Sufism
Iblis (Satan) refused to bow to Adam, and the Qur’an condemns him for it. But some of the most daring Sufi mystics read that refusal very differently: as the act of a perfect monotheist and a tragic lover who would not bow to anything but God, even at the cost of eternal separati ...Show more
In this episode we explore how Muslims experience the fall of the Caliphate and how in turn Islam is shaped by the historical circumstances. Building upon the scholarly Islam developed by the Seljuks, we talk about the fusion of internal spirituality in the form of Sufism with or ...Show more
In this episode we discuss the formation of Shia orthodoxy. Picking up from our earlier episode on early Shi’ism we explore how the experience of persecution under the Umayyads and Abbasid shaped Shia thought and doctrine. We discuss the Muhammad al Baqir and Jaffar as Sadiq and ...Show more
This episode we trace the emergence of orthodoxy in Islamic thought. Starting with the debates about predestination and the nature of the Qu’ran we mark the development of Islamic theology from the writings of Hasan i Basri and the Qadarites or Qadiriyyah to the formation of the ...Show more