History of Shia Islam

Building upon our exploration of gender in Islamic history we dive into the topic of gender bending and how it can help us see gender as socially constructed, historically contingent, and contextual. We explore multiple figures throughout Islamic history from the ghulamiyya to th ...  Show more

Continuing our exploration of gender and sexuality in Islamic history we turn to the figure of the mukhannathun, a third gender category in early Islam. We trace ideas of gender as a fluid spectrum through the lives of these individuals examining their existence in the life of Mu ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests Amira Bennison, Robert Gleave and Hugh Kennedy discuss the split between the Sunni and the Shia. This schism came to dominate early Islam, and yet it did not spring at first from a deep theological disagreement, but rather from a dispute about who should s ...  Show more

Husayn and his group are trapped at Karbala. He tries to negotiate with Banu Umayyah, but it goes nowhere. This episode explores one of the most tragic and pivotal events in Islamic history. With this episode, the political faction known as Shi'atu Ali become the Shia religious s ...  Show more

In this episode, I attempt to give you an overview of the vast and complex Twelver school of Shi'ism across history.

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Karbala and the events following can be viewed in several angles in ways affecting Shia Muslims and the general Muslim world. This week, Sheikh Mohamed Abbas Panju of Najaf joins us to discuss the following and more: the wilayah of Imam Hussain (as), the concept of Ulama-al-Ab ...