When any Muslim worships, from anywhere in the world, they orientate themselves towards Mecca. Whether in a mosque, at home, or outdoors, this act of orientation is a prerequisite of prayer. So much so, in fact, that it is easy to take this for granted, without wondering how this came about, and what Muslim—and non-Muslim—scholars thought about it over the centuries. In this episode, we explore the origins, implications and debates about qibla, or sacred orientation, from the verses of the Quran through the inter-religious dialogues of the medieval period and the evidence of early mosque architecture. Nile Green talks to Ari M. Gordon, author of Sacred Orientation in Late Antiquity and Early Islam (Routledge, 2026).

A thousand years ago, in the city of Samarqand, a scholar by the name of Abu al-Layth gave lessons about how to live a good life—a life that was pleasing both to God and to people. He dealt with almost every aspect of life, from how to greet people and how to eat, to how to study and debate. What’s more, Abu al-Layth also explained why, linking lessons on manners to clear moral principles laid out in the Quran and the life of the Prophet. At some point, Abu al-Layth’s students compiled these teachings into a book called Bustan al-‘Arifin (‘The Garden of the Knowledgeable’). Over the passing of time, its reputation grew and grew, seeing copies and translations being made from the Ottoman Empire to Aceh in what is today Indonesia. And now the book is finally available in English too. Nile Green talks to Peri Bearman, translator of A Guide to a Life of Moral Integrity: An Annotated Translation of Bustān al-ʿārifīn by Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī (Georgias Press, 2025).

A decade ago, ISIS was the leading story for every news organization in the Western world, especially after its attack on the seafront at Nice on July 14, 2016. Having emerged in Iraq, two years earlier ISIS had declared a global caliphate. Through the clever deployment of digital media that claim attracted followers from around the world. But ISIS accompanied its headline attacks in Europe with the murder of much larger numbers of ordinary Muslims, declared infidels for disagreeing with ISIS’s fringe interpretation of Islam. In this episode, we investigate that interpretation. And by looking at the beliefs of the people drawn to its radical message, we see how ISIS’s teachings took shape and gained traction among isolated individuals far and wide.  Nile Green talks to Graeme Wood, The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State (Random House, 2017), a Foreign Affairs “Best Book of the Year” and won the Canadian Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction.

After the Quran, the most widely cited text in Islamic history is the Sahih al-Bukhari: the compendium of authentic hadith—reports of the Prophet Muhammad’s words and deeds—collected by Muhammad al-Bukhari (d.870). Despite the colossal impact of this work, al-Bukhari’s biography has long remained obscure. Yet by reconstructing his life and thought we can understand both how and why he devised his method for evaluating which hadith were reliable, and which were to be rejected. And by examining his legal and theological writings, we learn how the canonical status of hadith took shape amid debates about the role and limits of reason as a reliable means of guidance in life. So in this episode we place al-Bukhari into his context of debates between the Ahl al-Ra’y (People of Opinion) and Ahl al-Hadith (People of Hadith). And we highlight the enduring importance of his interventions in the timeless debate over revelation and reason. Nile Green talks to Belal Abu-Alabbas, author of Al-Bukhari: The Life, Theology and Legal Thought of Islam’s Foremost Traditionist (Edinburgh University Press, 2026).

According to a widespread Islamic tradition, when Adam was expelled from the garden of Eden he fell to earth on Sarandib (now Sri Lanka). In this episode, we hear how this tradition was interpreted in India through the monumental Arabic work, Subhat al-Marjan (The Coral Rosary). Since Arabic isn’t often associated with India, we begin by sketching the history of the language in the region. Next, we turn to the biography of Ghulam Ali Azad Bilgrami (1704-86), the author of Subhat al-Marjan who lived during an age of massive political disruption as the Mughal Empire fell apart. Withdrawing to the library of a Sufi monastery in Aurangabad, Azad Bilgrami spent years studying the evidence that linked India to Adam, the Prophet Muhammad, and other key figures of Islamic sacred history. We learn how in his masterpiece Bilgrami brought all this evidence together with the artistry that earned him the moniker Hassan al-Hind (the Hassan of India) for his skills in Arabic. Nile Green talks to Andrea Maria Negri, author of A Mirror of Arabic Language and Literature in India: Gulām ʿAlī Āzād Bilgrāmī’s Subhat al-margān fī ātār Hindūstān (De Gruyter, 2026).

Wales: land of legendary dragons and male-voice choirs, of the cragged beauty of Snowdonia and the indefatigable lungs of the singer Tom Jones. Or land of old Arabic coins and lost Qurans, Sufi mystics and Muslim sons of empire. In this episode, we uncover fascinating and surprising facets of Islamic history in this little-known corner of Europe. We begin by introducing Wales itself, then asking what it was about this country that attracted Muslim individuals and artifacts alike. Suitably prepared, we board our podcast tour bus, stopping at key sites with very different stories. Along the way, we take in the library of a Christian monastery, the dockyards of the capital Cardiff, and the seaside resort of sunny Rhyl during the dark days of World War Two. Nile Green talks to Abdul-Azim Ahmed, author of Muslim Wales: A History in 9 Places (Seren Books, 2026).

Muslims have always recognized the Gospels, or Injil, as a holy book. But for most of Islamic history, such recognition was more theoretical than practical, with the Gospels discussed in the abstract than actually read. After all, Muslim scholars studied Arabic, not the Greek or Syriac in which copies of the New Testament were available to them. However, the 19th century saw European Christian missionaries make the Gospels far more widely available to Muslims by printing translations in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and other languages. Among the learned Muslim who responded was one of the most influential Muslim thinkers of the modern era: Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-98). In this episode, we explore what motivated him to write a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew in his Urdu work, Tabyin al-Kalam (Elucidation of the Word); how he understood the Christian scripture as a Muslim; and how he used his newfound knowledge of the Injil to argue for the consistency of Muslim and Christian beliefs. Nile Green talks to Charles Ramsey, co-translator of Sir Sayyid’s Commentary of the Gospel: Tabyīn al-Kalām, Part 3 (Brill and Maktaba Jadid, 2017).

Rumi is perhaps the most famous Sufi of all time. For centuries after he died in 1273, his Persian poems were read and recited from the Balkans to Bengal. But his teachings were also passed down through the Mevlevi order that was established after his death in Konya (in present-day Turkey). From their headquarters around Rumi’s shrine in Konya, then subsequently from the Ottoman capital of Istanbul, the Mevlevis became one of the most influential Sufi orders in the eastern Mediterranean. Wrapping Rumi’s poetry into a larger package of ritual, music, meditation, and dance, the Mevlevis explored the many layers of meaning in Rumi’s masterpiece the Masnavi, on which several Mevlevi leaders penned commentaries. In this episode, we trace the development and teachings of the Mevlevi order, with a focus on the distinct emotional style that characterized its spirituality. Nile Green talks to Jamal J. Elias, author of After Rumi: The Mevlevis and Their World (Harvard University Press, 2025).

Of all the world’s Muslim communities, the multiethnic Muslims of China are perhaps the least known, as though secluded by a Great Wall of linguistic, geographical and political dimensions. Yet preserved in mosques and shrines across the whole length of China—as well as India and Thailand —are manuscripts, woodblock prints and lithographs that reveal the interconnections of China’s Muslims with their coreligionists in other parts of Asia.  In this episode, we travel far and wide by following these books and their authors from Nanjing and Xinjiang to Kanpur, Sri Lanka and Mecca. We learn about such influential figures as Wang Daiyu (c.1570-1660) and Ma Lianyuan (1842-1903), who not only wrote books in Chinese and Persian but also pioneered the development of Muslim printing. We also see how their teachings and travels linked China’s Muslims to various regions of Asia beyond that illusory Great Wall. Nile Green talks to Rian Thum, author of Islamic China: An Asian History (Harvard University Press, 2025).

In the years after 9/11, madrasas became a major concern of serious newspapers throughout the Western world. But two decades later, how many of us can really say we know what a madrasa is – still less, what actually goes on in one of them? This episode dispenses with theoretical abstractions to explore the realities of lived experience, with a focus on South Asia (specifically India). We’ll learn what madrasa students actually do day to day. Then we’ll turn to the kinds of texts that are taught, along with the distinct modes of teaching that characterize a madrasa education. Here we examine the concept of the maslak (meaning ‘way’ or ‘method’)—and the disagreements between proponents of rival maslaks. We’re fortunate in being guided by an ‘insider/outsider’ and self-described ‘friendly critic’ of the traditional madrasa system. Nile Green talks to Ebrahim Moosa, author of What is a Madrasa? (University of North Carolina Press, 2015).