We follow up the last episode on Shankara & Advaita Vedanta by talking about the most influential response to that school.

Sources/Suggested Reading:

• Bartley, C.J. (2002). "The Theology of Ramanuja - Realism and Religion". Routledge.
• Flood, Gavin (ed.) (2003). "The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism". Blackwell Publishing.
• "Sri Ramanuja Gita Bhashya - with text in Devangari & English rendering". Translated by Swami Adidevananda. Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math.
• Thibaut, George (translated by) (2006). "The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja". The Echo Library.

#Vedanta #Ramanuja #Hinduism

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The much requested episode about Shankara is finally here.

Sources/Suggeested Reading:

• Deutsch, Eliot (1973). “Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction”. University of Hawai’i Press.
• Deutsch, Eliot & Rohit Dalvi (2005). “Essential Vedanta: A New Source Book of Advaita Vedanta”. World Wisdoms Books.
• Suthren Hirst, J.G. (2005). “Samkara’s Advaita Vedanta: a way of teaching”. Routledge.
• “The Mandukya Upanishad with Gaudapada’s Karika and Sankara’s Commentary”. Translated by Swami Nikhilananda. 1987. Advaita Ashrama.
• “Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sankaracarya”. Translated by Swami Gambhirananda.1972. Advaita Ashrama.

#Shankara​ #Vedanta​ #Advaita

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This week we talk about the Hindu philosophical school(s) of "Vedanta".

Sources/Further Reading:

• Brahma Sutra Basya by Shankaracharya. Published by Advaita Ashrama, India; New edition (1 Jan. 2000).
• The Mandukya Upanishad with Gaudapada's Karika & Sankara's Commentary. Published by Vedanta Press.
• Deutsch, Eliot (1986). "Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction". University of Hawaii Press.
• Deutsch, Eliot & Rohit Dalvi (2005). "Essential Vedanta: A New Source Book of Advaita Vedanta". World Wisdom Books.
• Flood, Gavin (2003). "The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism". Blackwell publishing.
• Jacobsen, Knut A. (2003). "Hinduismen: Historia, tradition, mångfald". Kultur och Natur.
• Sri Ramanuja Gita Basya (Translation by Swami Adidevananda). Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai.

#Vedanta #Hinduism #Advaita

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The earliest and most sacred scriptures of Hinduism - The Vedas - is some of the oldest surviving religious literature in the world, and simultaneously some of the best preserved. In this episode, we talk about these fascinating texts as the first part in a new series on religion in India.

Sources/Further Reading:

• Flood, Gavin (2003). "The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism". Blackwell publishing.
• Jacobsen, Knut A. (2003). "Hinduismen: Historia, tradition, mångfald". Kultur och Natur.

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In this episode, we talk about the famous Andalusian philosopher Ibn Rushd.

Sources/Further Reading:

• Kennedy, Hugh (1996). "Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus". Routledge.
• Genequand, Charles (1986). "Ibn Rushd's Methaphysics". Brill.
• "Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa nihayat al-Muqtasid" (The Distinguished Jurist's Primer) Vol. 1 by Ibn Rushd. Translated by Professor Imran Ahsan Khan Niazee. Garnet Publishing.
• Taylor, Richard C. (2005). "Averroes: religious dialectic and Aristotelian philosophical thought". in "The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy". Edited by Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor.
• "The Decisive Treatise" by Ibn Rushd (Averroes). Translated by Charles E. Butterworth. Islamic Translation Series. Bringham Young University Press. 2008.
• "Tahafut al-Tahafut (The Incoherence of the Philosophers)" by Ibn Rushd (Averroes). Translated by Simon Van den Bergh. Gibb Memorial Trust Arabic Studies. 2008.

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Perhaps the most requested figure here - al-Ghazali - is finally getting a treatment!

I talk about his life, some of his teachings, ideas and legacy and discuss some common misconceptions and opinions about him today.

Sources/Further Reading:

• Al-Ghazali - "Deliverance from Error" (al-Munqidh min al-Dalal). Translated by Richard J. McCarthy. American University of Beirut.
• al-Ghazali - "The Incoherence of the Philosophers". Translated by Michael E. Marmura. Islamic Translations Series. University of Chicago Press.
• al-Ghazali - "The Niche of Lights". Translated by David Buchman. Islamic Translations Series. University of Chicago Press.
• Leaman, Oliver (2008). "The developed kalam tradition". In "The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Theology". Edited by Tim Winter. Cambridge University Press.
• Lumbard, Joseph E.B. (2016). "Ahmad al-Ghazali, Remembrance, and the Metaphysics of Love". Suny Press.
• Mamura, Michael E. (2005). "Al-Ghazali". In "The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy". Edited by Peter Adamson & Richard C. Taylor. Cambridge University Press.

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In this episode I will do my first deep dive into one of the many Sufi orders - the Naqshbandiyya.

Sources/Further Reading:

• Abun-Nasr, Jamil (2007). "Muslim Communities of Grace - The sufi brotherhoods in Islamic religious life". Hurst & Company, London
• Malik, Jamal & John Hinnells (2006). "Sufism in the West". Routledge.
• Sorgenfrei, Simon (2016). "Sufism i Sverige". Nämnden för statligt stöd till trossamfund.

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In this unusual episode, we explore the history of coffee and its connection to Sufism, as well as the similar origins of tea.

Good to remember: While this episode is still based on the most widely accepted views by historians, research on the matter is somewhat lacking and this light-hearted episode should not be taken as gospel.

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The long awaited second part of my series about music in the Islamic world!

Sources/Further Reading:

• Hammarlund, Anders, Tord Olsson & Elizabeth Özdalga (1997). "Sufism, Music and Society in Turkey and the Middle East". Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul.
• Saeed, Yousuf. "Amir Khusrau and the Indo-Muslim Identity in the Art Music Practices of Pakistan".
• Schofield, Katherine Ruth (2003). "Hindustani music in the time of Aurangzeb". King's college London.
• Sharma, Sunil (2005). "Amir Khusraw: the Poet of Sultans and Sufis". In "Makers of the Muslim World" Series. Oneworld.
• Soydaş, M. Emin (2011). "Musical performance at the Ottoman court in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries". SOAS (University of London).
• Wright, Owen (1994). "'Abd al-Qādir al-Marāghī and 'Alī B. Muḥammad Binā'ī: Two Fifteenth-Century Examples of Notation (Part 1 & 2)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 57, No. 3 (1994), pp. 475-515. Cambridge University Press.
• Wright, Owen (1996). "On the Concept of a 'Timurid Music'".
• Wright, Owen (1978). "The Modal System of Arabic and Persian Music A.D. 1250-1300". Oxford University Press.
• Wright, Owen (2018). "Music Theory in the Safavid Era: The taqsīm al-naġamāt". Routledge; 1st edition.

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In this first part of a new series, we talk about the earliest centuries of Islamic civilization - Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid caliphates - and the different forms of music that flourished at this time.

Sources/Suggested Reading:

• al-Faruqi, Louis Ibsen (1985). "Music, Musicians and Muslim Law". Asian Music, Vol. 17, No. 17, p. 3-36.
• Avery, Kenneth S. (2004). "A Psychology of Early Sufi Sama': Listening and altered states". Routledge.
• Davila, Carl (2009). "Fixing a Misbegotten Biography: Ziryab in the Mediterranean World". Al-Masaq, Vol. 21, No. 2, August 2009.
• Jenkins, Jean & Paul Rovsing Olsen (1976). "Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam". World of Islam Festival Publishing Company Ltd.
• Shiloah, Amnon (1995). "Music in the World of Islam: a Socio-cultural study". Scolar Press.
• Shiloah, Amnon (1997). "Music and Religion in Islam". Acta Musicologica, Vol. 69.
• The Brethren of Purity. "On Music: An Arabic Critical Edition and Translation of Epistle 5". Edited and Translated by Owen Wright. Oxford University Press.
• Wright, Owen (1978). "The Modal System Of Arab and Persian Music a.d. 1250-1300". Oxford University Press.

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