Let's Talk Religion

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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In this episode, we talk about the short-lived religion founded by the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten.

Sources/Further Reading:

Hornung, Erik (2001) "Akhenaten and the Religion of Light". Cornell University Press.

Hoffmeier, James K. (2015). "Akhenaten and the Origins of Monotheism". Oxford University Press.

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As requested by the audience, in this episode we talk about the very early development of Speculative Islamic theology, or "Kalam".

Support me on Patreon if you so wish: https://www.patreon.com/letstalkreligion

Sources/Suggested reading:

Winter, Tim (2008). "The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Theology". Cambridge University Press.

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As we continue our series on some of the less known (and sometimes controversial) Sufis of the Middle Ages, we reach the Andalusian poet Abu-l Hasan al-Shushtari. He was a student of Ibn Sab'in but is also famous as a master-poet and Sufi master in his own right.

Sources/Suggested Reading:

Alvarez, Lourdes Maria (2009). "Abu-l Hasan al-Shushtari: Songs of Love and Devotion". In the "Classics of Western Spirituality" series. Paulist Press.

Alvarez, Lourdes Maria (2005). "The Mystical Language of Everyday Life": Vernacular Sufi Poetry and the Songs of Abu Al-Hasan Al-Shustari". Exemplaria. 17:1, 1-32, DOI: 10.1179/exm.2005.17.1.1.

Johnson. N. Scott (1995). "Ocean and Pearls: Ibn Sab'in, Shustari and the Doctrine of Absolute Unity". In "Sufi: Journal of Sufism" Issue 25.

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In this episode, we talk about the controversial Andalusian Philosopher/Sufi Ibn Sab'in (d. 1270) and his teachings.

Sources:

Ceballos, Carlos Berbil (2015). "Journeying from the Apparent to Absolute Being: Ibn Sab'in and his predecessors". Journal of the Muhyddin Ibn 'Arabi Society Vol. 58.

Cornell, Vincent J. (2007). "The All-Comprehensive Circle (al-Ihata): Soul, Intellect and the Oneness of Existence in the Doctrine of Ibn Sab'in". In "Sufism and Theology" (ed. Ayman Shihadeh). Edinburgh University Press.

Johnson. N. Scott (1995). "Ocean and Pearls: Ibn Sab'in, Shustari and the Doctrine of Absolute Unity". In "Sufi: Journal of Sufism" Issue 25.

Westerveld, Govert (2014). "Ibn Sab'in of the Ricote Valley: the First and Last Islamic Place in Spain".

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