On this week's episode of the podcast, Toby Matthiesen of the University of Bristol joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism. This book is an authoritative account of Islam's schism that for centuries has shaped events in the Middle East and the Islamic world. This dispute over who should guide Muslims, the Caliph or the Imam, marks the origin of the Sunni-Shii split in Islam, and Toby Matthiesen sheds light on the many ways that this division has shaped the Islamic world.

Lisa Anderson and Rabab El Mahdi of Columbia University also join Marc Lynch to discuss the commission, Research Ethics in the Middle East and North Africa (REMENA). The Special Commission on Social Science Research in the Middle East and North Africa is dedicated to developing guidelines for the conduct of responsible, ethical and constructive social inquiry.  The two-year project will animate an interdisciplinary network of scholars to assess the landscape of social science research conducted in the Arab world, particularly some of the ethical, political and economic challenges to conducting such research responsibly.

Music for this season’s podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.