Episodes

  • Thoughts on Palestine

    Thoughts on Palestine
    May 4 2024
    My personal experiences and opinions on a subject close to my heart and fate. https://www.youtube.com/embed/3xottY-7m3k?si=EGZuBa-wgl3NGieU One of my childhood magazines. The first panel identifies the round ball as Netenyahu, and says, 'A war erupts between Palestine and Israel after Netenyahu says something silly'. The second panel continues, 'Palestine covers Israel in a rain of stones'. Picture I snapped of the Israeli warship on Friday July 14th 2006 with my Nokia phone. It would be damaged in a daring attack by Hezbollah that same night. https://www.youtube.com/embed/tRRrCYX5hJ0?si=q7L8ok9VDa71P4P_
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Episode 83: War of the wazirs

    Episode 83: War of the wazirs
    Apr 21 2024
    For the very first time in Arab history, a child became the umma’s caliph. The 13 year old had not yet left his royal harem and was totally under his mother’s control. She used her influence over al Muqtadir to to extend her personal wealth and authority. It was a fundamentally corrupt setup that encouraged the worst types of administrative abuses. This cancer at the very top of official power lasted so long it devastated the caliphate far more than any war with a foreign enemy; it was a fall the Abbasids never recovered from.
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    34 mins
  • Episode 82: The rise of al Muqtadir

    Episode 82: The rise of al Muqtadir
    Mar 24 2024
    After all our recent foreshadowing, we’ve finally arrived at the period of Abbasid collapse. It’s a relatively long period, stretching from the start of al Muqtadir’s reign in 908 until around the middle of that century, when the Abbasids were reduced to figureheads by a more commanding dynasty. In an effort to better understand how the ruling clan lost control we’ll take things a bit at a time. A good place to start is with introducing the new caliph and some of the personalities who will play a leading part during his reign.
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    29 mins
  • Episode 81: Splintering of the Shi’a

    Episode 81: Splintering of the Shi’a
    Mar 3 2024
    Cataloguing the tapestry of Islamic traditions is a task that lies well beyond our scope, but every now and again the topic overlaps with the subjects we are interested in. It’s important to understand where the Qaramita and Fatimids came from, because these two foes will face the Abbasid Caliphate until its effective takeover by a rival dynasty. As these two communities emerged from Ismaili Shi’ism, we’ll take the time to properly define and ground these terms before moving on. Please keep in mind that you are in no way getting a round-up of the religious or sectarian situation at the time; there were many more groups than the ones we’re discussing. Refer back to the start of this paragraph for more information.
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    33 mins
  • Episode 80: Al Muktafi

    Episode 80: Al Muktafi
    Feb 11 2024
    Reading about this caliph’s reign in our sources is a bewildering experience: everything is simultaneously great and on the brink of destruction. Later histories pick apart developments in the administration throughout al Muktafi’s time in charge in search of a crack or culprit. Meanwhile, the caliphate was going strong, and the Abbasids had no trouble coasting off the considerable momentum al Mu’tadid had established. In the midst of all this, we find al Muktafi, hidden away from sight, doing his thing in the background. He plays such a small part in his own reign that he can hardly be credited with its good or blamed for its bad.
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    30 mins
  • Episode 79: Fortune favors the brute

    Episode 79: Fortune favors the brute
    Jan 28 2024
    Before you even hit play it should already be clear to you that the caliphate is only going to get stronger over the course of our discussion today. Al Mu’tadid seems to have been incapable of doing any wrong; his decisive leadership reinvigorated the state far beyond what his predecessors had managed. He displayed both courage and cunning during his time in charge, a potent mix that reduced his rivals without the need for open conflict. Although he possessed some disturbing traits al Mu’tadid remains one of the best caliphs to grace the Abbasid throne.
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    32 mins
  • Episode 78: Al Mu’tadid

    Episode 78: Al Mu’tadid
    Jan 7 2024
    Get ready for a blast from the past! Perhaps I should have prepared you for a weak pun instead. Hearing about this caliph’s reign will transport us back to his great-grandfather al Mu’tasim’s days. Much like his esteemed ancestor, the energetic new leader commanded his armies in person and used them to restore his caliphate to a lost glory. Our sources are effusive in their praise of this caliph, and he’s easily the most popular Abbasid figure we’ve come across in many generations.
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    34 mins
  • Episode 77: His brother’s keeper

    Episode 77: His brother’s keeper
    Dec 17 2023
    Al Mu’tamid’s reign lasted from 870 to 892. The Abbasid Caliphate was reborn during these decades, midwifed by the caliph’s brother Talha, better known in history by his title al Muwaffaq. The new Abbasid state understood its limits and adopted a pragmatic but uncompromising approach towards rebuilding its power. It developed formidable armies to fight off the many existential threats that faced it, then used this military edge to force its neighbors into relative submission.
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    27 mins