Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the history of the Islamic world through its religion, thinkers, poetry, empire and rulers.

Since 1998, In Our Time has been the go-to radio programme for knowledge seekers and inquiring minds. Tackling big topics with a light touch, it has introduced weekly audiences of over 2 million to subjects ranging from Romulus and Remus to the Renaissance.

This special themed collection provides a focussed, wide-ranging introduction to 25 of the ideas and events that shaped the Islamic world, highlighting the numerous connections between Islamdom and the West throughout history. We learn the origins of Sharia law, and how prophets became important to Islam, Judaism and Christianity alike; discover how the Translation Movement introduced the Arabic world to Greek philosophy, medicine, engineering and maths; and find out how settlers and invaders from both East and West transformed and refashioned the civilisations they touched, from the Arab Conquest, Muslim Spain and the Volga Vikings to the Third Crusade and the Siege of Vienna.

Here, too, are key scholars and writers, among them al-Kindi, the first significant thinker to reconcile philosophy and Islam; Averroes, who worked to integrate Islamic theology with the rationality of Aristotle; Maimonides, a titan of Jewish intellectual history who was much influenced by the Islamic world; and Rumi, the Persian poet and Sufi mystic whose work transcends borders of time, faith, language and geography.

Hosted by Melvyn Bragg with a panel of experts including Mona Siddiqui, Jim Al-Khalili, Tariq Ali and Amira Bennison, these enlightening, accessible discussions will illuminate, inspire and surprise.

Production credits

Presented by Melvyn Bragg

Produced by Thomas Morris, Simon Tillotson, Victoria Brignell

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the following dates:

Part I: Religion

Islamic Law and its Origins - 5 May 2011

Sunni and Shia Islam - 25 June 2009

Prophecy - 13 June 2013

Part II: History of Ideas

Maths in the Early Islamic World - 16 February 2017

The Translation Movement - 2 October 2008

Al-Kindi - 28 June 2012

al-Biruni - 10 June 2010

Avicenna - 8 November 2007

Al-Ghazali - 19 March 2015

Averroes - 5 October 2006

Maimonides - 17 February 2011

Ibn Khaldun - 4 February 2010

Part III: Literature

Antarah ibn Shaddad - 28 February 2019

Rumi's Poetry - 11 February 2016

Part IV: Empire

The Sassanid Empire - 13 December 2007

The Arab Conquests - 26 June 2008

Muslim Spain - 21 November 2002

The Battle of Tours - 16 January 2014

The Volga Vikings - 11 November 2010

The Almoravid Empire - 3 May 2018

Third Crusade - 29 November 2001

The Siege of Vienna - 14 May 2009

Part V: Rulers

The Abbasid Caliphs - 2 February 2006

The Mamluks - 26 September 2013

The Safavid Dynasty - 12 January 2012