Episodes

  • 📖EP055 Faheem Hussain on Thomas Bauer's "A Culture of Ambiguity: An Alternative History of Islam"

    📖EP055 Faheem Hussain on Thomas Bauer's "A Culture of Ambiguity: An Alternative History of Islam"
    Oct 31 2024
    Thomas Bauer's "A Culture of Ambiguity" stands out as one of the most important contributions to Islamic Studies in recent decades. First published in German in 2011, it wasn't until 2021 that it became available in English. Bauer's three decades of knowledge and expertise shine through in the work, which earned him the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award in Germany. It is rare for an academic book rich in insights for specialists to also be engaging enough for general readers, yet this is exactly what Bauer has achieved. However our guest today has an essay published in the Maydan journal online journal interogating Bauer's conceptualisation of "ambiguity" and its application in the history of islamic culture. Faheem A. Hussain is an independent researcher. He has a BA (Hons.) in Arabic and Islamic studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, a PGCE in Religious Studies from Roehampton University, and an MA in philosophy from Heythrop College, University of London. His writings can be found at https://faheemahussain.substack.com/ and https://x.com/FaheemAMHussain. Faheem's article: https://themaydan.com/2024/08/ambiguity-as-a-master-key-critically-reading-thomas-bauers-culture-of-ambiguity/ https://x.com/FaheemAMHussain/status/1772736085627457970 Timestamps 02:11 You say in your essay: Now this does not pretend to be anything but a critical review of Bauer, interrogating his ideas of ambiguity, its coherence and implications, and despite my best efforts in civility, there’s no hiding my polemical intent. Even so, I wish to insist that this book is a product of a fine mind and generous soul, and that I have no doubt that if anyone reads the book, they will only leave more humbled, indebted as well as greatly enriched by reading it. Without a doubt, this is a book that should be read as well as kept on a shelf. Before we start why don't you give us an overview of the book and what he liked best about it. 16:23 At the heart of Bauer's work is this concept of Ambiguity. Tell us what he means by this and your reservations. 37:52 For me, my favourite parts were on the divergent readings of the Quran and the difference between the comfort of medieval scholars about that, particularly Ibn al-Jazari and the anxiety of modern Muslims. Though at first blush the late Saudi-Salafi cleric, Sheikh Ibn al-ʿUthaymin and the Pakistani activist al-Mawdudi, God be kind to their souls, might seem apart yet they share the same modern anxiety about ambiguity according to Bauer. It seems you are more on board with him on this then his other applications of ambiguity in the cultural history of Islam. 49:25 Like you, I wasn't convinced by his thoughts on the concept of foreigness in Islamic cultural history. You also take him to task on his take on homoerotica. I also feel that with current debate about gender and the like whether it makes sense to say there is a lack of ambiguity in contemporary culture. I feel if we had experts on medieval, early modern and modern Europe as Bauer is an expert on medieval Arabic whether we would have better insights on ambiguity as a concept. 01:03:52 And finally before we end tell us where listeners can turn next to learn more about today's topic and what are other current projects that listeners can anticipate? Works mentioned in episode: Pieter Coppens, Did Modernity End Polyvalence? Some Observations on Tolerance for Ambiguity in Sunni tafsīrhttps://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/jqs.2021.0450?role=tab Usaama al-Azami,Traditional Islam, Ideology, Immigrant Muslims, and Grievance Culture: A Review of Travelling Home: Essays on Islam in Europe by Abdal Hakim Murad https://muslimmatters.org/2021/02/05/traditional-islam-ideology-immigrant-muslims-and-grievance-culture-a-review-of-travelling-home-essays-on-islam-in-europe-by-abdal-hakim-murad/ Frank Griffel, The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam https://www.academia.edu/47378325/The_Formation_of_Post_Classical_Philosophy_in_Islam Sponsored by shop.ihrc.org Get 15% off with discount code AHP15 at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC Bookshop for details.
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • 💧EP054 GUEST EPISDODE (8/8) The Great Valens Aqueduct of Constantinople/ Istanbul

    💧EP054 GUEST EPISDODE (8/8) The Great Valens Aqueduct of Constantinople/ Istanbul
    Oct 2 2024

    The longest aqueduct of the ancient world, the Valens aqueduct brought water to the capital of the eastern Roman empire: Byzantium or Constantinople, today known as Istanbul. Monumental sections of the aqueduct bridge still majestically stride across the city. In this episode we talk about the reasons for embarking on this colossal project, its development, decline and adaptation, and its place in the cultural heritage of today’s Turkey.

    Speaker: Mariëtte Verhoeven. Interviewer: Edmund Hayes.

    Mariëtte Verhoeven is university lecturer and researcher at Radboud University specialising in the field of late antique and Byzantine cultural and architectural history and heritage.

    This episode was produced by Edmund Hayes and Jouke Heringa.

    Further Reading

    Mariëtte Verhoeven, F. Gerritsen, & Özgün Özçakır, Revitalizing Istanbul’s Water Heritage: The Valens Aqueduct. Blue Papers, 2(1) (2023): 154–163. https://doi.org/10.58981/bluepapers.2023.1.15

    Ward, Kate, James Crow and Martin Crapper. 2017. “Water-Supply Infrastructure of Byzantine Constantinople.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 30: 175–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1047759400074079

    ---

    Edmund Hayes

    Twitter: @Hedhayes20

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-hayes-490913211/

    https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/EdmundHayes

    https://hcommons.org/members/ephayes/

    Mariette Verhoeven

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariëtte-verhoeven-ba10153

    https://radboud.academia.edu/Mari%C3%ABtteVerhoeven
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    47 mins
  • 💧EP053 GUEST EPISDODE (7/8) Qanāts: Harvesting Water on the Edge of the Desert

    💧EP053 GUEST EPISDODE (7/8) Qanāts: Harvesting Water on the Edge of the Desert
    Sep 4 2024

    In this episode we discuss what is perhaps the most famous and distinctive invention of Middle Eastern and North African hydraulic engineering is the qanāt (also known as foggaras, khettāras, and aflāj): an underground tunnel dug horizontally into a hillside to harvest water from the water table.

    Speakers: Majid Labbaf Khaneiki and Louise Rayne.

    Majid Khaneiki is a human geographer who specializes in traditional irrigation and hydro-social cycles in rural communities. He has conducted or cooperated with more than 20 research projects on water issues in Oman, Iran, Iraq, India and Azerbaijan. He is the author of 13 books about traditional water management, water history, qanat system, and Indigenous water knowledge. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Nizwa in Oman, where he works in the field of socio-hydrology and conducts a research project on the interplay between water systems and social structures Oman’s local communities.

    Louise Rayne is Newcastle University Academic Track Fellow in School of History Classics and Archaeology. She has a background in both Archaeology and Geography (joint PhD), especially remote sensing. Originally working in the Middle East on water management archaeology of Syria and Iraq, she is now also working in North Africa on remote sensing of land-use change, especially traditional water management and desertification.

    This episode was produced by Edmund Hayes and Jouke Heringa.

    Further reading

    M. L. Khaneiki, Cultural Dynamics of Water in Iranian Civilization (Springer, 2020).

    Rayne, L.; Gatto, M.C.; Abdulaati, L.; Al-Haddad, M.; Sterry, M.; Sheldrick, N.; Mattingly, D. Detecting Change at Archaeological Sites in North Africa Using Open-Source Satellite Imagery. Remote Sens. 2020, 12, 3694. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12223694

    A. A. S., Yazdi, & M. L. Khaneiki, Qanat knowledge: Construction and maintenance (Springer, 2010).

    Edmund Hayes

    twitter.com/Hedhayes20

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-hayes-490913211/

    https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/EdmundHayes

    https://hcommons.org/members/ephayes/

    Abbasid History Podcast is sponspored by IHRC Bookshop

    Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases online and in-store.

    Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout.

    Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.

    https://linktr.ee/abbasidhistorypodcast
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    57 mins
  • 💧EP052 GUEST EPISDODE (6/8) Water and the White Monastery: Water Management at a Single Site

    💧EP052 GUEST EPISDODE (6/8) Water and the White Monastery: Water Management at a Single Site
    Aug 1 2024

    It is often difficult to reconstruct the water infrastructure at historical sites due to recent building and patchy excavation and survival. In this episode we look at a site in which we can see a great deal of the water supply as a connected system, and how it developed over time: the great late antique White Monastery on the edge of the Egyptian desert.

    Speaker: Louise Blanke. Interviewer: Edmund Hayes.

    Louise Blanke is Senior lecturer in Late Antique Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, and has written extensively on late antique and early Islamic archaeology and the archaeology of Egyptian monasticism.

    This episode was produced by Edmund Hayes and Jouke Heringa.

    Further reading

    Louise Blanke, Archaeology of Egyptian Monasticism, Settlement, Economy and Daily Life at the White Monastery Federation (New Haven: 2019)

    Louise Blanke, “Life on the Desert’s Edge: The Water Supply of a Late Antique Monastery in Egypt.” In J. Kuhlmann Madsen, N.O. Andersen and I. Thuesen (eds.) Water of Life, 130-143 (Copenhagen: Orbis, 2016).

    Edmund Hayes

    twitter.com/Hedhayes20

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-hayes-490913211/

    https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/EdmundHayes

    https://hcommons.org/members/ephayes/

    Abbasid History Podcast is sponspored by IHRC Bookshop

    Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases online and in-store.

    Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout.

    Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.

    https://linktr.ee/abbasidhistorypodcast
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    52 mins
  • 💧EP051 GUEST EPISODE (5/8) Toilets and Waste in Andalusia

    💧EP051 GUEST EPISODE (5/8) Toilets and Waste in Andalusia
    Jul 1 2024

    You can’t think about clean water without also thinking about removing dirty water and other waste. In this episode we take a deep dive into sewage (figuratively speaking) on the basis of excavations and documents that survive about cities in Muslim Spain in the Middle Ages.

    Speaker: Ieva Rèklaityte. Interviewer: Edmund Hayes.

    Ieva Reklaityte is an independent researcher. She graduated in Archaeology at the University of Vilnius, Lithuania, and did her PhD thesis at the University of Saragossa in Spain.

    This episode was produced by Edmund Hayes and Jouke Heringa.

    Further reading

    Ieva Reklaityte, Vivir en una ciudad de Al-Andalus: hidraulica, saneamiento y condiciones de vida (University of Saragossa, 2012).

    Ieva Rèklaityte, (ed.), Water in the Medieval Hispanic Society: Economic, Social and religious implications (Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 2019).

    Ieva Rèklaityte, “Les latrines en al‑Andalus : leurs principales caractéristiques et les conditions sanitaires urbaines (The Latrine in Al‑Andalus : its Main Characteristics and the Urban Hygienic Conditions)” in “Lieux d'hygiène et lieux d'aisance en terre d'Islam (VIIe-XVe siècle)” special issue of Médiévales 70 (Spring 2016) edited by Patrice Cressier, Sophie Gilotte et Marie-Odile Rousset, https://doi.org/10.4000/medievales.7683 (and see this special issue in general).

    Edmund Hayes

    twitter.com/Hedhayes20

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-hayes-490913211/

    https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/EdmundHayes

    https://hcommons.org/members/ephayes/

    Abbasid History Podcast is sponspored by IHRC Bookshop

    Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases online and in-store.

    Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout.

    Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.

    https://linktr.ee/abbasidhistorypodcast
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    39 mins
  • 💧EP050 GUEST EPISODE (4/8) The City on The Tigris: Baghdad, Drinking and Water Transport

    💧EP050 GUEST EPISODE (4/8) The City on The Tigris: Baghdad, Drinking and Water Transport
    Jun 1 2024
    Ep4. The City on The Tigris: Baghdad, Drinking and Water Transport

    Medieval Baghdad was probably home to 200,000 to 500,000 inhabitants. In this episode we look at how water functioned as the life blood of this great city, providing drink, but also transportation that supplied the city with food and connected it with trade routes in Indian Ocean and beyond.

    Speakers: Hugh Kennedy, Josephine van den Bent. Interviewer: Edmund Hayes.

    Hugh Kennedy is Professor of Arabic at SOAS in the University of London and from 2022 he has been teaching in the History Department at University College London.

    Josephine van den Bent is a researcher on the Source of Life project at Radboud University and assistant professor of Medieval History at the University of Amsterdam.

    This episode was produced by Edmund Hayes and Jouke Heringa.

    Further reading

    Hugh Kennedy, “The Feeding of the 500.000: Cities and Agriculture in Early Islamic Mesopotamia,” Iraq 73 (2011): 177–199.

    Josephine van den Bent & Peter Brown, “On Strong Vaults with Solidly Constructed Arches: Urban Waterways in the Cities of Early Islam,” Al-Masāq (2024).

    Josephine van den Bent, “Caliphal Involvement in Water Provision in the Cities of the Early ʿAbbāsid Period,” Journal of Abbasid Studies (2024).

    Edmund Hayes

    twitter.com/Hedhayes20

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-hayes-490913211/

    https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/EdmundHayes

    https://hcommons.org/members/ephayes/

    Abbasid History Podcast is sponspored by IHRC Bookshop

    Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases online and in-store.

    Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout.

    Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.

    https://linktr.ee/abbasidhistorypodcast
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    49 mins
  • 💧EP049 GUEST EPISODE (3/8) The Beginnings of the Bathhouse in the Middle East, from Rome to Early Islam

    💧EP049 GUEST EPISODE (3/8) The Beginnings of the Bathhouse in the Middle East, from Rome to Early Islam
    May 2 2024

    The bathhouse is an iconic feature of the medieval middle eastern city up until the present. But how did this come to be? In this episode we look into the origins of bathing culture in the Middle East by going back to the Roman, late antique and early Islamic development of bathhouses.

    Speakers: Nathalie de Haan and Sadi Maréchal. Interviewer: Edmund Hayes.

    Nathalie de Haan is an associate professor in ancient history at Radboud University, Department of History, Art History and Classics and RICH (Radboud Institute for Culture &History). She is the coordinator of the RICH research group The Ancient World. Her research interest include baths and bathing in the Roman world, Pompeii and Herculaneum and the history of classical archaeology in modern Italy (19th and 20th centuries).

    Sadi Maréchal is senior postdoctoral researcher of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) based at the department of Archaeology at Ghent University, part of the Historical Archaeology Research Group, the Mediterranean Archaeology Research Unit and coordinator of the Ghent Centre for Late Antiquity.

    This episode was produced by Edmund Hayes and Jouke Heringa.

    Further Reading

    Nathalie de Haan & Kurt Wallat, Die Zentralthermen (Terme Centrali) in Pompeji: Archäologie eines Bauprojektes, Papers of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, 71 (Rome: Quasar, 2023). (see: https://edizioniquasar.it/products/die-zentralthermen-terme-centrali-in-pompeji-archaologie-eines-bauprojektes)

    Nathalie de Haan “Si aquae copia patiatur. Pompeian Private Baths and the Use of Water”, Chapter 4, in A.O. Koloski-Ostrow (ed.), Water Use and Hydraulics in the Roman City, Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company (Archaeological Institute of America, Colloquia and Conference Papers, Vol. 3, 2001)

    Sadi Maréchal, Public Baths and Bathing Habits in Late Antiquity. A Study of the Evidence from Italy, North Africa and Palestine A.D. 285–700 (Late Antique Archaeology Supplementary Series 6), Leiden: Brill 2020.

    Sadi Maréchal, Washing the Body, Cleaning the Soul : Baths and Bathing Habits in a Christianising Society, Antiquité Tardive 28 (2020): 167–176.

    F. Yegül, Bathing in the Roman World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

    Edmund Hayes

    twitter.com/Hedhayes20

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-hayes-490913211/

    https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/EdmundHayes

    https://hcommons.org/members/ephayes/

    Abbasid History Podcast is sponspored by IHRC Bookshop

    Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases online and in-store.

    Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout.

    Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.

    https://linktr.ee/abbasidhistorypodcast
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • 💧EP048 GUEST EPISODE (2/8) Mesopotamia: Taming the Euphrates

    💧EP048 GUEST EPISODE (2/8) Mesopotamia: Taming the Euphrates
    Apr 1 2024

    Part of the “Source of Life: Water Management in the Premodern Middle East” project (Radboud Institute for Culture and History).

    Ep2. Mesopotamia: Taming the Euphrates

    Mesopotamia means “the land between the rivers.” The fertile silt and life-giving waters from the rivers Tigris and Euphrates allowed the region to develop into a key area of human settlement and culture in the late Holocene around 12000 years ago. In this episode we discuss the earliest settlements in Mesopotamia and how humans have managed their rela.tionship to the rivers in Iraq up until today.

    Speaker: Jaafar Jotheri. Interviewer: Edmund Hayes.

    Dr. Jaafar Jotheri is Assistant Professor in Geo-Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Al-Qadisiyah
    https://csm-qadiss.academia.edu/JaafarJotheri

    This episode was produced by Edmund Hayes and Jouke Heringa.

    Further Reading

    “Tigris-Euphrates River System”, Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/place/Tigris-Euphrates-river-system

    T Wilkinson, L Rayne, J Jotheri, “Hydraulic landscapes in Mesopotamia: the role of human niche construction” Water History 7 (4), 397-418

    TJ Wilkinson, J Jotheri “The Origins of Levee and Levee-Based Irrigation in the Nippur Area–Southern Mesopotamia” From Sherds to Landscapes: Studies on the Ancient Near East in Honor of McGuire Gibson, SAOC 71, edited by Mark Altaweel and Carrie Hritz (Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2021).

    Edmund Hayes

    twitter.com/Hedhayes20

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-hayes-490913211/

    https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/EdmundHayes

    https://hcommons.org/members/ephayes/

    Abbasid History Podcast is sponspored by IHRC Bookshop

    Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases online and in-store.

    Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout.

    Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.

    https://linktr.ee/abbasidhistorypodcast
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    1 hr and 8 mins