Akbar’s Chamber - Experts Talk Islam
Education
Home to some 175 million Muslims, Bengal—incorporating today’s Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal—is one of the largest but least known regions of the Muslim world. Since the medieval period, it has also reared a rich literature in the Bangla language, written by both Muslims and Hindus alike. In this episode, we’ll examine how one particular text, the Nabivamśa, helped convert many Bengalis to Islam in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Written by Sayyid Sultan, the Nabivamśa was the first biography of the Prophet Muhammad to be written in Bangla. Yet rather than rejecting Bengal’s Vaishnava Hindu traditions, Sayyid Sultan incorporated them into his cosmic history of divine revelation. And so, as much as it was a biography of an Arabian prophet, the Nabivamśa was also a story of a Muslim Krishna who was sent by God as an heir to Abraham and a forerunner of Muhammad. Nile Green talks to Ayesha Irani, author of The Muhammad Avatara: Salvation History, Translation, and the Making of Bengali Islam (Oxford University Press, 2021), which was a finalist for the American Academy of Religion’s Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion.
Lessons from an Indian Village: Shared Hindu-Muslim Devotion in South India
Chinese Muslims and the Middle East: The Transformation of Islam in Modern China
Sharia and the Modern State: How the British Empire—and its Muslim Subjects—Transformed Islamic Law
The Mongol Storm: How the Mongols Transformed the Middle East
Saintly Infrastructures of Medieval Islam: The Shrine at Torbat-e Jam
A Muslim Book Collector in Late Ottoman Europe
Who Decides What is Islamic? Insights from Anthropology
The Many Meanings of Muslim Martyrdom
The Muslims of Sri Lanka: Custodians of Adam’s Footprint
Praising the Prophet in West Africa: The Profound Eloquence of Arabic Madih Poems
The Archaeology of Islam: What Digging Tells us that Reading Doesn’t
The Most Influential Branch of Islam You’ve Never Heard Of: Barelwism
The Architect of Global Jihad: The Exile Life of Abdallah Azzam
Islamic Law across the Indian Ocean: Shafi‘i Debates from Egypt to Indonesia
The Adventures of Joseph in Africa: Swahili Tales of the Prophet Yusuf
A World of Wonders: A Muslim Guidebook to the Cosmos
The Meanings of Muslim Mysticism: An Introduction to Classical Sufi Texts
Singapore Islam: How a Commercial Hub became a Muslim Melting Pot
‘The Master of Illumination’: The Teachings of Suhrawardi
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Meaningful Life with Andrew G. Marshall
The No-Frills Teacher Podcast
Heal, Survive & Thrive!
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast