Abbasid History Podcast
1) 🖋️EP059 Ali Hammoud on the life and works of Omar Khayyam (d. 1131CE)
Writing to his brother from prison in 1949, a young African American man opens his letter citing these lines from a medieval Persian poet: Indeed the Idols I have loved so long, Have done my credit i...Show More
2) 🖊️EP058 Ali Hammoud on the life and works of Nasir Khusraw (d. c.1088CE): The Proof
Born 1004CE in present-day Tajikistan then under control of the Ghaznavid dynasty, Abū Muʿīn al-Dīn Nasir Khusraw was an Ismaili convert and missionary who became better known for his poetry. To di...Show More
3) 🖊️EP057 Ali Hammoud on the life and works of Ferdowsi (d.1019CE): author of the epic Shahnameh
Born under the Samanid dyansty and living through the rule of the Ghaznavid dynasty in Tus located north Iran, Ferdowsi is author of the epic Shahnameh (“The Book of Kings”) of 50,000 lines taking 30 ...Show More
4) 🖋EP056 Ali Hammoud on the life and works of Rudaki (d. 941): Father of Persian Poetry
Living under the Samanid dyansty in modern-day Tajikistan, Rudaki is considered the first of the great classical Islamic Persian poets and the father of Tajik literature. Despite being a celebrated, p...Show More
5) 📖EP055 Faheem Hussain on Thomas Bauer's "A Culture of Ambiguity: An Alternative History of Islam"
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 beca...Show More
6) 💧EP054 GUEST EPISDODE (8/8) The Great Valens Aqueduct of Constantinople/ Istanbul
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 th...Show More
7) 💧EP053 GUEST EPISDODE (7/8) Qanāts: Harvesting Water on the Edge of the Desert
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 aflā...Show More
💧EP053 GUEST EPISDODE (7/8) Qanāts: Harvesting Water on the Edge of the Desert
57:17 | Sep 4th, 2024
8) 💧EP052 GUEST EPISDODE (6/8) Water and the White Monastery: Water Management at a Single Site
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 gre...Show More
9) 💧EP051 GUEST EPISODE (5/8) Toilets and Waste in Andalusia
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 ...Show More
10) 💧EP050 GUEST EPISODE (4/8) The City on The Tigris: Baghdad, Drinking and Water Transport
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 blo...Show More