About
Akbar’s Chamber offers a non-political, non-sectarian and non-partisan space for exploring the past and present of Islam. It has no political or theological bias other than a commitment to the Socratic method (which is to say that questions lead us to understanding) and the empirical record (which is to say the evidence of the world around us). By these methods, Akbar’s Chamber is devoted to enriching public awareness of Islam and Muslims both past and present. The podcast aims to improve understanding of Islam in all its variety, in all regions of the world, by inviting experts to share their specialist knowledge in terms that we can all understand.
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Reviews
Episodes(3)
After Rumi: The Mevlevi Heirs of the World’s Most Famous Sufi
Rumi is perhaps the most famous Sufi of all time. For centuries after he died in 1273, his Persian poems were read and recited from the Balkans to Bengal. But his teachings were also passed down through the Mevlevi order that was established after his death in Konya (in present-day Turkey). From the
Beyond the Great Wall of China: A New History of Islamic China
Of all the world’s Muslim communities, the multiethnic Muslims of China are perhaps the least known, as though secluded by a Great Wall of linguistic, geographical and political dimensions. Yet preserved in mosques and shrines across the whole length of China—as well as India and Thailand —are manus
What is a Madrasa? Life and Learning in an Islamic College
In the years after 9/11, madrasas became a major concern of serious newspapers throughout the Western world. But two decades later, how many of us can really say we know what a madrasa is – still less, what actually goes on in one of them? This episode dispenses with theoretical abstractions to expl