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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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.
The Wolf King: The Forgotten Spanish Kingdom of Ibn Mardanish
Akbar's Chamber - Experts Talk Islam
58 minutes
1 month ago
The Wolf King: The Forgotten Spanish Kingdom of Ibn Mardanish
Over the past few decades, archaeologists have excavated the remnants of a little-known Muslim kingdom from beneath hotels, parking lots, and even a convent in the Spanish city of Murcia. Cast into the shadows by the splendors of Granada, in its heyday Murcia was a flourishing kingdom that welcomed both Sufi mystics and Italian merchants. The main figure responsible for this was a man of many names. He was officially known on the coins he minted as Muhammad ibn Saʿd, but he was more widely known in Arabic by the mysterious moniker Ibn Mardanish. And to the Christians of Spain—who were often his allies—he was el Rey Lobo: the Wolf King. In this episode, we take a historical tour of medieval Murcia and the stylish palace of Ibn Mardanish, before tracing how in later centuries his memory was burdened with various competing messages. Nile Green talks to Abigail Krasner Balbale, author of The Wolf King: Ibn Mardanish and the Construction of Power in al-Andalus (Cornell University Press, 2022).
Akbar's Chamber - Experts Talk Islam
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.
