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.

Akbar's Chamber - Experts Talk Islam is a education podcast hosted by akbarschamber, with 85 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

akbarschamber hosts Akbar's Chamber - Experts Talk Islam, a education show with 85 episodes published.

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  Episode #83

  Rules for Life: Timeless Lessons from Tenth Century Central Asia

  Aug 1, 202657 min

  A thousand years ago, in the city of Samarqand, a scholar by the name of Abu al-Layth gave lessons about how to live a good life—a life that was pleasing both to God and to people. He dealt with almost every aspect of life, from how to greet people and how to eat, to how to study and debate. What’s more, Abu al-Layth also explained why, linking lessons on manners to clear moral principles laid out in the Quran and the life of the Prophet. At some point, Abu al-Layth’s students compiled these teachings into a book called Bustan al-‘Arifin (‘The Garden of the Knowledgeable’). Over the passing of time, its reputation grew and grew, seeing copies and translations being made from the Ottoman Empire to Aceh in what is today Indonesia. And now the book is finally available in English too. Nile Green talks to Peri Bearman, translator of A Guide to a Life of Moral Integrity: An Annotated Translation of Bustān al-ʿārifīn by Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī (Georgias Press, 2025).

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  Episode #82

  ISIS: Ten Years on from the Summer of Terror

  Jul 15, 202657 min

  A decade ago, ISIS was the leading story for every news organization in the Western world, especially after its attack on the seafront at Nice on July 14, 2016. Having emerged in Iraq, two years earlier ISIS had declared a global caliphate. Through the clever deployment of digital media that claim attracted followers from around the world. But ISIS accompanied its headline attacks in Europe with the murder of much larger numbers of ordinary Muslims, declared infidels for disagreeing with ISIS’s fringe interpretation of Islam. In this episode, we investigate that interpretation. And by looking at the beliefs of the people drawn to its radical message, we see how ISIS’s teachings took shape and gained traction among isolated individuals far and wide. Nile Green talks to Graeme Wood, The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State (Random House, 2017), a Foreign Affairs “Best Book of the Year” and won the Canadian Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction.

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  Episode #81

  The Most Widely Cited Work in Islamic History After The Quran: The Hadith Collection of al-Bukhari

  Jun 1, 20261h 7mS0

  <p >After the Quran, the most widely cited text in Islamic history is the Sahih al-Bukhari: the compendium of authentic hadith—reports of the Prophet Muhammad’s words and deeds—collected by Muhammad al-Bukhari (d.870). Despite the colossal impact of this work, al-Bukhari’s biography has long remained obscure. Yet by reconstructing his life and thought we can understand both how and why he devised his method for evaluating which hadith were reliable, and which were to be rejected. And by examining his legal and theological writings, we learn how the canonical status of hadith took shape amid debates about the role...

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  Episode #80

  How Adam Fell to Earth in India: The Coral Rosary of Azad Bilgrami

  May 1, 202656 minS0

  <p >According to a widespread Islamic tradition, when Adam was expelled from the garden of Eden he fell to earth on Sarandib (now Sri Lanka). In this episode, we hear how this tradition was interpreted in India through the monumental Arabic work, Subhat al-Marjan (The Coral Rosary). Since Arabic isn’t often associated with India, we begin by sketching the history of the language in the region. Next, we turn to the biography of Ghulam Ali Azad Bilgrami (1704-86), the author of Subhat al-Marjan who lived during an age of massive political disruption as the Mughal Empire fell apart. Withdrawing to...

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  Episode #79

  Muslims in the Land of the Red Dragon

  Apr 1, 202656 minS0

  <p >Wales: land of legendary dragons and male-voice choirs, of the cragged beauty of Snowdonia and the indefatigable lungs of the singer Tom Jones. Or land of old Arabic coins and lost Qurans, Sufi mystics and Muslim sons of empire. In this episode, we uncover fascinating and surprising facets of Islamic history in this little-known corner of Europe. We begin by introducing Wales itself, then asking what it was about this country that attracted Muslim individuals and artifacts alike. Suitably prepared, we board our podcast tour bus, stopping at key sites with very different stories. Along the way, we take...

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