PODCAST · history
The Caliphs
by Zayd
This podcast started as a log of my journey through multiple classical Arab histories. Listeners are now invited to join me as I construct a narrative out of the long and often contradictory accounts left to us by the earliest Arab historians. We’ll use their material - and more recent scholarship - to try and understand the political evolution of the Arabs from warring nomadic tribes at the edges of civilization, to the proud rulers of the greatest empire of their time, and then back again. Our vantage point into this world will be their leaders, the “successors to God’s prophet Mohammad”: the caliphs.
Episodes
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Episode 90: Conclusions
Now that we've completed our journey through the primary sources, it's time to reflect on all we've covered. We search for insights, not just about the umma's social evolution, but also how it remembers its own history. Thank you for listening!
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Episode 89: Al Muttaqi, al Mustakfi, and al Muti’
The Abbasid fall from grace was long and messy. It’s been a while since the dynasty produced a powerful caliph, the last one being the almighty restorer al Mu’tadid who reigned until the opening years of the 10th century. The subsequent decades saw a sustained and accelerating erosion of the...
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Episode 88: Amir al umara’
The creation of the role of amir al umara’ transformed the political landscape in Baghdad. It attracted men of influence to court, and they did not come seeking to serve the caliph, but to dominate his metropolis. Ibn Ra’iq was the first such aspirants, but he and others soon learned how…
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Episode 87: Al Radi the irrelevant
We’ve reached the end of the road as far as Abbasid authority is concerned. Although it had waxed and waned before, there would be no recovering from the lows it had fell to this time. The caliph had no independent authority, helpful counselors, loyal generals, powerful armies, not even any…
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Episode 86: Al Qaher’s folly
A chaotic period followed al Muqtadir’s death in battle. Although officials quickly reached a consensus on the elevation of his successor, the very fact that the last caliph had been killed meant that more political violence was to be expected. Al Qaher managed to best the men who installed him…
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Episode 85: Third time’s the charm
Considering the absurd levels of official mismanagement, it’s astounding how long the caliphate survived during al Muqtadir’s inept administration. Although it never collapsed, over the course of two dozen years the state’s power steadily declined in meaningful ways. It collected less taxes, had...
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Episode 84: General Mu’nis
Having discussed the disorder in the caliphate’s civil bureaucracy we’ll turn our attention to the state of its military. The sharp contrast between the state of the two is in large part thanks to the figure of Mu’nis, the general who led Abbasid armies to one victory after another. His heroic...
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Thoughts on Palestine
My personal experiences and opinions on a subject close to my heart and fate.
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Episode 83: War of the wazirs
For the very first time in Arab history, a child became the umma’s caliph. The 13 year old had not yet left his royal harem and was totally under his mother’s control. She used her influence over al Muqtadir to to extend her personal wealth and authority. It was a fundamentally corrupt setup that...
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Episode 82: The rise of al Muqtadir
After all our recent foreshadowing, we’ve finally arrived at the period of Abbasid collapse. It’s a relatively long period, stretching from the start of al Muqtadir’s reign in 908 until around the middle of that century, when the Abbasids were reduced to figureheads by a more commanding dynasty.…
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Episode 81: Splintering of the Shi’a
Cataloguing the tapestry of Islamic traditions is a task that lies well beyond our scope, but every now and again the topic overlaps with the subjects we are interested in. It’s important to understand where the Qaramita and Fatimids came from, because these two foes will face the Abbasid…
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Episode 80: Al Muktafi
Reading about this caliph’s reign in our sources is a bewildering experience: everything is simultaneously great and on the brink of destruction. Later histories pick apart developments in the administration throughout al Muktafi’s time in charge in search of a crack or culprit. Meanwhile, the...
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Episode 79: Fortune favors the brute
Before you even hit play it should already be clear to you that the caliphate is only going to get stronger over the course of our discussion today. Al Mu’tadid seems to have been incapable of doing any wrong; his decisive leadership reinvigorated the state far beyond what his predecessors had...
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Episode 78: Al Mu’tadid
Get ready for a blast from the past! Perhaps I should have prepared you for a weak pun instead. Hearing about this caliph’s reign will transport us back to his great-grandfather al Mu’tasim’s days. Much like his esteemed ancestor, the energetic new leader commanded his armies in person and used...
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Episode 77: His brother’s keeper
Al Mu’tamid’s reign lasted from 870 to 892. The Abbasid Caliphate was reborn during these decades, midwifed by the caliph’s brother Talha, better known in history by his title al Muwaffaq. The new Abbasid state understood its limits and adopted a pragmatic but uncompromising approach towards...
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Episode 76: Homegrown competition
Having covered the caliphate’s East last time, we must now do the same for its west. The anarchy left such a deep impact on the caliphate that we really need to take our time discovering its aftermath. The situation in Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and the North was very messy, but we’ll look at…
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Episode 75: Masters of Khurasan
We have been focused exclusively on the capital province of Iraq ever since the outbreak of anarchy. While we had good reasons to keep a close eye on developments there, Khurasan can no longer be ignored. Not only had it always been a vital part of the Abbasid realm, but the relationship between...
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Episode 74: The false prophet of Basra
Now that the anarchy was over, a reduced but reunited Abbasid military could finally face up to the multitude of threats facing the caliphate. A slave insurrection in the south of Iraq was one of the earliest challenges it had to contend with, and the state’s slow and faltering response revealed...
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Episode 73: Al Mu’tamid and the birth of a new order
The death of Salih ibn Waseef left Musa ibn Bugha in charge of the caliphate’s armies. This newfound unity effectively ended the Anarchy in Samarra which had plagued the Abbasid state for almost a decade. While the dark period of civil war was over, the Abbasid state now had to contend with its...
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Episode 72: Al Muhtadi and the settling of the dust
Dilapidated by years of internal conflict and ruinous mismanagement, the caliphate was a mere shadow of its former self. The void left by its collapse had led to the rise of adversaries which now surrounded the capital province and threatened the state’s very existence. Not only was the treasury...
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Episode 71: Al Mu’tazz, kill or be killed
Instead of bringing about a measure of peace, the end of the civil war signaled a return to the anarchy that had preceded it. The new caliph was restricted by the same men whose influence had checked his predecessor’s. Furthermore, by accepting the role of a puppet, al Musta’in had sullied the...
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Episode 70: Proxy fitna
As the last vestiges of Abbasid authority crumbled, the caliphate spiraled further into chaos. It wasn’t too long before an unremarkable conflict sparked a much wider conflagration and the umma was engulfed by civil war. The turks treated the Abbasids as little more than a banner, and each side...
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Episode 69: Al Musta’in, puppet in chief
Al Muntasir’s sudden passing took the caliphate into uncharted political territory. It had only been six months since the plot against his father had succeeded, and he was still much too young for succession planning. The Turks tried to capitalize on this disaster: in an attempt to make the most...
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Episode 68: Al Muntasir and the beginning of the end
It’s difficult to overstate the impact al Mutawakkil’s usurpation had on the political reality of the caliphate. Not only did it completely hijack control of the state, but it also had decisive implications for the nature and locus of official authority. We’ll kick off our journey into this brave...
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Episode 67: Breaking the camel’s back
Succession planning presented a sporadic problem for the caliphate. The great fitna was the last disaster spawned by ill-conceived designs, and it proved absolutely ruinous to the state. Al Mutawakkil’s arrangement was so bad that it became the first to snare the caliph himself in its chaos. As...
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Episode 66: Sunni side up
Despite the religious overtones of the caliphate, there was nothing very islamic about the state when it came to policy. The inquisition marked the first time an administration tried to interfere in matters of faith, and it intensified over the reigns of three caliphs. Al Mutawakkil put an end to...
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Episode 65: Al Mutawakkil
Considering their invincibility on the battlefield, the caliphate’s armies probably felt assured that they would remain the state’s number one priority. Al Mutawakkil’s purge of the administration only touched one member of the military hierarchy, and the caliph could not kill off its leadership…
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Episode 64: Executive terminations
For the first time in Arab history, a council of administrators selected the man who would become the next caliph. The umma had come a long way since it was first united by the prophet and this development seemed to signal its capture by the state. One would expect the bunch of bureaucrats to…
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Episode 63: Al Watheq
Despite the general unpopularity of al Mu’tasim’s Turkish inner-circle, the paradigm he established proved so stable that it endured throughout the reign of his son and successor, Haoon al Watheq. The new caliph wasn’t very keen on administration: he left his father’s loyalists in their positions...
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Episode 62: Princely ambitions
Al Mu’tasim’s armies were among the strongest ever fielded by the caliphate. They reliably triumphed over their foes and faced no problems putting down any resistance to the caliph’s authority. Al Afshin and the Ushrusania were some of their most important elements, responsible for some of the...
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Episode 61: Al Mu’tasim
For the third time in a row, a son of Harun al Rashid took control of the umma. Al Mu’tasim is remembered for his close association with the Turkic peoples of the East, an interest supposedly nurtured by his Sogdian mother. Of these men he amassed a personal army during the reigns of his brothers...
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Episode 60: Greatness in retrospect
It’s hard to identify a single aspect of the umma left unchanged by al Ma’mun’s long reign: he had a major impact politically, socially, intellectually, religiously, and beyond. Despite its many impressive achievements however, its flaws receive an inordinate amount of attention in our sources....
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Episode 59: Faith and philosophy
Two decades of al Ma’mun’s capable administration led the caliphate to an extraordinary recovery. His return to Baghdad put an end to the chaotic aftermath of the great fitna and his enduring success helped the umma reach new heights militarily, commercially, and even intellectually. The material...
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Episode 58: Al Ma’mun
Back in Baghdad, al Ma’mun finally began to play an active role in running the Abbasid state. The five years he spent in Khurasan were rough on the rest of the caliphate, but especially disastrous for Iraq. The caliph now had to restore peace and central control to practically every province. His...
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Episode 57: Interregnum
Al Ma’mun’s surprise victory over his brother left him in charge of the entire caliphate. But the conclusion of the great fitna did not bring an end to its miseries: the chaos of war had spread throughout the land and the new caliph possessed neither the experience nor the resources to return…
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Episode 56: The great fitna
Haroon al Rashid divided his realm among his children, and the young men were quickly goaded into conflict with one another by their advisors. The unexperienced princes found the underlying tensions simply too powerful to overcome. But the predictability of war was upended by its unpredictable...
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Episode 55: Al Amin
Haroon al Rashid worked towards fool-proofing his succession arrangement more than any other caliph by far: the ceremony he held at Mecca with his heirs swearing to abide by his wishes is more elaborate than anything we have or will come across. He would not have gone to such lengths if he didn’t...
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Episode 54: Legacy issues
Due to his father al Mahdi’s arrangement, Haroon al Rashid endured a traumatic year during which his brother tried to have him removed from the line of succession. Having barely survived the experience, he put a great deal of thought and effort into the matter of his own succession in order to...
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Episode 53: Downfall of the Baramika
Royal advisors, court attendants, and other officials began to hold some real political power in the Abbasid caliphate, a development which progressed with every caliph who came after the micromanaging al Mansur. The Baramika during al Rashid’s reign represented the pinnacle of this sort of...
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Episode 52: Power struggle
Now that we’ve covered Haroon al Rashid’s foreign wars, we can get started with the messy conflicts which took place within the umma, and within his administration itself. The caliphate’s distant west slowly broke away during his reign, but his armies faced off and defeated various challengers...
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Episode 51: Holy warrior
Haroon al Rashid is commonly portrayed as a martial caliph, one who menaced the Byzantine empire and led a tireless crusade against them. He is praised in Arab sources for defeating the Greeks time and again, all in defense of the umma’s faith and faithful. While this popular opinion isn’t…
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Episode 50: Al Rashid
From our vantage point in the 21st century, it is clear that Haroon al Rashid is by far the most famous Arab caliph. His renown is not some modern phenomenon either: he may occasionally pop up as a cultural reference or on a trivia show, but he was immortalized early in the epic One Thousand and...
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Episode 49: Al Hadi
The sudden passing of Mohammad al Mahdi led his son Musa al Hadi to become the umma’s next leader sooner than anyone would have expected. With a wild disposition and little actual experience in administration, the twenty one year old became the youngest Abbasid to wield power. He didn’t get a...
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Episode 48: Al Mahdi
Al Mansur’s long reign transformed the caliphate in countless ways, most of them for the better. It provided a kind of stability the umma desperately needed to absorb the tumult of the Abbasid revolution and adjust to the new status quo. What followed was a golden age of prosperity, to be reaped…
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Episode 47: The city of peace
Perhaps most significant among al Mansur’s many triumphs was his founding of a new capital for his administration, a glorious new city which would come to be known as Baghdad. It was a decision that had a tremendous impact on Arab and world history, bringing the umma another step closer to the...
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Episode 46: Shifting east
The chaos of the Abbasid revolution gave foreign powers a rare opportunity to strike at the caliphate while it was paralyzed by internal strife. Things could have gone very badly for the Arabs but the unparalleled al Mansur proved as capable against these foes as he had those who had opposed him...
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Episode 45: Hashemite versus Hashemite
The Abbasids based their legitimacy on the fact that they were part of the prophet’s clan. This was not contested during the upheaval of their revolution, and in the following years al Saffah inflicted great pain on his enemies as a way of warning others not to mess with the new dynasty. Despite...
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Episode 44: The ghost of Abu Muslim
One of al Mansur’s first acts as caliph was to lure Abu Muslim to his court and assassinate the powerful and popular governor. This led to immediate turmoil in the East, leaving him to contend with sporadic upheavals for almost an entire decade. The caliph proved up to the task: his adept...
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Episode 43: Al Mansur
Much of what people associate with the idea of a medieval Arab caliphate is rooted in the reign of our upcoming caliph. The foundation he laid for his dynasty is so solid that it makes the Umayyad era seem like little more than a formalized extension of the early Arab raids against their...
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Episode 42: The triumphant
Succession once again warrants its own episode. Al Saffah relied on three commanders to oversee different parts of his caliphate, and while the setup kept the new dynasty safe and stable, the ambitions of these three leaders clashed soon after the caliph passed away.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
This podcast started as a log of my journey through multiple classical Arab histories. Listeners are now invited to join me as I construct a narrative out of the long and often contradictory accounts left to us by the earliest Arab historians. We’ll use their material - and more recent scholarship - to try and understand the political evolution of the Arabs from warring nomadic tribes at the edges of civilization, to the proud rulers of the greatest empire of their time, and then back again. Our vantage point into this world will be their leaders, the “successors to God’s prophet Mohammad”: the caliphs.
HOSTED BY
Zayd
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How many episodes does The Caliphs have?
The Caliphs currently has 90 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Caliphs about?
This podcast started as a log of my journey through multiple classical Arab histories. Listeners are now invited to join me as I construct a narrative out of the long and often contradictory accounts left to us by the earliest Arab historians. We’ll use their material - and more recent scholarship...
How often does The Caliphs release new episodes?
The Caliphs has 90 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to The Caliphs on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Caliphs?
The Caliphs is created and hosted by Zayd.
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