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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.
Episodes
Tuesday Mar 01, 2022
Tuesday Mar 01, 2022
Shi‘ism is usually thought of in relation to the Middle East, especially Iran and Iraq. But India and Pakistan have a combined population of up to 50 million Shi‘ite Muslims. While venerating the sacred history of the battle of Karbala—where the third Shi‘i imam Husayn was martyred in 680 CE—these Indian and Pakistani Shi‘ites have developed their own rich regional traditions, especially in terms of ceremonies, buildings, and material culture. Such is the aesthetic and emotional appeal of these traditions that they have also attracted not only Sunni participants, but even certain Hindus, such as the centuries-old community of Husayni Brahmins. In this episode, we’ll learn about the rituals, relics, and sacred sites through which the Shi‘is of South Asia and their non-Shi‘i sympathizers annually recreate Karbala in cities and villages across the subcontinent. Nile Green talks to Karen Ruffle (Associate Professor of History of Religions at the University of Toronto), the author of Everyday Shiʿism in South Asia (Wiley-Blackwell, 2021).
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