Podcast Episodes Themed "‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib"

Episode 221: Prolegomena to the Development of the Shī‘a and of Shī‘ī Esotericisms in the Eighth Century and Beyond

We discuss the Iraqi context of the early shī‘ī movements, explore some of the political, esoteric, and politicesoteric concerns of the early partisans of the ahl al-bayt, and then give a basic run-down of some of the most important shiite movements and their imams.

Episode 208: Ahab Bdaiwi on the Rise of Shī‘ī Esotericism

In Part I we looked at the political events leading up to the formation of the Shi'a. In Part II we see that it did not take long for things to get very esoteric. Come for the programmatic esoteric hermeneutics, stay for the occult sciences.

Episode 207: Ahab Bdaiwi on ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, his Family, and the Origins of Shī‘ī Islam

We pick up from our last episode, where geopolitics and esotericism met in the crucible of Roman, Sassanian, and Arab political struggles. Ahab Bdaiwi threads the labyrinth of the earliest historical sources for the birth of the movement within Islām which came to be known as the Party of ‘Alī, or the Shi‘ā.