Episodes

  • Episode 89: Al Muttaqi, al Mustakfi, and al Muti’

    Episode 89: Al Muttaqi, al Mustakfi, and al Muti’
    Sep 22 2024
    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 state’s wealth, prestige, and authority. Whenever things looked like they couldn’t get any worse, what was thought to be rock-bottom gave way to reveal a deeper abyss. The ruling clan’s enfeeblement crescendoed in the 940’s, until it became a simple matter for another dynasty to swoop in and take all that the Abbasids had inherited.
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    26 mins
  • Episode 88: Amir al umara’

    Episode 88: Amir al umara’
    Sep 1 2024
    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 difficult it was to rule a city surrounded by enemies on all sides. Their feuding weakened and impoverished all sides in this conflict, sapping Iraq’s ability to defend itself from invading forces.
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    29 mins
  • Episode 87: Al Radi the irrelevant

    Episode 87: Al Radi the irrelevant
    Aug 11 2024
    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 money; all he had was the inherited legitimacy of his lineage. He largely served as a symbolic head of state while the more powerful men around him jockeyed for wealth and control. In many ways, this caliph will be the very last one.
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    31 mins
  • Episode 86: Al Qaher’s folly

    Episode 86: Al Qaher’s folly
    Jul 14 2024
    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 but his gratuitous brutality and empty pockets lost him what little support he had. It didn’t take long for his troops to turn on him, propagating the Abbasid predicament for another generation.
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    34 mins
  • Episode 85: Third time’s the charm

    Episode 85: Third time’s the charm
    Jun 16 2024
    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 smaller armies, and lost territory to the Fatimids, the Byzantines, and the Qaramita. An assault on the capital province revealed how far Abbasid power had withered, prompting the military to assert itself over the civil bureaucracy. What started out as an attempt to address the root cause of the state’s weakness eventually devolved into violence, with terrible consequences for the caliph and his dynasty.
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    35 mins
  • Episode 84: General Mu’nis

    Episode 84: General Mu’nis
    May 26 2024
    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 efforts preserved the caliph’s authority over lands that would have otherwise broken away, and Mu’nis kept it up for as long as he could.
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    Less than 1 minute
  • Thoughts on Palestine

    Thoughts on Palestine
    May 4 2024
    My personal experiences and opinions on a subject close to my heart and fate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xottY-7m3k At first, I found YouTube's needless tag about the Holocaust on this video to be merely insulting. I realized with time it's far more insidious than that; it has a silencing effect on any expression that is critical of Israel's conduct. There is absolutely no holocaust denial in this video, but that tag alone can discourage people from checking it out, and bias them towards thinking that the author is some unhinged bigot. Another great example of how being blindly pro-Zionist can only come at the cost of free thought and expression. One of my childhood magazines. The first panel identifies the round ball as Netenyahu, and says, 'A war erupts between Palestine and Israel after Netenyahu says something silly'. The second panel continues, 'Palestine covers Israel in a rain of stones'. Picture I snapped of the Israeli warship on Friday July 14th 2006 with my Nokia phone. It would be damaged in a daring attack by Hezbollah that same night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRRrCYX5hJ0
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Episode 83: War of the wazirs

    Episode 83: War of the wazirs
    Apr 21 2024
    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 encouraged the worst types of administrative abuses. This cancer at the very top of official power lasted so long it devastated the caliphate far more than any war with a foreign enemy; it was a fall the Abbasids never recovered from.
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    34 mins