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A retrospective on our podcast’s enormous coverage of the Abrahamic religions, an introduction to the new season, and some special announcements.

Sufism emerged in the 700s and 800s as a powerful part of Islam’s development under the caliphates. This episode covers its early history, focusing on a generation of thinkers who lived between about 850 and 920.

Bashshar ibn Burd, feisty, restless, brilliant, and wise, was one of the founding figures of Classical Arabic poetry. Learn about his wife and works in this episode.

Kalilah and Dimnah, a cornerstone of Classical Arabic literature, is one of the most beloved story collections in history.

The Bundahisn is the Zoroastrian creation story. At once an epic and encyclopedia, it’s also a window into the end of Zoroastrianism’s ascendancy in Iran.

Between 602 and 628 CE, Rome fought Persia for the very last time. The war marked the end of the ancient world, and the beginning of the Middle Ages.

The hadiths are second only to the Qur’an in Islam. Short narratives about the Prophet Muhammad – the things he said and did – hadiths have been a source of wisdom and wisdom and inspiration for Muslims for more than a thousand years.

From 750-861, a dynasty of ten caliphs seated in modern-day Iraq ruled one of history’s largest empires. The territory they lost and won, the wars they fought, and the cultural renaissance that they helped usher in all had far reaching impacts on world history.