Islam

In 1401, 69-year-old scholar Ibn Khaldun lowered himself down Damascus's walls in a basket to meet the conquering Tamerlane face-to-face---a living test of his revolutionary theories about how civilizations rise and fall. Writing in 1375, Ibn Khaldun invented sociology by identifying asabiyyah (social cohesion) as the fundamental force in history, describing how prosperity weakens the bonds that hold societies together in predictable cycles.

In twelfth-century Morocco, a court physician wrote a philosophical novel about a child raised alone on an island by a doe---no humans, no language, no scripture. Just observation and thought. Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzan asked: what can a human soul discover on its own? The story traveled from Arabic to Hebrew to Latin to English, inspiring John Locke's blank slate theory, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and the entire nature versus nurture debate. Eight hundred fifty years later, we're still arguing about it in our schools, our AI labs, our parenting decisions.

In twelfth-century Crdoba, a judge and physician spent his life defending a dangerous idea: that you don't have to choose between faith and reason. Ibn Rushd---known in the West as Averroes---argued that rigorous inquiry strengthens genuine belief, that questioning what you value doesn't dishonor it. His commentaries on Aristotle preserved Greek philosophy for Europe and sparked centuries of debate about whether wisdom requires both Athens and Jerusalem, or forces you to pick sides.

Harmonia returns to tenth-century Crdoba to follow Hasdai ibn Shaprut---physician, diplomat, and cultural bridge---showing how trust, translation, and service helped knowledge travel beyond the library's walls and shaped a more connected world.

Harmonia returns to tenth-century Crdoba to witness Caliph al-Hakam II's extraordinary library, where scholars like Lubna safeguarded knowledge from across civilizations, shaping the future of learning and shared human progress.

In tenth-century Crdoba, one of the greatest libraries in the Western world was not only built---it was carefully tended, organized, and protected by a woman named Lubna. Trained as a scribe in the Umayyad court, her brilliance carried her from enslavement to freedom, and then into an extraordinary role: managing a vast treasury of human knowledge. In this episode, Harmonia walks the lamp-lit halls of Crdoba's library and follows the quiet revolution Lubna embodied---education as sacred trust, dignity as recognized potential, and learning as the bridge from one generation to the next.

Harmonia walks the candlelit streets of Al-Andalus to tell the story of Ibn Arab, the Sufi mystic whose vision of a widened heart taught that truth can be encountered across cultures, faiths, and differences. From the vibrant scholarship of Seville to a life of travel and spiritual insight, this episode explores how love itself became a form of knowledge --- and why that wisdom feels more necessary than ever in our interconnected world.

In 1017, Persian scholar Al-Biruni arrived in India with a conquering army---but chose to become a student instead. Over thirteen years, he learned Sanskrit, studied Hindu sacred texts, and wrote a groundbreaking work of comparative religion. His story reveals a timeless spiritual practice: the discipline of genuine curiosity across divides. At a time when everything seems to be breaking apart, Al-Biruni shows us how a new world is being built---one question, one bridge, one act of understanding at a time.

In 11th century Baghdad, the brilliant scholar al-Ghazl stood at the peak of intellectual achievement---and discovered that knowing about God wasn't the same as knowing God. His crisis, and the path he found through it, opened a way for the world to hold both rigorous reason and deep spirituality without choosing between them. In a time when we're still told we must pick sides---rational or faithful, scientific or spiritual---his life reminds us that these have never been opposites. They're partners. And we need both.

In Abbasid Baghdad, scholars of many faiths gathered in the House of Wisdom to preserve, translate, and transmit humanity's inherited knowledge. This episode explores how Islam, durable materials like vellum, and careful institutions formed a bridge between the ancient world and a reawakening Europe.