In the eighth century, a new dynasty swept across the Middle East, toppling the Umayyads and founding a capital that would become the intellectual and commercial heart of the medieval world: Baghdad. Lucas and Luna guide listeners through the rise of the Abbasid Caliphate, from the bloody revolution of 750 CE to the golden age of Harun al-Rashid and the translation movement that preserved Greek philosophy. They explore the construction of the Round City, the cosmopolitan court where Persian viziers, Arab poets, and Indian mathematicians mingled, and the emergence of the ulema as a political force. The series traces the caliphate's peak under al-Ma'mun, the eventual fragmentation into rival emirates, and the devastating Mongol sack of 1258 that ended an era. Along the way, they examine the Abbasid patronage of science and literature, the rise of Sufism, the role of the mawali (non-Arab converts), and the influence of the caliphate on European thought through Spain and Sicily. This is not a simple narrative of decline: it is a story of how a single dynasty shaped the Islamic world's relationship with power, knowledge, and faith. Why does the Abbasid legacy—from algebra to The Thousand and One Nights—still resonate today? Tune in to find out.

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