Akbar’s Chamber offers a non-political, non-sectarian and non-partisan space for exploring the past and present of Islam. It has no political or theological bias other than a commitment to the Socratic method (which is to say that questions lead us to understanding) and the empirical record (which is to say the evidence of the world around us). By these methods, Akbar’s Chamber is devoted to enriching public awareness of Islam and Muslims both past and present. The podcast aims to improve understanding of Islam in all its variety, in all regions of the world, by inviting experts to share their specialist knowledge in terms that we can all understand.
The Making of an American Islamicist: The Early Career of Richard M. Eaton
November 2026 sees Richard M. Eaton presented with the biennial Giorgio Levi Della Vida Award in Islamic Studies from UCLA. But it was exactly fifty years ago that he finished work on his first book, Sufis of Bijapur, 1300-1700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India. The book pioneered a socio-historical approach to the spread of Islam in South Asia, focusing on the various social roles played by Sufis in the Deccan region of southern India. In the decades since, Eaton has written six more monographs, broadening in scope from the Deccan to the Punjab, Bengal and ‘Persianate India’ writ large. His books have won many prestigious prizes from the Middle East Studies Association, the Association for Asian Studies, and the American Historical Association. In this episode, we focus on his formative experiences as a scholar of Islam, from his travels through Iran and Afghanistan in the 1960s to his historical studies in the United States and his search for manuscripts in India that fed into that first book, Sufis of Bijapur, 1300-1700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India (Princeton University Press, 1978).
1 Sept 2026
Sacred Orientation: How Medieval Muslims, Jews and Christians Understood the Qibla
When any Muslim worships, from anywhere in the world, they orientate themselves towards Mecca. Whether in a mosque, at home, or outdoors, this act of orientation is a prerequisite of prayer. So much so, in fact, that it is easy to take this for granted, without wondering how this came about, and what Muslim—and non-Muslim—scholars thought about it over the centuries. In this episode, we explore the origins, implications and debates about qibla, or sacred orientation, from the verses of the Quran through the inter-religious dialogues of the medieval period and the evidence of early mosque architecture. Nile Green talks to Ari M. Gordon, author of Sacred Orientation in Late Antiquity and Early Islam (Routledge, 2026).
1 Aug 2026
Rules for Life: Timeless Lessons from Tenth Century Central Asia
A thousand years ago, in the city of Samarqand, a scholar by the name of Abu al-Layth gave lessons about how to live a good life—a life that was pleasing both to God and to people. He dealt with almost every aspect of life, from how to greet people and how to eat, to how to study and debate. What’s more, Abu al-Layth also explained why, linking lessons on manners to clear moral principles laid out in the Quran and the life of the Prophet. At some point, Abu al-Layth’s students compiled these teachings into a book called Bustan al-‘Arifin (‘The Garden of the Knowledgeable’). Over the passing of time, its reputation grew and grew, seeing copies and translations being made from the Ottoman Empire to Aceh in what is today Indonesia. And now the book is finally available in English too. Nile Green talks to Peri Bearman, translator of A Guide to a Life of Moral Integrity: An Annotated Translation of Bustān al-ʿārifīn by Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī (Georgias Press, 2025).
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