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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: The Islamic Golden Age

The Essay: The Islamic Golden Age: Episode 17: Cities of Learning

Factual: History

The Islamic Golden Age

Episode 17

Episode 17: Cities of Learning

Cities of Learning

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, The Islamic Golden Age, Cities of LearningClose menu

Dr Amira Bennison considers the intellectual powerhouses of Baghdad and Cairo.

Dr Amira Bennison considers the intellectual powerhouses of Baghdad and Cairo - fundamental to progress.

Radio 3's twenty-part essay series on the Islamic Golden Age continues its exploration through this five-hundred-year period of empire, innovation, religious turmoil, scientific discovery and major advances in philosophical thought. In this evening's essay, Dr. Amira Bennison examines the creation of two great cities of learning - Baghdad and Cairo.

The medieval Middle East is the stuff of fantasy, from the windswept deserts of Arabia to the bustling bazaars of cities like Baghdad and Cairo. But what were these cities actually like? And what part did they play in creating great men (and sometimes women) of letters, science and art? Cities figured in the Muslim imagination as hubs of religion, government, commerce and culture. Medieval Muslim geographers often conceptualised their world as one of routes linking an endless series of towns and cities like stars glittering in the firmament. Although some of these cities like Jerusalem or Damascus were already ancient when the Muslims arrived in the 7th century, others, Baghdad and Cairo included, were new Muslim creations - brash, vibrant and dense with talent, the New Yorks of their age.

Producer: Mohini Patel.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Series rediscovering some of the key thinkers and achievements from the Islamic Golden Age

Series rediscovering some of the key thinkers and achievements from the Islamic Golden Age, focusing on architecture, invention, medicine, innovation and philosophy

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Episode 17: Cities of Learning

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