Category : Radio
4
Date : 08.06.2004
Printable version
In the Footsteps of
Muhammad, Monday 21 June, 8.00pm, Radio 4
The history of the prophet Muhammad and the major
impact he has had throughout the world is explored in this four part
series for Radio 4.
Edward Stourton follows In the Footsteps of Muhammad on a journey to
determine the true extent of Muhammad's influence over the last 1,500
years and in the present day.
Starting at his birthplace, Edward Stourton travels to Saudi Arabia,
to explore exactly who Muhammad was and how he came to develop what
is now the second most popular faith in the world, Islam.
He examines the social and religious climate of the time to see how
it helped to shape the beginnings of a religion which now has over a
billion followers.
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Moving on to Jerusalem the series visits the Dome of
the Rock, Islam's third holiest site.
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It explores the meaning of the word Jihad which refers
to three different kinds of struggle and looks at what it meant to Muhammad
and what it has come to mean today.
Continuing the voyage Edward Stourton travels to Spain which became
one of the great Muslim civilisations by the tenth century.
Islamic Spain was a multi-cultural mix of people of three religions
- Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
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This mix brought a degree of civilisation to Europe
and with it things that are taken for granted today such as toothpaste,
paper and algebra.
Nowhere is this highlighted better than with a visit to the Alhambra
at Granada. The last remaining medieval Muslim palace in the world,
it is deeply embedded with Islamic symbolism.
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The programme looks at how the mathematics used in its
design went far beyond what was known across Europe at the time and
the influence this came to have on the present day numerical system.
Finally, thousands of miles away in Indonesia, one of the largest Muslim
countries in the world, Edward Stourton asks if Islam and democracy
can truly be compatible.
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Joining him on his journey are a number of guests including
former president of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid, Lebanese novelist Hanan
Al-Shaykh and Dr Sami Angawi, a Saudi academic and descendant of the
prophet Muhammad.
