Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
His playing too advanced for small-town churches, his cantatas far more complex than those of his contemporaries (and thus under-appreciated), Bach initially found his genius thwarted. This program surveys the amazing achievements of the man of whom...
Forgetting the Arabs: Europe on the cusp of the Renaissance
Why was Islamic philosophy, once the epitome of Arab learning, eventually rejected by Muslims? And why, after assimilating it, did Europeans distance themselves from its formulators? This program seeks to understand the religious climate of the late...
Richard Wagner
In Lohengrin, Wagner links arias with recitatives - unbroken musical continuity is born. In Tristan und Isolde, he changes the very role of the orchestra. And in The Ring of the Niebelungen, he invents the leitmotif. This program charts the fortunes...
The Andalusian epic: Islamic Spain
This program addresses the expansion of the Arab empire into Spain, where Muslims ruled with tolerance for more than seven centuries. The introduction and consolidation of Islamic power in Spain, the creation of the Umayyad emirate by the sole survi...
Ulema and philosophers: faith vs. reason in Islamic Arabia
By replacing paganism with monotheism and tribal life with empire-building, the Arabs of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties effected a complete paradigm shift in their worldview. This program studies the codification of Islamic law and assimilation o...
The Arabs make their entrance: Islam and empire
As the shadow of the Dark Ages fell across Europe, the scene for the advancement of Western civilization shifted to the Near East. This program charts the rise of the Arab empire, from its roots in the long-standing rivalry between the Byzantines an...
The Muslim town: urban life under the caliphate
Although the first towns the Arabs founded during the expansion of Arabia were only vast campsites, it was not long before their temporary dwellings gave way to the magnificent signature architecture of Arabian culture. What was it like to live in t...
Everything under the sun: astronomy, mathematics, and Islam
Picking up mathematics and astronomy from where the ancient Greeks had left off, Arab scholars paved the way for the Copernican revolution and the rebirth of science in Europe. This program reveals the Empire of the Caliphate's role in developing th...
Once upon a time: Baghdad during the Abbasid dynasty
The victory of the Abbasids over the Umayyads signified much more than the replacement of one dynasty with another. With it, Islam saw the birth of a multiethnic concept of power, in which both Arab and non-Arab Muslims could share authority. This p...
From Arabic to Latin: the assimilation of Arab knowledge
As dissension mounted between the rival Arab dynasties in Baghdad, Cordoba, and Cairo, Christendom rallied to oppose the Muslims in Spain and Jerusalem. This program plots out the decline of the Empire of the Caliphate and the acquisition of Arab kn...