Summary: Explores the nature of Islam and unfolds many of its inner-dimensions. It dispels many myths and discusses contributions to science and math.
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies 2014
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 297 LEGSummary: Islam has more than 1.2 billion adherents worldwide. Today, it is imperative that the West understand Islam's role as both a religion and a way of life, what Muslims believe, their practices and history. This set of twelve thirty-minute lectures present an exploration of Islamic law, mysticism, civilization, and Muslim life and society through the ages. Examines the "struggle for the soul of...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: The Teaching Company 2003
Copies Available at Woodmere
2 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 297 GRESummary: 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 program presents the Abbasid Caliphate at its peak, enthroned in its prestigious capital city: Baghdad. The defining project of Caliph al-Ma'amun,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: 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 the Indo-Arabic decimal system, algebra, and algorithms and in refining the science of optics and the Ptolemaic model of the solar system. The...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program follows in the footsteps of the traders who introduced Islam into Southeast Asia. From the Thai, Cambodian, and Vietnamese mainland to the islands of Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, the program acquaints viewers with Islamic culture, representative architecture, historical monuments, and the Muslim way of life in the region.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: It is the summer of 2006, and a bus filled with Iranian men and women sets out on a perilous journey to the holy sites of Najaf and Karbala in war-torn Iraq. Wide Angle accompanies them on their pilgrimage-revealing many of the attitudes, beliefs, and emotions that add to the complexity of modern Islam. As the bus rolls through breathtaking desert landscapes, the five-day odyssey takes on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: This program investigates the practice of medicine during the Abbasid Caliphate, offering profiles of Jurjis ibn Jibrail, personal doctor to Caliph al-Mansur; Yuhanna ibn Masawayh, head of Caliph al-Ma'amun's House of Wisdom; Rhazes, whose Kitab al-hawi outlines an exemplary clinical approach; Avicenna, universally known for his Canon of Medicine; and Abul Qasim al-Zahrawi, the father of modern...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: 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 and the Sassanids. Nodes along that timeline include the dual role of Mecca as a place of worship and as a center for trade, the life of Muhammad and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: For women living in Afghanistan under repressive Taliban rule, beatings, rape, and enslavement were commonplace occurrences. This gripping program, filmed during the Taliban's regime, describes the massive human rights abuses that escalated after the withdrawal of Soviet forces, as seen through the eyes of women who survived years of rampant gender and religious intolerance. Resistance...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This program portrays the Crusades as a response to the rapid rise of Islam. It looks at various orders of Christian monks and their role in the preservation of religious, artistic, and cultural aspects of civilization. The Inquisition-the Church's response to the rise of heresy and the practice of witchcraft and magic in the Middle Ages-illustrates the ultimate in religious intolerance which...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: It is perhaps the most coveted piece of real estate on the planet: the Temple Mount, as it is known to Jews and Christians, or the Noble Sanctuary, as Muslims call it. Few cameras have ever been allowed inside this guarded and controversial place-until now. Produced with exclusive permission to film within the 35-acre walled enclosure and the Dome of the Rock, this program serves to build...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: During the 10th century, people routinely journeyed from one end of the huge Arab empire to the other-and even into non-Islamic lands far to the north and the east. Who were these travelers, and what did they seek? This program captures what it was like to be a pilgrim in a caravan bound for Mecca, an official carrying out the Caliph's orders, a scholar seeking knowledge, a merchant in search...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: The second installment in the PBS series Jerusalem: Center of the World focuses on the city's evolution under Roman rule; its historical significance in both Christianity and Islam, past and present; the tensions that exist between Jews and Muslims in modern Jerusalem; and the uncertainties that lie ahead for the planet's most contested piece of land.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Former boxer, three-time World Heavyweight Champion, and cultural icon, Muhammad Ali represented the United States at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and won the gold medal under his original name, Cassius Clay. Upon returning to the U.S., Clay went to the Overtown section of Miami, a dynamic center of black business and entertainment. During this period, he developed professionally and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: 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 survivor of the Umayyad dynasty, the rise of Cordoba as a cultural rival of Abbasid Baghdad, and the gradual ebb of Arab rule on the Iberian Peninsula...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: 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 knowledge by Europeans starved for Islam's intellectual riches. The rise of feudalism and papal authority, the gradual defeat of the Muslim rulers in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: 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 the Arab cities of the Abbasid dynasty, grand oases of refinement and innovation? This program describes key centers of the Muslim town, including...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This engrossing documentary provides a historical overview of Shiites' religious suppression in Iraq-spanning 13 centuries-then enters the heart of Iraq's holy cities to see how Shiites initially react to recent spiritual liberties. It gives firsthand accounts of Saddam Hussein's merciless campaign against Shiites in Karbala during the Gulf War, and highlights the power struggle in Najaf's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The precarious hopes and daily struggles of Gaza strip residents are documented in this compelling program, which focuses on the 2003 summer ceasefire-a chapter of Israeli-Palestinian history filled with American ambivalence, disappointing prisoner releases, and the eventual disintegration of the ceasefire itself. A pacifist Gazan artist, his militant-minded son, and the pragmatic widow of a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Encompassing fairy tales, romances, legends, fables, parables, and anecdotes, The Thousand and One Nights is a composite of popular oral stories that developed over several centuries, mainly during the Empire of the Caliphate. This program scrutinizes the wonderfully audacious tale of Scheherazade and what it tells the attentive reader about the dreams of Arab men and women during the empire's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Each year millions of travelers flock to Mecca, undertaking the Haj, or pilgrimage, required of all devout Muslims. Few people outside of Islam, however, have seen this ancient and sacred city. This program offers an unprecedented look at the birthplace of Mohammed and the rituals that bring together the followers of the world's fastest-growing religion. Photographer Reza Deghati, himself a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Muslims arrived in India the same year they entered Spain-and by the end of the 13th century ruled nearly all of the country. This program travels across India by way of Iran, Pakistan, and Maldives to examine the rich Islamic heritage of the region. The program also observes the Muslim way of life on the subcontinent as it exists today. Sites of note include the Taj Mahal, the Golkonda Fort...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: 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 of non-Arab texts-and the ensuing competition between the ulema, or doctors of the law, and the philosophers, who saw reason as an equal to divine...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: 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 Middle Ages, in which universities and madrassas became centers of power and models for evolving sociopolitical systems. The potentially heretical...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006