Скачать или смотреть The Politics Behind Islamic Origins - Prof. Aaron W. Hughes

In this episode of Real Talk, we sit down with Professor Aaron Hughes to explore the complex and often controversial field of Islamic origins. Drawing from his influential works The Tyranny of Authenticity and The Current Status and Problems of Islamic Origins, Hughes challenges how Islamic history is studied, who gets to study it, and why the politics of authenticity, identity, and ideology continue to shape the field.

We cover a wide range of questions:

How have things changed in Islamic Studies since Tyranny was published?

Why does the study of Islam’s origins demand a "meta" level of theory and method?

What does it mean to approach the Qur’an through the lens of Late Antiquity?

And how do scholars navigate the appropriation of their work by political actors—or even YouTubers?

Alongside these critical reflections, Hughes weighs in on contemporary debates surrounding revisionist scholarship, insider/outsider tensions, and whether a truly “critical” Qur’an project is even possible.

This is a wide-ranging, challenging, and timely conversation for anyone interested in religion, history, or the politics of academic knowledge.