Islam and Science Fiction

with Jörg Matthias Determann

hosted by Shireen Hamza

| Islam and science fiction have more history together than you might expect. In this episode, we speak with Jörg Matthias Determann about the many ways science has fueled the imagination of people in Muslim-majority contexts over the last few hundred years. In his latest book, he shows how artists and missionaries participated in "cultures of astrobiology," or the study of life on other planets. Exploring the ways that a variety of authors, artists, and governments have imagined a future with and for Muslims, Matthias shows that there are many overlapping and competing visions of Muslim Futurism.

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Islam and science fiction have more history together than you might expect. In this episode, we speak with Jörg Matthias Determann about the many ways science has fueled the imagination of people in Muslim-majority contexts over the last few hundred years. In his latest book, he shows how artists and missionaries participated in "cultures of astrobiology," or the study of life on other planets. Exploring the ways that a variety of authors, artists, and governments have imagined a future with and for Muslims, Matthias shows that there are many overlapping and competing visions of Muslim Futurism.

Click here for a transcript of the interview

Contributor Bios

	Jörg Matthias Determann is an associate professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. He also serves as an associate editor of the Review of Middle East Studies.
	Shireen Hamza is a doctoral candidate in the History of Science department at Harvard University. Her research focuses on the history of medical exchange in the medieval Indian Ocean world.

Credits

Episode No. 521
Release Date: 13 February 2022
Recording Location: Doha, Qatar / Chicago, IL
Sound production by Shireen Hamza
Additional thanks to Sam Dolbee

Music/Sound Elements: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, Ḥamādah. Riḥlah ilá al-Qamar. Behna Films, 1959. https://archive.org/details/ATripToTheMoonEnglishSubs/A+Trip+to+the+Moon+(1959).mkv
Bibliography, images, and transcript courtesy of Jörg Matthias Determann

Further Listening

	Jörg Matthias Determann	431 10/25/19	The Arab Conquest of Space
	Emily Drumsta	493 2/8/21	Nazik al-Malaika's Revolt Against the Sun
	Suja Sawafta	414 6/14/19	The Environmental Politics of Abdul Rahman Munif
	Ahmed Ragab	385 10/13/18	Imagining Iraq
	Gökçe Günel	405 3/11/19	Status Quo Utopias in the UAE

Images

Book cover from the Egyptian pulp series Milaff al-Mustaqbal (Future File, started in 1985): Nabīl Fārūq, Ghuzzāt al-faḍāʾ [Space Invaders] (al-Muʾassasah al-ʿArabīyah al-Ḥadīthah, n.d.)


Book cover from the Egyptian pulp series Milaff al-Mustaqbal (Future File, started in 1985): Nabīl Fārūq, Maʿrakat al-kawākib [Battle of the Planets] (al-Qāhirah: al-Muʾassasah al-ʿArabīyah al-Ḥadīthah, n.d.)


Muslim futurist art: Saks Afridi, “Insider Outsider #1” (2016)


Muslim futurist art: Saks Afridi, Narcy (Yassin Alsalman), Tamara Abdul Hadi, and Roï Saade, “SpaceTime” (SpaceMosque), 2018


Muslim futurist art: Ayham Jabr, “Damascus under Siege-10” (2016)


Muslim futurist art: Ayham Jabr, “Damascus under Siege-10” (2020)

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