{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fafikra.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Falan-mikhail-SQGNaW8P","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"Ottoman Environmental History, Sultan Selim's Ambition, & NYC's First \"Muslim\" | Prof. Alan Mikhail","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/1ce0a58c-3e05-4d4b-a2e7-f3ffb869b215/29decdd8-9ed2-413f-87ee-5362994ea4a1/the_afikra_podcast.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"<iframe src=\"https://player.simplecast.com/8384abc0-ec06-4304-8ff8-b582d797ee36\" height=\"200\" width=\"100%\" title=\"Ottoman Environmental History, Sultan Selim&apos;s Ambition, &amp; NYC&apos;s First &quot;Muslim&quot; | Prof. Alan Mikhail\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"></iframe>","height":200,"description":"We know about Islam in America, but what about America in Islam? Yale historian Alan Mikhail unpacks Sultan Selim I, the thuggish sultan who wrote bad poetry yet conquered the Arab world in 1516–17 and, Mikhail argues, changed the course of world history. From the water buffalo that powered Ottoman Egypt’s rural economy to Muhammad Ali’s deadly Mahmudiyya Canal, they explore how environmental history reveals the lives of the farmers who made up most of the Middle East’s past. Then the conversation crosses the Atlantic to meet Anthony the Turk, often called New York’s first Muslim, whose mysterious origins and life in the Dutch colony are at the heart of Mikhail’s new book Newcomers."}