Synopsis
Religion makes a comeback into people's lives in the Islamic world and elsewhere, as people seek guidance and spiritual sustenance during periods of modernisation and social upheaval.
- Programme: People's Century
- Series: 3
- Episode: 24: 1979: God Fights Back
- Channel: BBC Two
- Broadcast year: 1997
- History
Licence: ERA Licence required
UK only
Staff and students of licensed education establishments only
Cannot be adapted
Add Notes
More clips from 03

19: 1954: Living Longer | People's Century
19: 1954: Living Longer | People's Century
Medical advances allow people to live longer and healthier lives. Penicillin is developed in time to save lives during the Second ...

20: 1949: Great Leap Forward | People's Century
20: 1949: Great Leap Forward | People's Century
Communism helps modernise China, but the decisions and personality cult of CCP Chairman Mao Zedong has a traumatic effect on ...

21: 1968: New Release | People's Century
21: 1968: New Release | People's Century
The baby boom produced a cohort of children in the affluent and secure post-war world who for the first time would question establis...

22: 1970: Half the People | People's Century
22: 1970: Half the People | People's Century
Women struggle to win political and economic rights in societies gamed to entrench male privilege. Even with limited suffrage, a...

23: 1975: War of the Flea | People's Century
23: 1975: War of the Flea | People's Century
While in the second half of the century there are fewer conventional wars, civil conflicts under the backdrop of superpower riva...

25: 1989: People Power | People's Century
25: 1989: People Power | People's Century
By the 1970s the people in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were becoming aware of the economic failures of central planning.

26: 1997: Fast Forward | People's Century
26: 1997: Fast Forward | People's Century
Governments around the world liberalise trade and withdraw from intervening in the economy, giving new opportunities to those who a...
More resources about Islamic civilisations (e.g., baghdad c. 900)

1: Medicine and Religion | History File
1: Medicine and Religion | History File
Programme begins with looking at Ancient Greece, then the Roman Empire then looking at Muslim and Christian links.

1: Medicine, Religion and Natural Causes | History File
1: Medicine, Religion and Natural Causes | History File
This programme looks at ancient Egypt, Hippocrates, Christianity and Islam.

1: Wellspring of Holiness | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
1: Wellspring of Holiness | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
Simon Sebag Montefiore begins a history of Jerusalem by exploring how it came into being and how it became s...

2: Clash of the Titans | The Crusades
2: Clash of the Titans | The Crusades
Dr Thomas Asbridge examines the two figures who have come to embody Crusader war: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin.

2: Invasion, Invasion, Invasion | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
2: Invasion, Invasion, Invasion | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
Simon Sebag Montefiore continues his history of Jerusalem by discovering the impact of Islam and the c...

2: The Cross and the Crescent | Africa's Great Civilisations
2: The Cross and the Crescent | Africa's Great Civilisations
Henry Louis Gates Jr explores how the emergence of Christianity and Islam reshaped Africa over centuries.

Al-Khwarizmi's digit and numerical system | Science and Islam
Al-Khwarizmi's digit and numerical system | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili explains how our numerical system spread to Europe through the work of the Arabic mathematician ...

Algebra | Science and Islam
Algebra | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili describes the invention of algebra by medieval Islamic mathematicians.

Arabic, the language of God | Science and Islam
Arabic, the language of God | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili looks at how Islamic caliphs encouraged scientific research and made Arabic the official language of their vas...

Episode 1 | The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
Episode 1 | The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
Rageh Omaar examines the history of the Ottoman empire. He starts by looking at the unlikely roots of the Ottomans, as nom...

Episode 2 | The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
Episode 2 | The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
Rageh Omaar explores the contrasts between two very different Ottoman sultans, Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th centur...

Episode 3 | The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
Episode 3 | The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
Rageh Omaar ends his series with a look at how the collapse of the Ottoman Empire created a legacy of tension and conflict...

Islamic Medicine | Science and Islam
Islamic Medicine | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili explains the importance of medical knowledge to medieval Islam.

Map-making | Science and Islam
Map-making | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili explains why Al-Ma'mun, a medieval caliph, funded a programme of map-making.

Medieval Islamic Compassion | Science and Islam
Medieval Islamic Compassion | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili talks about the enduring legacies of medieval Islamic medicine.

Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
Simon Sebag Montefiore investigates the extraordinary life of Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem.

Pact of Omar | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
Pact of Omar | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
Simon Sebag Montefiore discusses the circumstances in which the Pact of Omar between Christian and Muslim rulers was nego...

Printing press | Science and Islam
Printing press | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili looks at how the printing press shifted the centres of scientific research from East to West.

The Crusades
The Crusades
Dr Thomas Asbridge re-examines the story of the Crusades. He traces the epic journey of the first crusaders as they marched from Europe to recapture the city of...

The first crusade | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
The first crusade | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
Simon Sebag Montefiore discusses the events of the first crusade.