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REVIEW BY ADAM KLUPS
Are Muslims native to Europe? Should Islam, in a historical and cultural sense, be considered an indigenous European religion? Readers who believe they already know the answers to these questions may find themselves reconsidering after accompanying Tharik Hussain on his fascinating journey across the Mediterranean in search of Europe’s Muslim past.
In his mould-breaking book Muslim Europe: a journey in search of a fourteen hundred year history, Tharik – a travelling historian with a keen eye for overlooked narratives – invites readers to rediscover a continent whose story is far more diverse than conventional history textbooks suggest. What begins as a personal voyage of curiosity evolves into a compelling argument: Muslims have neither been mere footnotes in Europe’s past nor temporary visitors or invaders. Since their arrival in Cyprus less than two decades after the death of Prophet Muhammad, they have been a constant and formative part of Europe’s story, woven deeply into its cultural, intellectual, architectural, and spiritual fabric.
Tharik adeptly challenges the narrow historical lens through which Islam is often viewed in Europe. Conventional narratives tend to reference Muslims only sparingly – sometimes in a positive manner, in relation to their scientific and architectural contributions, sometimes in adversarial contexts, such as the conquest and reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Yet, as Tharik demonstrates, these familiar touchpoints conceal far richer and more complex tangible and intangible heritage, and a history that has long been neglected or conveniently disregarded.
The book’s boldest contribution lies in its insistence that Islam was not a peripheral or distracting sideshow to Europe’s Judeo-Christian narrative. Rather, it played an integral role in shaping the continent’s development and identity. Tharik’s work may well be one of the first attempts to comprehensively examine and explore Islam’s early European history – an effort that exposes gaps and omissions in Europe’s self-told story.
As readers follow Tharik through Cyprus, Malta, Sicily, Portugal, and Spain, encountering early Islamic evidence and influences, forgotten scholars, and Muslim philosophers who helped shape European thought, they may be surprised by what has been hiding in plain sight. Yet the book gently guides them toward a broader, more inclusive understanding of Europe: one in which Muslims are not outsiders but long-standing contributors.
Muslim Europe is an important and timely work, particularly for those seeking a deeper sense of belonging within the multicultural mosaic of modern Western Europe. While some critics may argue that Tharik is not unearthing wholly new material, his achievement lies elsewhere: in exposing how thoroughly the Muslim contribution to Europe has been diminished and overlooked, and in making this history accessible to a wide contemporary audience.
Thought-provoking, corrective, and quietly radical, Tharik’s book enriches our understanding of Europe’s complex past, and invites readers to imagine a more honest and inclusive future.
Muslim Europe: a journey in search of a fourteen hundred year history
Tharik Hussain
Penguin, £25
ISBN 978-0241742822
