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Muslim Europe: A Journey in Search of a Fourteen Hundred Year History
‘Vital, important’ WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
‘Perspective-shattering’ CAROLINE SANDERSON
'Offers a fresh, bracing perspective on European history' THE TIMES
For over 1,400 years, Muslims have been an integral part of Europe’s story, yet their contributions have been pushed to the margins or erased altogether. In Muslim Europe, award-winning author Tharik Hussain restores this forgotten history.
In a revelatory journey across the continent, we tread in the footsteps of the first Muslims who arrived on European soil in 647 AD. We travel through Cyprus, Sicily, Malta, Portugal and Spain, learning about the continent’s great Caliphate culture and Muslim commonwealth, encountering red-haired European Sultans and Arabic-speaking Christian Kings, the Sufi lodges of Cyprus and the palaces of Sicily.
Forgotten Muslim pioneers like Abbas Ibn Firnas gave us flight, Ibn Rushd gifted us modern philosophy and the cross fertilisation of faiths and cultures birthed Europe’s Christian Renaissance. For twelve centuries, Muslim Europe was a sanctuary for the continent’s Jews. Recalling the poignant voices of Hasdai Ibn Shaprut and Abraham Ibn Daoud, Jews flourished under Muslim protection triggering the Jewish Golden Age.
For the first time, Muslim Europe lays bare the cause of our collective Islamic amnesia by mapping Europe’s ‘anti-Muslim DNA’ through medieval Crusade narratives and nation-building myths. But Islam was never a sideshow to Western culture; it was integral to its development for over 1,400 years.
Deep, learned and utterly convincing, this first Muslim Eurocentric history of the continent dismantles the myth of Europe’s Judaeo-Christian cultural foundation, and offers nothing less than a profound shift in our self-understanding.
‘Uncovers a world of which few are fully aware’ COLIN THUBRON
‘Perspective-shattering’ CAROLINE SANDERSON
'Offers a fresh, bracing perspective on European history' THE TIMES
For over 1,400 years, Muslims have been an integral part of Europe’s story, yet their contributions have been pushed to the margins or erased altogether. In Muslim Europe, award-winning author Tharik Hussain restores this forgotten history.
In a revelatory journey across the continent, we tread in the footsteps of the first Muslims who arrived on European soil in 647 AD. We travel through Cyprus, Sicily, Malta, Portugal and Spain, learning about the continent’s great Caliphate culture and Muslim commonwealth, encountering red-haired European Sultans and Arabic-speaking Christian Kings, the Sufi lodges of Cyprus and the palaces of Sicily.
Forgotten Muslim pioneers like Abbas Ibn Firnas gave us flight, Ibn Rushd gifted us modern philosophy and the cross fertilisation of faiths and cultures birthed Europe’s Christian Renaissance. For twelve centuries, Muslim Europe was a sanctuary for the continent’s Jews. Recalling the poignant voices of Hasdai Ibn Shaprut and Abraham Ibn Daoud, Jews flourished under Muslim protection triggering the Jewish Golden Age.
For the first time, Muslim Europe lays bare the cause of our collective Islamic amnesia by mapping Europe’s ‘anti-Muslim DNA’ through medieval Crusade narratives and nation-building myths. But Islam was never a sideshow to Western culture; it was integral to its development for over 1,400 years.
Deep, learned and utterly convincing, this first Muslim Eurocentric history of the continent dismantles the myth of Europe’s Judaeo-Christian cultural foundation, and offers nothing less than a profound shift in our self-understanding.
‘Uncovers a world of which few are fully aware’ COLIN THUBRON
417 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 4, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 30, 2025
Having read his previous book minarets in the mountains I was really looking forward to this and it did not disappoint.
Very well researched I now have a whole new list of places for my bucket list.
Ishbillya
Emirate of Sequilla
Malta.
The book details a history that has been purposefully forgotten and surpressed. You get a sense of this just by looking at the one star review and no comment on Goodreads. For some people anything with the word Muslim or Islam is like a red rag to a bull!
Very well researched I now have a whole new list of places for my bucket list.
Ishbillya
Emirate of Sequilla
Malta.
The book details a history that has been purposefully forgotten and surpressed. You get a sense of this just by looking at the one star review and no comment on Goodreads. For some people anything with the word Muslim or Islam is like a red rag to a bull!
January 17, 2026
Muslim Europe is a beautifully written blend of travel writing and history that reintroduces Europe through its often-forgotten Muslim past. Moving across Spain, Sicily, Cyprus, and beyond, Tharik Hussain challenges modern assumptions by revealing a Europe once shaped by cultural exchange, spiritual depth, and coexistence.
This is not a dry history book—it reads like a journey. Accessible, reflective, and visually rich, it’s perfect for travelers, history lovers, and anyone curious about identity and belonging in Europe. As a Muslim European, this book felt both grounding and necessary: a reminder that Muslims are not strangers to Europe—this has always been home.
Reading about Barakah Café in Órgiva—evoked a sense of return. It felt like traveling back to Spain for a simple village coffee, recalling café bombón: espresso with condensed milk. These moments demonstrate the book’s unique ability to connect historical reflection with lived, everyday experience.
A joyful, thought-provoking read that connects memory, place, and shared humanity. 📖🌹
This is not a dry history book—it reads like a journey. Accessible, reflective, and visually rich, it’s perfect for travelers, history lovers, and anyone curious about identity and belonging in Europe. As a Muslim European, this book felt both grounding and necessary: a reminder that Muslims are not strangers to Europe—this has always been home.
Reading about Barakah Café in Órgiva—evoked a sense of return. It felt like traveling back to Spain for a simple village coffee, recalling café bombón: espresso with condensed milk. These moments demonstrate the book’s unique ability to connect historical reflection with lived, everyday experience.
A joyful, thought-provoking read that connects memory, place, and shared humanity. 📖🌹
July 11, 2026
Part memoir, part travel journal, and part historical exploration, Tharik Hussain's Muslim Europe is a well-balanced journey with both spiritual and political implications. Hussain's personal evolution (finding himself drifting deeper into Salafi and fundamentalist Islam before eventually being guided toward the progressive light of mystical Islam) is a familiar origin story for many in the progressive Muslim community. Not all of us, however, are inspired to document that shift with the same vulnerability and grace that he manages here.
The book is essentially structured by region. As Hussain travels, he interviews local Muslims, historians, and tour guides about the enduring presence of Islam, both past and present. He also grounds each stop in the historical and sociopolitical context of how the faith initially spread there. I found it interesting how his route takes him from the little-known Sufi lodges of Cyprus to long-forgotten tombs in Sicily and Malta, before landing in the more widely recognized historical landscape of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). I am not entirely sure why, but he avoids delving into Eastern Europe, Anatolia, or Russia, anchoring the narrative strictly to the ruins and institutions the he personally visit. Maybe, because he wanted to focus more on Western Europe and the Mediterranean that is considered peak "Western", while Eastern Europe is already considered a tad "Oriental" by default? Anyway, the overarching theme here is the dismantling of Europe’s "Islamic amnesia"; the systemic erasure of the complex cultural, historical, and scientific influences that Islamic societies had on the continent. By excavating this history, he effectively reaffirms contemporary European Muslims as an integral, native part of the landscape rather than a foreign addition.
This naturally brings us to the political dimensions of the work, and the part which I found most refreshing. Hussian does well to actively dismantle the hostile, Islamophobic rhetoric leveraged by right-wing populists who frame Muslim immigrants as inherently "anti-Western" and incapable of assimilation. He thoroughly demonstrates why this framework is factually bankrupt by arguing that Muslims are already woven into the Western fabric by default. Why and how? Well, because they are bound by the shared institutional history and culture that he explores. Furthermore, he tackles the annoyingly lazy "East vs. West" or "Christianity vs. Islam" dichotomies that plague contemporary political discourse. He instead makes an effort to detail the practical tolerance, coexistence, and structural complexity of the various Muslim societies and empires that thrived across the region.
Ultimately, while many readers might be familiar with the broad strokes of this history, the depth and scale of Hussain's journey are astounding and guaranteed to surface fascinating new insights. For me, though, the most rewarding aspect was how effectively he grounded this massive historical text in an intimate spiritual journey. The way he brings the landscapes, architecture, and localized cultures to life leaves you wanting to book a flight and retrace his exact steps. I definitely recommend checking this one out!
The book is essentially structured by region. As Hussain travels, he interviews local Muslims, historians, and tour guides about the enduring presence of Islam, both past and present. He also grounds each stop in the historical and sociopolitical context of how the faith initially spread there. I found it interesting how his route takes him from the little-known Sufi lodges of Cyprus to long-forgotten tombs in Sicily and Malta, before landing in the more widely recognized historical landscape of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). I am not entirely sure why, but he avoids delving into Eastern Europe, Anatolia, or Russia, anchoring the narrative strictly to the ruins and institutions the he personally visit. Maybe, because he wanted to focus more on Western Europe and the Mediterranean that is considered peak "Western", while Eastern Europe is already considered a tad "Oriental" by default? Anyway, the overarching theme here is the dismantling of Europe’s "Islamic amnesia"; the systemic erasure of the complex cultural, historical, and scientific influences that Islamic societies had on the continent. By excavating this history, he effectively reaffirms contemporary European Muslims as an integral, native part of the landscape rather than a foreign addition.
This naturally brings us to the political dimensions of the work, and the part which I found most refreshing. Hussian does well to actively dismantle the hostile, Islamophobic rhetoric leveraged by right-wing populists who frame Muslim immigrants as inherently "anti-Western" and incapable of assimilation. He thoroughly demonstrates why this framework is factually bankrupt by arguing that Muslims are already woven into the Western fabric by default. Why and how? Well, because they are bound by the shared institutional history and culture that he explores. Furthermore, he tackles the annoyingly lazy "East vs. West" or "Christianity vs. Islam" dichotomies that plague contemporary political discourse. He instead makes an effort to detail the practical tolerance, coexistence, and structural complexity of the various Muslim societies and empires that thrived across the region.
Ultimately, while many readers might be familiar with the broad strokes of this history, the depth and scale of Hussain's journey are astounding and guaranteed to surface fascinating new insights. For me, though, the most rewarding aspect was how effectively he grounded this massive historical text in an intimate spiritual journey. The way he brings the landscapes, architecture, and localized cultures to life leaves you wanting to book a flight and retrace his exact steps. I definitely recommend checking this one out!
February 14, 2026
In view of the deplorable rise in Islamophobia in Europe and elsewhere, I was glad to find a copy of this book in our local library. One of the recommendations on the back was from the excellent William Dalrymple, himself a master of putting us right on imperialist historical obfuscation:
‘A vital, important and sharply observant new voice … In an age of growing Islamophobia, when ignorant commentators constantly depict Muslims as the Other, as dangerous outsiders, Hussain reminds us of the long history and the complex, mixed syncretic culture of European Islam, and nudges us to remember the massive debt Europe still owes to the Muslim world … A book I’ve been longing for someone to write.'
I have learnt a lot from reading this, but have to confess I found some of the dense detail about Muslim history a bit hard-going at times, though I’m sure that wouldn’t be the case for Muslim readers. It has certainly made me keen to look out for Muslim heritage whenever I travel and to read more on the subject. I wish I had spoken more with my late Anglo-Spanish cousin about her decision to become a Sufi.
I was fascinated to learn more of Arab Muslim medicine, including hospitals in medieval Spain that would put some of today’s to shame, and the stunning work of tenth century Cordoban physician Abu Al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, considered the ‘father’ of surgery.
Considering the horrors of the Palestine Genocide over the last two years, and all of the onslaught by Zionists that preceded it, it is deeply ironic that, as Tharik Hussain writes, ‘ Europe’s Muslims sheltered Europe’s Jews for twelve centuries before the Nazis came along with their Final Solution. In fact, barring the odd despot, there was not one example of an anti-semitic atrocity committed by Europe’s Muslims that was even remotely comparable to those committed by Europe’s historical Christians …
‘… more than half the population (of Israel) have Sephardic roots and therefore largely owe their survival to the protection their ancestors were afforded by the likes of the Umayyads of Cordoba, the Nasrids of Granada, and later, when they were expelled, the Muslims of North Africa and the Ottomans of the Balkans. Even those Israeli Jews from the Eastern half of Europe arguably owed much to the protection afforded them by Muslims in medieval and late-medieval Europe, when much of (Western European) Christendom was committing genocides like the Inquisition, issuing expulsion edicts and carrying out pogroms.’
‘A vital, important and sharply observant new voice … In an age of growing Islamophobia, when ignorant commentators constantly depict Muslims as the Other, as dangerous outsiders, Hussain reminds us of the long history and the complex, mixed syncretic culture of European Islam, and nudges us to remember the massive debt Europe still owes to the Muslim world … A book I’ve been longing for someone to write.'
I have learnt a lot from reading this, but have to confess I found some of the dense detail about Muslim history a bit hard-going at times, though I’m sure that wouldn’t be the case for Muslim readers. It has certainly made me keen to look out for Muslim heritage whenever I travel and to read more on the subject. I wish I had spoken more with my late Anglo-Spanish cousin about her decision to become a Sufi.
I was fascinated to learn more of Arab Muslim medicine, including hospitals in medieval Spain that would put some of today’s to shame, and the stunning work of tenth century Cordoban physician Abu Al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, considered the ‘father’ of surgery.
Considering the horrors of the Palestine Genocide over the last two years, and all of the onslaught by Zionists that preceded it, it is deeply ironic that, as Tharik Hussain writes, ‘ Europe’s Muslims sheltered Europe’s Jews for twelve centuries before the Nazis came along with their Final Solution. In fact, barring the odd despot, there was not one example of an anti-semitic atrocity committed by Europe’s Muslims that was even remotely comparable to those committed by Europe’s historical Christians …
‘… more than half the population (of Israel) have Sephardic roots and therefore largely owe their survival to the protection their ancestors were afforded by the likes of the Umayyads of Cordoba, the Nasrids of Granada, and later, when they were expelled, the Muslims of North Africa and the Ottomans of the Balkans. Even those Israeli Jews from the Eastern half of Europe arguably owed much to the protection afforded them by Muslims in medieval and late-medieval Europe, when much of (Western European) Christendom was committing genocides like the Inquisition, issuing expulsion edicts and carrying out pogroms.’
July 12, 2026
Book Review
I picked up this book expecting a serious exploration of how Muslims shaped Europe. Unfortunately, the content bears very little resemblance to the promise made by the title.
At best, the book is 2% history and 98% travel diary. Rather than presenting a well-researched historical narrative, the author mostly recounts visits to mosques, cemeteries, and historical sites, describing their architecture, locations, and present condition. While these observations may interest travel enthusiasts, they contribute very little to answering the central question implied by the title.
What is missing is evidence. There are very few historical arguments, primary sources, or meaningful discussions that explain how Muslim civilisations influenced Europe's politics, science, philosophy, architecture, trade, or culture. Instead of building a convincing case, the book largely consists of personal travel experiences.
The title creates expectations of a historical study, but the content reads more like the author's personal travel journal. As a result, it feels misleading. Readers looking for a serious history of the Muslim contribution to Europe are likely to come away disappointed.
I was also surprised to see endorsements from respected writers such as William Dalrymple, Levison Wood, and Michael Pye. Given the book's lack of depth and historical analysis, it is difficult to understand what they found so compelling. Their endorsements raised my expectations, but the book itself did not meet them.
Overall, if you are looking for a travelogue centred on Islamic monuments across Europe, you may enjoy this book. However, if you expect a rigorous, evidence-based account of how Muslims shaped Europe, this book is unlikely to satisfy you.
I picked up this book expecting a serious exploration of how Muslims shaped Europe. Unfortunately, the content bears very little resemblance to the promise made by the title.
At best, the book is 2% history and 98% travel diary. Rather than presenting a well-researched historical narrative, the author mostly recounts visits to mosques, cemeteries, and historical sites, describing their architecture, locations, and present condition. While these observations may interest travel enthusiasts, they contribute very little to answering the central question implied by the title.
What is missing is evidence. There are very few historical arguments, primary sources, or meaningful discussions that explain how Muslim civilisations influenced Europe's politics, science, philosophy, architecture, trade, or culture. Instead of building a convincing case, the book largely consists of personal travel experiences.
The title creates expectations of a historical study, but the content reads more like the author's personal travel journal. As a result, it feels misleading. Readers looking for a serious history of the Muslim contribution to Europe are likely to come away disappointed.
I was also surprised to see endorsements from respected writers such as William Dalrymple, Levison Wood, and Michael Pye. Given the book's lack of depth and historical analysis, it is difficult to understand what they found so compelling. Their endorsements raised my expectations, but the book itself did not meet them.
Overall, if you are looking for a travelogue centred on Islamic monuments across Europe, you may enjoy this book. However, if you expect a rigorous, evidence-based account of how Muslims shaped Europe, this book is unlikely to satisfy you.
May 17, 2026
A timely and generous book, Muslim Europe offers a different history of Europe, one too often ignored, deliberately erased, or pushed to the margins.
At a time when racism and fascism are again on the rise, this book feels urgent. Part travel writing, part history, and part personal reflection, it traces Muslim histories across Europe with warmth, curiosity and care.
As someone who is not Muslim, and whose understanding is growing but still limited, I found Hussain’s to be open and generous in what he shares. He brings places, people and histories vividly to life, describing sites I would now love to visit, while also reminding us that Europe’s Muslim histories are not separate from European history, but central to it.
It’s about memory, belonging and erasure, but also about beauty, richness and connection. It makes clear that these histories do not diminish Europe, but make it richer, more complex, and beautiful.
At a time when racism and fascism are again on the rise, this book feels urgent. Part travel writing, part history, and part personal reflection, it traces Muslim histories across Europe with warmth, curiosity and care.
As someone who is not Muslim, and whose understanding is growing but still limited, I found Hussain’s to be open and generous in what he shares. He brings places, people and histories vividly to life, describing sites I would now love to visit, while also reminding us that Europe’s Muslim histories are not separate from European history, but central to it.
It’s about memory, belonging and erasure, but also about beauty, richness and connection. It makes clear that these histories do not diminish Europe, but make it richer, more complex, and beautiful.
July 13, 2026
This was v engaging and v accessible. I like how he distinguished between Western and Eastern European conceptualisations of Islamic history, and in doing so, showed he really understood both historical and contemporary sociopolitical tensions. The arguments on indigeneity were v well fleshed out and pointed to a very big ‘fuck Zionism, free Palestine.’ I now want to visit Muslim tombs in Cyprus and Malta despite my fear of ghosts!
July 21, 2026
90% travelogue fluff, 10% interesting information. The writer apparently spent time in the British Library to write this book. To what end, I wonder, since the historical and factual grounding of this book is so light. Couldn't finish - so much time spent on filler such as "so-and-so and I exchanged glances".
April 19, 2026
Interesting facts about the places in Europe.
June 25, 2026
More travel writing than the straight up history I expected, but I enjoyed the insights
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews