Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe

by Emily Greble

Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe shows that Muslims were citizens of modern Europe from its beginning and, in the process, rethinks Europe itself.Muslims are neither newcomers nor outsiders in Europe. In the twentieth century, they have been central to the continent's political development and the evolution of its traditions of equality and law. From 1878 into the period following World War II, over a million Ottoman Muslims became citizens of new European states. In Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe, Emily Greble follows the fortunes and misfortunes of several generations of these indigenous men, women and children; merchants, peasants, and landowners; muftis and preachers; teachers and students; believers and non-believers from seaside port towns on the shores of the Adriatic to mountainous villages in the Balkans. Drawing on a wide range of archives from government ministries in state capitals to madrasas in provincial towns, Greble uncovers Muslims' negotiations with state authorities--over the boundaries of Islamic law, the nature of religious freedom, and the meaning of minority rights. She shows how their story is Europe's Muslims navigated the continent's turbulent passage from imperial order through the interwar political experiments of liberal democracy and authoritarianism to the ideological programs of fascism, socialism, and communism. In doing so, they shaped the grand narratives upon which so much of Europe's fractious present now rests.Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe offers a striking new account of the history of citizenship and nation-building, the emergence of minority rights, and the character of secularism.

Genres: History, Islam, Nonfiction, European History

372 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2021

About the author

Emily Greble specializes in the history of modern Eastern Europe and the Balkans, particularly the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Her research and teaching focus on questions of Islam in Europe, civil war, social transformation, and the nature of the post-Ottoman era. Her first book, Sarajevo, 1941-1945: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Hitler's Europe, examined the multicultural city Sarajevo during the Second World War. She currently is at work on two book projects. In Muslims on the Edge of Europe: the Making of a "European" Islam in the Balkans, 1878–1946,Greble analyzes Muslim life, politics, law, and culture in the post-Ottoman Balkans. Specifically, she is exploring the relationship between faith and citizenship;the integration of Sharia law and Sharia courts into European liberal state structures;the right of return for Muslim migrants and refugees;the nature of the public sphere;and the meaning of the "Muslim world" for Muslims living in post-Ottoman Europe. Her second book project, Europe's Forgotten Civil War: Yugoslavia and the Early Cold War (1946-1949),uncovers the hidden story of a civil war in early socialist Yugoslavia and its place in early Cold War politics. In reconstructing the story of the war, Greble analyzes the complicated web of armed insurgencies and militias, urban dissident networks, underground schools, and religious humanitarian missions that used food, health care, and social services to undermine the socialist government.

Professor Greble has held fellowships at the Remarque Institute at New York University, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, part of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies in Washington, D.C. She also has won numerous grants, including from Fulbright-Hays, ACLS, Mellon foundation, IREX, and the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH). In spring 2016, she will be a Fulbright scholar in Serbia.

In 2015, Professor Greble won the President's Award for Outstanding Faculty Service at the City College of New York.

Reviews

[Tao Chen]

Misleading title - it's focused on Yugoslavia, hardly qualified as 'Making of Modern Europe'. Writing style is rather dull, despite being an informative book.

[Dylan Oke]

Much more ‘academic’ and opaque than a lot of history I enjoy, but it is a very detailed look at a highly specific area of European history.

[Mitch Smith]

Pretty disappointing. Yeah title is kinda misleading (not about Europe or Islam), but I wanted to learn more about Yugoslavia, and it’s really repetitive, a lot of buzzwords with no story. Also surprisingly little substance about Yugoslav Muslims, wasted time. Pass.

[Joanna]

Illuminating perspective on aspects of the Balkans that continue to shape its society and politics today.

[Chloe Romans]

read this book for class lol