Muslim Europe

Uncovers a world of which few are fully aware

Colin Thubron

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

William Dalrymple

A perspective-shattering work showing that, far from being fatal to Western culture, Islam has been integral to the development of Europe for more than 1,400 years . . . Muslim Europe reads as both a revisionist work of history and a voyage of discovery

Caroline Sanderson

A vital, eye-opening journey into a Europe we were never taught about. A truly extraordinary work of rediscovery that pulls back the veil on a millennium of forgotten history and shows us that Europe has always been far more diverse, interconnected and culturally rich than we’ve been led to believe. With the curiosity of a traveller and the rigour of a historian, Tharik uncovers forgotten stories that challenge everything we think we know about the continent’s past. An important and necessary book for these times

Levison Wood, author of WALKING THE NILE

Tharik Hussain is just the kind of travelling companion we need in polarised times like these: curious, empathetic, erudite. An absolutely fascinating book, expertly threading past and present with a revelatory light

Sophy Roberts, author THE LOST PIANOS OF SIBERIA

Tharik Hussain is the essential second eye we need to get the history of Europe into focus, a brilliantly informed and also charming guide to the often hidden place of Islam in our shared past. He takes us to unfamiliar times and unfamiliar places – some glittering, some domestic – and expertly shows how they shaped us

Michael Pye, author of THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

Fascinating . . . complicates our notion of "Europe" as a closed Judeo-Christian space, reminding us that Muslims have since the early days of Islam been an integral, important part of the continent

Daniel Motadel, New Statesman

Tharik Hussain’s travels around the Mediterranean revealed how Islamic culture helped civilise the West . . . Fascinating . . . This is no dry archaeological or architectural study. Much of the human interest here comes from Hussain’s meetings with actual Muslims, both residents and visitors . . . while English doctors prescribed crushed snails and smouldering goat’s hair, learned physicians in Muslim Cordoba were performing successful caesareans and cataract operations

Noel Malcolm, The Telegraph

Offers a fresh, bracing perspective on European history . . . Hussain’s mission to restore Islamic heritage to the wider story of Europe’s history is admirable, as are his efforts to foster a "place identity", a sense of belonging in Europe for European Muslims in general and his children in particular

Justin Marozzi, The Times

The book is packed with intriguing details and revealing insights

Shafik Meghji, Geographical

A thoughtful, accessible and quietly powerful book that combines journalistic craft with historical insight to tell a story that is too often erased . . . an act of narrative resistance, not by shouting but by showing . . . Muslim Europe offers a corrective to lazy assumptions and ahistorical debate

Sadek Hami, The New Arab

A sweeping travel-history work that challenges how the continent understands itself . . . Hussain’s work is a reminder that history lives in the footsteps we take and in the stories we choose to seek

Sumaiyya Naseem, Arab News