Minarets in the Mountains: A Journey into Muslim Europe

£9.99
In Stock
ISBN
9781784778286
Mercer Walk 3 available
 
Travel writing about Muslim Europe. A journey around Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans, home to the largest indigenous Muslim population in Europe, following the footsteps of Evliya Celebi through Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro. A book that begins to decolonise European history.
Shortlisted for the 2022 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year in association with the Authors' Club


A magical, eye-opening account of a journey into a Europe that rarely makes the news and is in danger of being erased altogether. Another Europe. A Europe few people believe exists and many wish didn't. Muslim Europe.

Londoner Tharik Hussain sets off with his wife and young daughters around the Western Balkans, home to the largest indigenous Muslim population in Europe, and explores the regions of Eastern Europe where Islam has shaped places and people for more than half a millennium. Encountering blonde-haired, blue-eyed Muslims, visiting mystical Islamic lodges clinging to the side of mountains, and praying in mosques older than the Sistine Chapel, he paints a picture of a hidden Muslim Europe, a vibrant place with a breathtaking history, spellbinding culture and unique identity.

Minarets in The Mountains, the first English travel narrative by a Muslim writer on this subject, also explores the historical roots of European Islamophobia. Tharik and his family learn lessons about themselves and their own identity as Britons, Europeans and Muslims. Following in the footsteps of renowned Ottoman traveller Evliya Celebi, they remind us that Europe is as Muslim as it is Christian, Jewish or pagan.

Like William Dalrymple's In Xanadu, this is a vivid reimagining of a region's cultural heritage, unveiling forgotten Muslim communities, empires and their rulers; and like Kapka Kassabova's Border, it is a quest that forces us to consider what makes up our own identities, and more importantly, who decides?
More Information
Weight 0.440000
Author Hussain, Tharik
Availability IP
Department Travel Writing
Format Paperback
ISBN 9781784778286
Pages 352
Published 15/07/2021
Publisher Bradt
Section Travel Writing: General
Series Bradt Travel Guides (Travel Literature)
Write Your Own Review
You're reviewing:Minarets in the Mountains: A Journey into Muslim Europe
Copyright © 2024 Edward Stanford Ltd. All rights reserved.