Islam in Europe

Not to be confused with European Islam.
Islam in Europe
by percentage of country population[1]
  95–100%
  90–95%
  50–55%
  30–35%
  10–20%
  5–10%
  4–5%
  2–4%
  1–2%
  < 1%

Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe after Christianity.[2] Although the majority of Muslim communities in Western Europe formed as a result of immigration,[3] there are centuries-old indigenous European Muslim communities in the Balkans, Caucasus, Crimea, and Volga region.[4][5][6][7] The term "Muslim Europe" is used to refer to the Muslim-majority countries in the Balkans and the Caucasus (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Turkey, and Azerbaijan)[8] and parts of countries in Eastern Europe with sizable Muslim minorities (Bulgaria, Montenegro, North Macedonia,[9] and some republics of Russia) that constitute large populations of indigenous European Muslims,[4][5][6][8] although the majority are secular.[4][5][8][10]

Islam expanded into the Caucasus through the Muslim conquest of Persia in the 7th century and entered Southern Europe after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the 8th–10th centuries; Muslim political entities existed firmly in what is today Spain, Portugal, Sicily, and Malta during the Middle Ages.[11] The Muslim populations in these territories were either converted to Christianity or expelled by the end of the 15th century by the indigenous Christian rulers (see Reconquista).[11] The Ottoman Empire further expanded into Southeastern Europe and consolidated its political power by invading and conquering huge portions of the Serbian Empire, Bulgarian Empire, and the remaining territories of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th and 15th centuries.[11] Over the centuries, the Ottoman Empire gradually lost almost all of its European territories, until it was defeated and eventually collapsed in 1922.[12]

During the Middle Ages, Islam spread in Eastern Europe through the Islamization of several Turkic ethnic groups,[13][14] such as the Cumans, Kipchaks, Tatars, and Volga Bulgars under the Mongol invasions and conquests in Eurasia,[13][14] and later under the Golden Horde and its successor khanates,[14] with its various Muslim populations collectively referred to as "Turks" or "Tatars" by the Slavic peoples.[13]

Historically significant Muslim populations in Europe include the Ashkali and Balkan Egyptians, Gorani, Torbeshi, Pomaks, Bosniaks, Chechens, Muslim Albanians, Ingush, Greek Muslims, Vallahades, Muslim Romani people, Balkan Turks, Turkish Cypriots, Cretan Turks, Yörüks, Volga Tatars, Crimean Tatars, Lipka Tatars, Kazakhs, Gajals, and Megleno-Romanians.[7][10][15]

  1. ^ "Muslim Population Growth in Europe Pew Research Center". 2024-07-10. Archived from the original on 2024-07-10.
  2. ^ "Global religious futures Europe". Archived from the original on 2022-12-12. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  3. ^ Cesari, Jocelyne (January–June 2002). "Introduction - "L'Islam en Europe: L'Incorporation d'Une Religion"". Cahiers d'Études sur la Méditerranée Orientale et le monde Turco-Iranien (in French). 33. Paris: Éditions de Boccard: 7–20. doi:10.3406/CEMOT.2002.1623. S2CID 165345374. Retrieved 21 January 2021 – via Persée.fr.
  4. ^ a b c Cesari, Jocelyne, ed. (2014). "Part III: The Old European Land of Islam". The Oxford Handbook of European Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 427–616. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199607976.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-960797-6. LCCN 2014936672. S2CID 153038977.
  5. ^ a b c Clayer, Nathalie (2004). "Les musulmans des Balkans Ou l'islam de "l'autre Europe"/The Balkans Muslims Or the Islam of the "Other Europe"". Religions, pouvoir et société: Europe centrale, Balkans, CEI. Le Courrier de Pays de l'Est (in French). 5 (1045). Paris: La Documentation française: 16–27. doi:10.3917/cpe.045.0016. ISSN 0590-0239 – via Cairn.info.
  6. ^ a b Bougarel, Xavier; Clayer, Nathalie (2013). Les musulmans de l'Europe du Sud-Est: Des Empires aux États balkaniques. Terres et gens d'islam (in French). Paris: IISMM - Karthala. pp. 1–20. ISBN 978-2-8111-0905-9 – via Cairn.info.
  7. ^ a b Popović, Alexandre; Rashid, Asma (Summer–Autumn 1997). "The Muslim Culture In The Balkans (16th–18th Centuries)". Islamic Studies. 36 (2/3, Special Issue: Islam In The Balkans). Islamic Research Institute (International Islamic University, Islamabad): 177–190. eISSN 2710-5326. ISSN 0578-8072. JSTOR 23076193.
  8. ^ a b c Raudvere, Catharina (2019). "Between Religiosity, Cultural Heritage, and Politics: Sufi-Oriented Interests in Contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina". In Malik, Jamal; Zarrabi-Zadeh, Saeed (eds.). Sufism East and West: Mystical Islam and Cross-Cultural Exchange in the Modern World. Studies on Sufism. Vol. 2. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 233–258. doi:10.1163/9789004393929_011. ISBN 978-90-04-39392-9. LCCN 2019004608.
  9. ^ Macnamara, Ronan (January 2013). "Slavic Muslims: The forgotten minority of Macedonia". Security and Human Rights. 23 (4). Leiden: Brill Publishers/Martinus Nijhoff Publishers on behalf of the Netherlands Helsinki Committee: 347–355. doi:10.1163/18750230-99900038. eISSN 1875-0230. ISSN 1874-7337.
  10. ^ a b Ismaili, Besa (2013). "Kosovo". In Nielsen, Jørgen S.; Akgönül, Samim; Alibašić, Ahmet; Racius, Egdunas (eds.). Yearbook of Muslims in Europe. Vol. 5. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 369–381. doi:10.1163/9789004255869_025. ISBN 978-90-04-25586-9. ISSN 1877-1432.
  11. ^ a b c Buturović, Amila (2009) [2006]. "Part V: Islamic Cultural Region – European Islam". In Juergensmeyer, Mark (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 437–446. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195137989.003.0043. ISBN 978-0-19-513798-9. LCCN 2006004402. S2CID 161373775.
  12. ^ Cuthell, David Cameron Jr. (2009). "Atatürk, Kemal (Mustafa Kemal)". In Ágoston, Gábor; Masters, Bruce (eds.). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Facts On File. pp. 56–57. ISBN 978-0-8160-6259-1. LCCN 2008020716. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  13. ^ a b c Karatay, Osman (2022). "Chapter 1: A Brief History of the Turks". The Genesis of the Turks: An Ethno-Linguistic Inquiry into the Prehistory of Central Eurasia. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 18–32. ISBN 978-1-5275-9696-2.
  14. ^ a b c Jackson, Peter (2019). "Reflections on the Islamization of Mongol Khans in Comparative Perspective". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 62 (2-3: Mobility Transformations and Cultural Exchange in Mongol Eurasia). Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers: 356–387. doi:10.1163/15685209-12341482. ISSN 1568-5209. JSTOR 26673134.
  15. ^ Kahl, Thede (2006). Mylonas, Harris (ed.). "The Islamization of the Meglen Vlachs (Megleno-Romanians): The Village of Nânti (Nótia) and the "Nântinets" in Present-Day Turkey". Nationalities Papers. 34 (1). Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press: 71–90. doi:10.1080/00905990500504871. ISSN 0090-5992. S2CID 161615853.