Protestantism and Islam

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Protestantism and Islam entered into contact during the early-16th century when the Ottoman Empire, expanding in the Balkans, first encountered Calvinist Protestants in present-day Hungary and Transylvania. As both parties opposed the Austrian Holy Roman Emperor and his Roman Catholic allies, numerous exchanges occurred, exploring religious similarities and the possibility of trade and military alliances.

The early Protestants and Islam established a sense of mutual tolerance and understanding, despite theological differences on Christology, considering each other to be closer to one another than to Catholicism.^[1] The Ottoman Empire supported the early Protestant churches and contributed to their survival in dire times. Martin Luther regarded the Ottomans as allies against the papacy, considering them the "rod of God's wrath against Europe's sins."^[2] The allegiances of the Ottoman Empire and threat of Ottoman expansion in Eastern Europe pressured King Charles V to sign the Peace of Nuremberg with the Protestant princes, accept the Peace of Passau, and the Peace of Augsburg, formally recognizing Protestantism in Germany and ending military threats to their existence.^[3]