Minarets in the Mountains

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. Winner of a BGTW Members Excellence Award: Travel Narrative Book of the Year The Adele Evans Award. Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2021. Shortlisted in the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2022: Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year. 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?

Contents Introduction An Intimate Tolerance - Palamartsa, Bulgaria Part One: Bosnia and Herzegovina An Ottoman City - Sarajevo The Bridge Built by Barbarians - Mostar Mystics and Mountains - Blagaj The Bloody Bridge on the Drina - Visegrad Part Two: Serbia and Kosovo Serbia's Dirty Little Secret - Rudine and Sjenica 'A Muslim Town' - Novi Pazar Pokemon in Hammams - Novi Pazar The Grandfather of Muslim Europe - Pristina, Kosovo An Orthodox Town - Nis Part Three: North Macedonia Whose Heritage Is It, Anyway? - Skopje A Macedonian Imam - Skopje The Fool's Tekke - Tetovo Part Four: Albania Taken by Albanians - Vlore A Beer with a Muslim - Llogara National Park The Town 'Addicted to Prayer' - Gjirokaster The House the Pasha Built - Gjirokaster A Fairy-Tale Ottoman Village - Berat Capitals Old and New - Durres, Tirana and Kruje Part Five: Montenegro Muslim Montenegro - Podgorica Part Six: Return to Bosnia and Herzegovina The Effendi's Library - Foca and Zenica Coffee with Bosnian Kings - Vranduk and Travnik Dumped for De Niro - Sarajevo Back in 'Jerusalem' - Sarajevo Remembrance in Sarajevo - Sarajevo Glossary Acknowledgements