Islam in Europe

History of Islam in Europe

Europe was the third continent; after Asia and Africa, to which Islam hasentered. Muslims crossed the Gibraltar strait in 711AD, conquering allthe Iberian Peninsula by 715AD. They kept going north and conqueredhalf of current France, reaching 100Km southeast of Paris in 725AD, untilthey were defeated in 732AD at the Battle of Tours (Balat Ashuhada),between the cities of Tours and Paris. They were driven out of France by759AD but returned and conquered the Mediterranean coast of Francefrom 891AD to 973AD. In the ninth century, Muslims controlled south ofthe Italian Peninsula for forty years and briefly controlled western coastof the Italian Peninsula. Muslims remained in control of southern Spainuntil the fall of Grenada in 1492AD.

Muslims also controlled East Europe under the Golden HordeEmpire in 1313AD when its leader Mohammed Öz-Beg accepted Islambefore taking the throne and reigned from 1313 to 1341. He adoptedIslam as the state’s religion and continued the spread of Islam amongTatars. Muslims remained in control of Crimea, until 1796AD, when theMuslim Crimean Khanate was captured by the Russian Empire.

Muslims controlled the Balkan Peninsula for several centuries,starting with the conquest of Istanbul in 1453, under the OttomanEmpire. They kept going north until they besieged Vienna in 1528 and1683. Muslims were defeated in the second attempt and kept retreatingsouth since then. However, there are several Muslim majority countries that remain in the Balkans today: Albania, Bosnia, East Thrace (Turkiye)and Kosovo. All Mediterranean Islands were under Muslim control atsome point as follows in terms of size:

• Sicily, south of the Italian peninsula and is the largest island. It wasunder Muslim control for 268 years, from 831AD to 1091AD.
• Sardinia, west of the Italian peninsula and is the second largestisland. It was under Muslim control for 212 years, from 809AD to1015AD.
• Cyprus, South of Anatolia and is the third largest island. It was listedunder Asia, and controlled by Muslims 647 - 965, 1426 -1460, 1518 -1914, and the northern third of the island is under Muslim controlsince 1974.
• Corsica, east of France and fourth largest island. It was underMuslim control for 124 years, from 806AD to 930AD.
• Crete, south of Greece and is the fifth largest island. It was underMuslim control for almost four centuries, from 827 to 961 and 1645 to1897.
• Rhodes, east of Greece. It was under Muslim control for almost fourcenturies, from 653 to 658, then 717 to 718, and 1522 to 1912.
• Malta, south of the Italian peninsula. It was under Muslim controlfor 228 years, from 870AD to 1091AD.
• The Balearics, east of Spain. It was under Muslim control for overthree centuries, from 903 to 1232.

Thus, the Muslim population has likely changed from 24,000 or 0.1%of the total European population in 700AD, to 0.90 million or 2.5% in800AD, to 1.86 million or 5.2% in 900AD, to 2.4 million or 6.6% in1000AD, to 2.7 million or 6.0% in 1100AD, to 2.9 million or 5.3% in1200AD, to 3.0 million or 4.8% in 1300AD, to 2.7 million or 3.7% in1400AD, to 2.7 million or 3.2% in 1500AD, to 3.1 million or 2.9% in1600AD, to 3.6 million or 2.9% in 1700AD, to 4.1 million or 2.2% in1800AD, to 8.7 million or 2.1% in 1900, to 34 million or 4.7% in 2000, to 51million or 6.8% in 2020, and is projected to reach 65 million or 9% by2050 and 78 million or 13% by 2100.

A plot of centennial estimates of the Muslim population and itspercentage with respect to the total population in Europe from 600 to2100 is provided in Figure 4.0a. A zoom in of this plot, providing a plotof decennial estimates of the Muslim population and its percentage withrespect to the total population in this continent from 1900 to 2100 is provided in Figure 4.0b. This shows that the Muslim population inEurope was increasing slowly until 1950 but has increased substantiallysince then and towards the end of this century. The percentage ofMuslims on the other hand was around 2% until 1960, and then startedincreasing by about one percentage point each decade as is expected tocontinue doing so towards the end of this century, reaching 13% by 2100.

Islam in Europe is a matter of diversity and necessity. WesternEurope started having migrant workers from Muslim countries afterWWII to stimulate its economy and cover for shortage of manpower.Thus, Muslims were instrumental in the economic prosperity of WesternEurope and Europe at large. In addition, as more Europeans leaveChristianity, Muslims present Europeans with another spiritual life, inwhich many Europeans find satisfaction and answers to their longpuzzling questions. In this context, Islam may be a cause of stability andprosperity to Europe. Understanding the history and appreciating thenumbers of Muslims in Western Europe may help in developing betterrelation between Christians and Muslims in this region and worldwide,away from political slogans, ethnic slurs or misuse of religion forworldly gains.

We divided Europe into five regions; the data for each is included ina separate section and are sorted in terms of the percentage of Muslimsin descending order. These regions are the Balkan Peninsula (Section4.1), Eastern Europe (Section 4.2), Western Europe (Section 4.3),Northern Europe (Section 4.4), and Central Europe (Section 4.5). Thecountry of Russia was included in Europe as most of its population livesin the European side of the country, although most of its territory is inAsia. In addition, East Thrace, which is the European side of Turkiye wasincluded in Asia and therefore excluded from Europe. In Section 4.6, thetotal population in each of the five European regions and thecorresponding percentage and number of Muslims is presentedcentennially in Table 4.6a from 600 to 2100 and decennially in Tables 4.6band 4.6c from 1790 to 2100.