Minarets in the Mountains

Reviewed by: Ruqaiyah Hibell – The Islamic Foundation, UK

Published by: Chesham: Bradt Travel Guides, 2021, 264pp. ISBN: 978-1784778286.

While no one can claim that literature on the Muslim presence in Southern Spain swamps the history or travel book market, greater emphasis has been placed on such presence than the over six-hundred-year manifestation of Islam in Eastern Europe, about which little appears to be reported or known. The primary focus of available texts mainly concentrates on inter-ethnic conflict, war and incompatibility rather than on the rich tapestry of religious and cultural influence that permeates and beautifies the region. This is particularly observable in the Western Balkan region, composed of substantial Muslim populations that have continued to inhabit the area over this lengthy period of time, despite the traumatic imposition of communism which enforced state-sanctioned atheism, and then saw ethnic cleansing, genocide and the wars of the 1990s. Inter-ethnic tension bubbles beneath the surface and the region is dogged by high unemployment, mass emigration, and Mafiosi, particularly notable in Albania, where drug addled/people trafficking tentacles, reach far and wide.