Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe

Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe shows that Muslims were citizens of modern Europe from its beginning and, in the process, rethinks Europe itself. Muslims are neither newcomers nor outsiders in Europe. In the twentieth century, they have been central to the continent's political development and the evolution of its traditions of equality and law. From 1878 into the period following World War II, over a million Ottoman Muslims became citizens of new European states. In Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe, Emily Greble follows the fortunes and misfortunes of several generations of these indigenous men, women and children; merchants, peasants, and landowners; muftis and preachers; teachers and students; believers and non-believers from seaside port towns on the shores of the Adriatic to mountainous villages in the Balkans. Drawing on a wide range of archives from government ministries in state capitals to madrasas in provincial towns, Greble uncovers Muslims' negotiations with state authorities-over the boundaries of Islamic law, the nature of religious freedom, and the meaning of minority rights. She shows how their story is Europe's story: Muslims navigated the continent's turbulent passage from imperial order through the interwar political experiments of liberal democracy and authoritarianism to the ideological programs of fascism, socialism, and communism. In doing so, they shaped the grand narratives upon which so much of Europe's fractious present now rests. Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe offers a striking new account of the history of citizenship and nation-building, the emergence of minority rights, and the character of secularism.

Review: Greble makes adroit use of rich material drawn from numerous archives in Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia and Serbia, and supplements this with wide reading. * Mark Mazower, Times Literary Supplement *
[A] fascinating new book... By reorienting our perspective, Greble reveals how vital it is to see Muslims as part of modern European history rather than outside it, how they were never "relics of a non-European past" but instead vital actors in Europe's tortured modernisation. She also raises important questions about the continued unwillingness of states across the globe to "accept the existence and possibility of Muslim citizens", from toxic political discourse in Europe and America to brutal persecution in India, China, and Myanmar. This important book asks difficult questions about both past and present. * Christopher Kissane, Irish Times *
The salient strength of this book is Greble's foregrounding of Muslim voices and insistence on defining them as European... Readers should relish her triumphant restoration of Muslim agency...In the end, we discover a European history that includes Islam and, in the process, might need to rethink what exactly 'Europe' is. * Theodora Dragostinova, History Today *
Greble's nuanced retelling of the region's social and political landscape has renewed urgency. Her work serves as a refreshing intervention to the literature on various fronts. It subverts stereotypical assumptions promulgated by the 'Eastern Question', whereby Muslims are portrayed as a simple ethnic minority living under colonial rule. Instead, Greble shows how they are a marginalized indigenous group that is by no means a monolithic, homogeneous entity... Greble's neatly crafted thesis serves as a counterpunch to a decades-long clash-of-civilizations discourse, which pits Muslims of the region as Ottoman outsiders to be scapegoated as and when deemed necessary... Ultimately, the author offers a complex perspective not only of Balkan Muslims and their lived experiences, but also, the implications of this upon wider society and the states themselves. * Maryyum Mehmood, The World Today *
It takes a bold book to ask 'Who is a European?', a question that nonetheless dominates European politics today, both domestically and in the corridors of power in the European Union. This scholarly and meticulously researched history of the Muslim populations of Europe between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries pays special attention to the Balkans.... Emily Greble's book demonstrates that Muslims are by no means a recent addition to Europe's states and societies, but have been part of them for much longer than contemporary headlines about immigrants, foreign workers and refugees.... In other words, the author turns the perspective that the state is the one that assigns a place to Muslims, since she emphasizes that they themselves are the ones who have the purpose of defining themselves and positioning themselves as citizens within a European framework. * Francis Ghiles, Esglobal *
Bringing together European and Shari'a law, cultural, social and political history, this striking account spans seven decades as it treats Islam as indigenous to Europe, and shows that Muslims have long been part of European history, politics and society. Greble...challenges our notion of what it is to be a citizen of Europe. * The Bookseller (Editor's Choice) *
In a well-documented account, laced with personal stories, Greble outlines how more than a million Ottoman Muslims became citizens of the new European states from 1878 until after the Second World War It is a story of citizenship, exclusion and the changing meaning of minority rights and religious freedom. How Muslims have not only experienced Europe's turbulent history, but have also played a crucial role in the development of social norms and political, ethical and legal structures on our continent... Greble's appeal is therefore 'to reintegrate Muslims into the story of European history and end their recurring exclusion'. Because if Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe makes one thing clear: Muslims are not guests here or engaged in a 'great replacement' of the white population. Muslims have always been part of Europe, which they then and still regard as their home. * Inaki Onorbe Genovesi, de Volkskrant *
Focusing on the historic place of Muslims in southeastern Europe, and on the contradictory ways states have attempted to categorize and manage them, this brilliant study confronts readers with the pressing question of who exactly constitute 'the Europeans.' * Pieter M. Judson, author of The Habsburg Empire: A New History *
Greble shows that far from being a recent addition to European societies, Muslim populations have been integral to European states and societies for much longer than contemporary headlines on immigrants, guest workers, and refugees would suggest. In this important study Greble reveals the ways in which Muslims have been at the heart of the making of law, politics, and society in modern Europe. * Mustafa Aksakal, Georgetown University *
In this bold study, Emily Greble addresses the question 'Who is European?' by showing the organic place and active participation of Muslims throughout modern European history. Using the example of the former Yugoslav space until the 1940s, her thorough research deftly overturns the usual perspective of the state assigning a place for Muslims. Instead, she emphasizes the agency of Muslims seeking to define and place themselves as citizens within a European framework. * Maria Todorova, author of Imagining the Balkans *
Emily Greble's Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe is an erudite and meticulously researched history of Europe's Muslim populations in the twentieth century. Greble teaches us that we will not be able to understand the genealogies of secularism, nationalism, liberalism, citizenship, and human rights without the crucial significance of Muslims in the making of modern Europe. This will prove an indispensable scholarly intervention to shatter the extremist ideologies that rely on the narratives of the clash of civilizations. * Cemil Aydin, author of The Idea of the Muslim World: A Global Intellectual History *

Prizes: Winner of Winner, Joseph Rothschild Prize in Nationalism and Ethnic Studies, Association for the Study of Nationalities Honorable Mention, Book Award of the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies.