The Ottoman Legacy in Southeast Europe: The Deep Roots of Balkan Islam

Discussions of Islam in Europe often focus on the northern and western regions of the continent, where Muslim communities only evolved in the late twentieth century. But the history of Islam in southeastern Europe is far older, reaching back to the mid-1300s. Over the course of almost seven centuries, the Balkan region – encompassing today’s Greece, Albania, Romania, and Bulgaria, as well as the former Yugoslavian republics – fostered a variety of Muslim communities, and correspondingly varied forms of Islam. Through centuries of coexistence as well as conflict, these European Muslims shared countless cultural traditions with their Christian and Jewish neighbors. This episode delves into this long, enduring and intertwined history by following these developments down to the present day. Nile Green talks to Nathalie Clayer, the author (with Xavier Bougarel) of Europe's Balkan Muslims: A New History (Hurst, 2017).