Minarets in the Mountains: A Journey Into Muslim Europe (Bradt Travel Guides (Travel Literature))

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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. The Minarets are one of the most striking mountain features in all of the Sierra Nevada. This large collection of pinnacles rises sharply from its surroundings, creating an incredibly serrated skyline in the heart of the the Ansel Adams Wilderness. There is a fine view of the Minarets from the summit of Mammoth Mountain, a popular ski resort in the Eastern Sierra. They can also be seen (albeit briefly) from US395 while driving between Bishop and Mammoth Lakes. The Minarets are part of the Ritter Range, the remnants of an ancient volcanic massive that predates most of the Sierra granite. Nearby Mt. Ritter, the highpoint of the range, along with Banner Peak dominate the area for views and sheer size, but it is the Minarets that bring that special combination of inspiration, respect and a bit of fear to the hearts of mountaineers.

Ritter Pass is the easiest route across the Ritter Range. It is also a bit inconvenient for approaches to the Minarets with the exception of Waller Minaret, and not often used by climbers. At its best, travel forces you to observe new and unknown things, and showcases the diversity and the variety of the world - opening us up as people. Great travel writing can achieve the same thing, transporting us to a new place through archaeology, literature, food and traditions - and adding another layer to our appreciation of the depths of human culture. Hussain achieves that here. Historically, people of different faiths in the Balkans did exist. The Muslims live alongside the Christians and Jews harmoniously eventhough the Muslims ruled the states or countries.

Stuart Kenny

Idar had been born in Albania during Hoxha’s rule, a time when observing any faith could get you killed. This was the reason he had never been privy to the country’s Muslim heritage. Standing on that fort looking out over Evliya’s Ergiri, he clearly felt a loss. I did too. A tour through the Balkans unearthing Islamic European history. I appreciated the depth of his research and the lightness of touch in his many fascinating encounters” Minarets in the Mountains is the first English travel narrative to explore indigenous Muslim Europe in the 21st century- and the first to do so through the eyes of a Muslim writer. It should not be significant that this is a book by a Muslim writer, but in an industry still dominated by White voices, and White perspectives, it issignificant – and something worth celebrating. While modern travel literature has moved on from the stark racist language of the colonial period, it cannot be denied that in the works of even the most well intentioned travel writers, the vestiges of orientalist writing are often still apparent, with local people in the countries being written about routinely ‘othered’ through language. That element is noticeably and refreshingly absent in Tharik’s writing.

Part history lesson, part travelogue and – endearingly – part food journal, local writer Tharik Hussain’s exploration of the Muslim heritage of Europe shines light on a history that has often been denied, supressed or ignored. Hussain says: “I wanted to present the human story. I wanted to point out that even though Albania was colonized by the Ottomans and were guilty of many atrocities, particularly at the end of their rule, it was the Ottomans who made sure that all of the Jews from Spain, that wanted protection, were brought to the Balkans and settled there and had their safety guaranteed … Jensen Minaret - 11,760ft, class 5.4-5.8 Four pitches of loose 5.7-5.8 climbing from North Notch. NE Face is 5.4 via the right-hand chimney. What a great book about a portion of the world you don't hear about often. I find that Thariks journey was written so well. His family being on the trip with him was amazing as it set him apart from other travel writers. He does a good job with making his subjects comfortable. The last chapter with Jakov and his trauma really broke me, and Tharik's ability to capture these moments was really great.

Emigration is also barely touched on – it’s a big issue in the Balkans, where some countries have lost 25% of their population since the fall of Communism. Hussain trots out the cliché of the emigrant moving abroad for a better life, and only once, briefly, does he mention the devastating brain drain impact this causes in the departure country. Is it right for western Europe to damage these countries for its own gain? Does it even help contribute to locals with no real job prospects turning to radical Islam? It’s a complicated topic for sure, but not considered. In 2016, Londoner Tharik Hussain set off for the western Balkans along with his wife and two young daughters. Over the course of several weeks, they travelled through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro. Each of the countries is home to sizeable Muslim populations – communities that were first established centuries ago, during the reign of the Ottomans. Finally,join the Travel Writing World newsletterto receive your free copy of The Travel Writer’s Guidebook. You will also receive quarterly dispatches & reports withpodcast interviews, travel writing resources, & book recommendations. Alternatively, you can join the Genius Loci Newsletter to get monthly roundups of travel writing news.

Unable to find any recent Muslim travel writing on the region, Hussain’s guide and companion for his trip became Evliya Celebi, an Ottoman traveller who had written about the area some four and a half centuries ago when the Balkans were part of the Muslim empire. Unlike standard travel guides, the book makes no claim to objectivity and is richly layered with personal observations, anecdotes and encounters. The author was keen to see how his faith has a longer historical presence in Europe than his own specific South Asian British Muslim experience. 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. Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2021. Shortlisted in the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2022: Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year.

Minarets in the Mountains recounts a road trip Hussain and his family took in the summer of 2016 through the former Yugoslavia and Albania in search of Europe’s indigenous Muslim communities, their history and heritage. The Portal, between Michael and Eichorn Minarets, is not really a pass or even a good way to cross the range, but it is a prominent landmark for climbs of these two minarets. The east side of the portal is Amphitheater Chute, a difficult 5.6 climb with horrendously loose talus. The west side is class 4-5 via Michael's or Starr's Chute. Here, as with elsewhere on the journey, Tharik and his family encountered the legendary generosity of Balkan Muslims towards travellers like themselves, when a vendor refused to take money for his daughter’s candy floss.

The author’s travels are an eye-opening celebration of European Muslim history in the Balkans but also reveal deliberate attempts to de-Islamise Muslim civilisational achievements. This can be seen clearly in the attempts to deny the Muslim origins of stunning architecture such as the 16th-Century Ottoman Mostar Bridge. The Minaret of Jam is one of the few well-preserved monuments representing the exceptional artistic creativity and mastery of structural engineering of the time. Its architecture and ornamentation are outstanding from the point of view of art history, fusing together elements from earlier developments in the region in an exceptional way and exerting a strong influence on later architecture in the region. This graceful soaring structure is an outstanding example of the architecture and ornamentation of the Islamic period in Central Asia and played a significant role in their further dissemination as far as India as demonstrated by the Qutb Minar, Delhi, begun in 1202 and completed in the early 14th century.What made the encounter with these communities so special for Hussain was the fact that they were not the result of post-colonial migration as in western Europe. “They don’t remember a time when they weren’t Muslim,” he says. As he writes in the introduction to his book: “They were Muslims whose identity had been forged in and of Europe. It was an identity entrenched fully in local society. They were as European as they were Muslim.” If you enjoy travelling and history, this is a book you don’t want to miss, it could get you start planning for your next trip without realising. What did it all mean? Perhaps historically it was meaningless as far as our inclinations for war are concerned. The war had come and gone. Bosnia and Herzegovina were disputed on all sides and abused when the former Yugoslavia splintered. The Bozniak Muslim population was cornered and fired upon from the heights surrounding the city. It was horrible. It is always devastatingly horrible. We should hang our heads in shame. In fact, we saw a book titled Shame On You Europe. It seemed pointless to buy the book. There are many ambitious forces in the world, and ambition, geopolitically, seems to have led to war.