Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe after Christianity. Although the majority of Muslim communities in Western Europe formed as a result of recent post-WW2 immigration, there are centuries-old European Muslim communities in the Balkans, Caucasus, Crimea, and Volga region. The term "Muslim Europe" is used to refer to the Muslim-majority countries in the Balkans and the Caucasus (Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Turkey) and parts of countries in Central and Eastern Europe with sizable Muslim minorities (Bulgaria, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and some republics of Russia) that constitute large populations of European Muslims, although the majority are secular.
Islam expanded into the Caucasus through the Muslim conquest of Persia in the 7th century and entered Southern Europe after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the 8th–10th centuries; Muslim political entities existed firmly in what is today Spain, Portugal, Sicily, and Malta during the Middle Ages. The Muslim populations in these territories were either converted to Christianity or expelled by the end of the 15th century by the indigenous Christian rulers (see Reconquista). The Ottoman Empire expanded into Southeastern Europe and consolidated its political power by invading and conquering huge portions of the Serbian and Bulgarian empires, and the remaining territories of the region, including the Albanian and Romanian principalities, and the kingdoms of Bosnia, Croatia, and Hungary between the 14th and 16th centuries. Over the centuries, the Ottoman Empire gradually lost its European territories. Islam was particularly influential in the territories of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, and has remained the dominant religion in these countries.
During the Middle Ages, Islam spread in parts of Central and Eastern Europe through the Islamization of several Turkic ethnic groups, such as the Cumans, Kipchaks, Tatars, and Volga Bulgars under the Mongol invasions and conquests in Eurasia, and later under the Golden Horde and its successor khanates, with its various Muslim populations collectively referred to as "Turks" or "Tatars". These groups had a strong presence in present-day European Russia, Hungary, and Ukraine during the High Medieval Period.
Historically significant Muslim populations in Europe include Ashkali, Balkars, Bashkirs, Bosniaks, Böszörmény, Balkan Turks, Chechens, Circassians, Cretan Turks, Crimean Tatars, Gajals, Gorani, Greek Muslims, Ingush, Karachays, Khalyzians, Lipka Tatars, Muslim Albanians, Pomaks, Torbeshi, Turkish Cypriots, Vallahades, Volga Bulgars, Volga Tatars, Xoroxane, Yörüks, and Megleno-Romanians from Notia today living in East Thrace.
History The Muslim population in Europe is extremely diverse with varied histories and origins. Today, the Muslim-majority regions of Europe include several countries in the Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and the European part of Turkey), some Russian republics in the North Caucasus and the Idel-Ural region, and the European part of Kazakhstan. These communities consist predominantly of indigenous Europeans of the Muslim faith, whose religious tradition dates back several hundred years to the Middle Ages. The transcontinental countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan are also majority Muslim.
Balkans
Albania and Kosovo
In medieval Albania, the rebellion against the Ottomans had already been smouldering for years before Skanderbeg deserted the Ottoman army. The most notable earlier revolt was revolt of 1432–36 led principally by Gjergj Arianiti. Although Skanderbeg was summoned by his relatives during this rebellion, he remained loyal to the sultan and did not fight the Ottomans. After this rebellion was suppressed by the Ottomans, Arianiti again revolted against the Ottomans in the region of central Albania in August 1443.
Skanderbeg decided to leave his position of Ottoman sanjakbey and revolt against the Ottomans only after the victorious Crusade of Varna in 1443. Successes of the crusaders inspired revolt of Skanderbeg and revolt of Constantine XI Palaiologos in the Despotate of the Morea. In early November 1443, Skanderbeg deserted the forces of Sultan Murad II during the Battle of Nish, while fighting against the crusaders of John Hunyadi. Skanderbeg quit the field along with 300 other Albanians serving in the Ottoman army. He immediately led his men to Krujë, where he arrived on November 28, and by the use of a forged letter from Sultan Murad to the Governor of Krujë he became lord of the city. To reinforce his intention of gaining control of the former domains of Zeta, Skanderbeg proclaimed himself the heir of the Balšić noble family. After capturing some less important surrounding castles (Petrela, Prezë, Guri i Bardhë, Svetigrad, Modrič and others) and eventually gaining control over more than his father Gjon Kastrioti's domains, Skanderbeg abjured Islam and proclaimed himself the avenger of his family and country. He raised a red flag with a black double-headed eagle on it: Albania uses a similar flag as its national symbol to this day.
Until September 1912, the Ottoman government intentionally kept Albanians divided within four ethnically heterogeneous vilayets in order to prevent the national unification of Albania. The reforms introduced by the Young Turks provoked the Albanian Revolt, which lasted from January to August 1912. In January 1912, Hasan Prishtina, an Albanian deputy in the Ottoman parliament, publicly warned members of the parliament that the policy of the Young Turks' government would lead to a revolution in Albania. The Albanian revolt was successful and until August 1912 rebels managed to gain control over whole Kosovo vilayet (including Novi Pazar, Sjenica, Pristina and even Skopje), a part of the Scutari Vilayet (including Elbasan, Përmet and Leskovik), Konitsa in Janina Vilayet and Debar in Monastir Vilayet. The Ottoman government ended the Albanian revolt on 4 September 1912 by accepting all demands related to establishing an unified autonomous system of administration and justice for Albanians within one vilayet—the Albanian vilayet.
The international relations of Albania began to function on a state level after it was proclaimed independent and the first diplomatic efforts of its government were requests for the international recognition of the Albanian state. In December 1912, a delegation of Albania submitted a memorandum to the London Conference of 1913 insisting on the ethnic rights of Albanians and requested an international recognition of the independent Albania composed of Kosovo, western Macedonia including Skopje and Bitola and the whole territory of Epirus up to Arta.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
After the fall in 1463, herceg Stjepan Vukčić, lord of the Hum province in the south of the medieval Kingdom of Bosnia, lived for another three years, long enough to see kingdom's complete demise, for which he blamed his eldest son Vladislav Hercegović. On 21 May 1466, old and terminally ill, the duke dictated his last words, recorded in a testament, and condemned Vladislav by saying that it was him who "brought the great Turk to Bosnia to the death and destruction of us all", after which the duke died the following day.
He was succeeded as herceg by his second and younger son Vlatko Hercegović, who struggled to retain as much of the territory he could. However, Blagaj, Kosača capital, fell in 1466, while Ključ fort between Nevesinje and Gacko was cut off from the main part of his territory, although Vlatko's actions against Ottomans were mostly concentrated around this fort with limited success. Počitelj fell in 1471, however, herceg Vlatko already in 1470 realized that only radical change in his politics could bring him some release, so he pursued and achieved a peace with the Ottomans. In the same year, the Ottomans excluded Hum from the Bosnian Sanjak, and established a new, separate sanjak with its seat in Foča, Sanjak of Herzegovina. The very last remnants of Bosnian state territory were these stretches of land held by Vlatko in Hum, while he moved residence to his last capital, Novi. He also gave up his agreement with Ottomans, after just a few years or so, just about the same time when his younger brother, Stjepan, assumed highest office of the Ottoman navy as Ahmed Pasha Hercegović (around 1473) in Istanbul. After his marriage in 1474, he reconciled with his older brother Vladislav. Just before death of Sultan Mehmed II, Vlatko tried one more push to the heart of Bosnia, but abandoned by his allies his venture ended in disaster, after which he completely and finitely withdraws to his fortress in Novi. Meanwhile, all this, along with death of Mehmed II, prompted new sultan, Bayezid II, to overtake Novi and its harbor, along with whatever territory remained. In November 1481, Ajaz-Bey of the Sanjak of Herzegovina besieged Novi, however, just before 14 December 1481 Vlatko gave up resisting, and agreed with the Ottomans to move with his family to Istanbul. This signified the ultimate disappearance of what was the last remaining independent point of the Bosnian state. So, the province endured for another fifteen years after Stjepan Vukčić's death, shrinking with time, before it was eventually swallowed by the Ottomans in December 1481, and incorporated into the empire as re-organized territory of already formed and renamed province, Sanjak of Herzegovina.
In November 1481, Ajaz-Bey of the Sanjak of Herzegovina besieged Vlatko's capital Novi but just before 14 December 1481, Vlatko ceased resisting and agreed with the Ottomans to move with his family to Istanbul. Now the entirety of Herzegovina was reorganized into the already established Sanjak of Herzegovina with the seat in Foča, and later, in 1580, would become one of the sanjaks of the Bosnia Eyalet. This signified the disappearance of the last-remaining independent point of the medieval Bosnian state.
Hungarian rulers perceived Bosnia as a country under their sovereignty during medieval time. Bosnian rulers acted completely independently in carrying out state and diplomatic affairs, governing the judicial system, granting towns and estates, minting coins, exploiting natural resources, and making trading agreements with other countries and independent cities. As a main trading partner of the Bosnian state, the Ragusa referred to the Bosnian Kingdom as a separate state ("rusag"), for example in a charter issued to Sandalj Hranić in November 1405, where they articulated that the Ragusan merchants would be safe across the "Bosnian rusag", or 1451, during the war with Stjepan Vukčić, as a "Holy Kingdom". Ragusans also paid Saint Demetrius an income of 2000 Ragusan perpera. Ladislaus of Naples acknowledged the territories of the kingdom on 26 August 1406 at the request of Tvrtko II.
Bulgaria
The Ottomans reorganised the Bulgarian territories, dividing them into several vilayets, each ruled by a Sanjakbey or Subasi accountable to the Beylerbey. Significant parts of the conquered land were parcelled out to the Sultan's followers, who held it as benefices or fiefs (small timar, medium zeamet and large hass) directly from him, or from the Beylerbeys.C. M. Woodhouse, Modern Greece: A Short History, p. 101. This category of land could not be sold or inherited but reverted to the Sultan when the fiefholder died. The lands were organised as private possessions of the Sultan or Ottoman nobility, called "mülk", and also as an economic base for religious foundations, called vakιf, as well as other people. The system was meant to make the army self-sufficient and to continuously increase the number of Ottoman cavalry soldiers, thus both fuelling new conquests and bringing conquered countries under direct Ottoman control.