There was a fear of Turkey joining the EU, and if Britain remained then the Turks would swamp the UK. The car journey and the places they visit are very vivid; very evocatively described; culminating in a scene of great tranquillity and self-discovery. If you’re planning to explore Muslim Balkans then this book is an essential and even if you’re not, this is a great introduction to Islamic history and how rich the history of Islam is and how far it reaches. Komšiluk is a name that represents the simple concept of a neighbourhood and not at all what he describes. There are Ottoman-built mosques and architecture, some attributed to the Chief Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, who lived in the 16th century.

While European Islam lives on, the negative attitude towards ‘Turks’ and ‘Muslims’ continues to thrive in the West, and we have seen it play out in the US, European nations and in Britain with the Brexit campaign. I also enjoyed Tharik’s trip up into the mountains with his friend Idar; having worked in a secondary school myself, I loved the contrast between the caretaker’s persona in the UK and his greeting Tharik in Albania “like a Sicilian don in a smart striped shirt and white cotton trousers”. As we journey through Islamophobia Awareness Month this November, and reflect on the hatred, exclusion, misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Muslims from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, this story of blond-haired, blue-eyed, white Muslims indigenous to Europe provides a lot of food for thought on the nature of anti-Muslim rhetoric from the past to the present day. So much of history gets glossed over because it gives the viewpoint of the "losing side," or the non-wanted side.

Just four pages later – We stopped in front of a map showing the entire region but with a focus on the nearby Gostilje National Park, for which Sjenica was clearly a gateway. Had the author not tried to weave this thread of identity through the book, or at least dove deeper into it, it would have been a much stronger work.

In all fairness, it left a big blur for me and I struggled to differentiate the countries based on their descriptions in this book. The author and his family moved from Bangladesh to East London at the peak of the racism controversy. The book brings to life this rarely told story of Muslim Europe, and unearths a living history of Balkan people and their 600-year-old Ottoman Muslim heritage and culture. While there has been a desire to wipe out that Muslim heritage, including the bulldozing of mosques, rewriting history and genocide, some of the heritage described by Evliya in his book is still there in many places, which was a pleasant surprise for Tharik. Over the course of several weeks, they travelled through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro.He described the sufi lodges he found along the way, mosques, bridges and old Muslim villages that have existed for hundreds of years. This book is exclusively about Islam and Ottoman history in Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance. He visits historic Muslim towns in the mountains, long forgotten or barely known by most Muslims today. In 2016, Londoner Tharik Hussain set off for the western Balkans along with his wife and two young daughters.

It all started when his family encountered abandoned mosques during his family trip at a remote village in Bulgaria. It records the journey that brother Tharik undertook with his beloved family through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro. The introductory notes highlight that words such as “Qur’an, Makkah and Madinah are spelt contrary to more common English literary convention” because the anglicised versions have been mispronounced.Tharik travelled through southern Thailand exploring the mainland and the Thai Gulf islands of Ko Samui, Ko Pha-Ngan and Ko Tao for Lonely Planet. He has been named one of the UK’s most inspiring British Bangladeshis and is a Fellow at the University of Groningen’s Centre for Religion and Heritage.