About this book

A groundbreaking and pioneering guidebook covering the historic and contemporary Muslim heritage and culture of Britain and Ireland. It takes the reader to places and spaces that tell this story beginning as far back as the 8^th century, when Anglo-Saxon King Offa minted an Islamic coin all the way through to the building of Europe’s most progressive mosque, The Cambridge Mosque.

After the General Introduction, there are chapters dedicated to important parts of each country, where the reader is introduced to POIs (points of interest) traditionally ignored by popular travel guides by highlighting their significance to the story of the British Isles, as well as new perspectives on familiar POIs. For example, how the Brighton Pavilion became a ‘PR hospital’ during the World Wars, or the role of Powys Castle’s founder in the colonial looting of Muslim India. The guide also introduces important personalities and narratives historically marginalised or ignored, like the British-Indian lawyer Khwaja Kamal ud-Din who made Woking a ‘Mecca of Europe’ in the early 20^th century and the story of how the Ottomans defied Queen Victoria to secretly feed the starving Irish during the Great Famine. In doing so, the guide unveils just how much of the region’s language, people, food, art, culture and architecture has been affected by Islamic culture historically and today.

There is practical information tailored for Muslim and non-Muslim travellers; such as offering safety travel advice for ‘visible’ Muslims and guidance on mosque etiquette for non-Muslim visitors.

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About the Author

Tharik Hussain is an author and journalist specialising in Muslim heritage and culture. His pioneering book, Minarets in the Mountains; A Journey into Muslim Europe was awarded the Adele Evans Award for best travel narrative of 2022 by the British Guild of Travel Writers. It was also shortlisted for the 2022 Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year award; longlisted for the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize in Non-Fiction and named a Book of the Year and Travel Book of the Year by amongst others, the Times Literary Supplement, the New Statesman, Newsweek and the Washington Post.

Tharik is a guidebook author who has written guides to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Thailand, London and Britain and the creator of Britain’s very first Muslim heritage trails in Woking, Surrey and developed Muslim trails across Europe, America and South East Asia. He has produced award-winning radio for the BBC World Service on America’s earliest mosques and had his work on hidden Muslim heritage published by the likes of The Guardian, Al Jazeera, the BBC, National Geographic Traveller and The Sunday Telegraph. Tharik is a fellow of the Centre for Religion and Heritage at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the Royal Geographical Society in London.

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