Islam in Europe

Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe after Christianity.^[2] Although the majority of Muslim communities in Western Europe formed as a result of immigration,^[3] there are centuries-old indigenous European Muslim communities in the Balkans, Caucasus, Crimea, and Volga region.^[4][5][6][7] The term "Muslim Europe" is used to refer to the Muslim-majority countries in the Balkans and the Caucasus (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Turkey, and Azerbaijan)^[8] and parts of countries in Eastern Europe with sizable Muslim minorities (Bulgaria, Montenegro, North Macedonia,^[9] and some republics of Russia) that constitute large populations of indigenous European Muslims,^[4][5][6][8] although the majority are secular.^{[4][5][8][10]}

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.^[11] 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).^[11] The Ottoman Empire further expanded into Southeastern Europe and consolidated its political power by invading and conquering huge portions of the Serbian Empire, Bulgarian Empire, and the remaining territories of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th and 15th centuries.^[11] Over the centuries, the Ottoman Empire gradually lost almost all of its European territories, until it was defeated and eventually collapsed in 1922.^[12]

During the Middle Ages, Islam spread in Eastern Europe through the Islamization of several Turkic ethnic groups,^[13][14] such as the Cumans, Kipchaks, Tatars, and Volga Bulgars under the Mongol invasions and conquests in Eurasia,^[13][14] and later under the Golden Horde and its successor khanates,^[14] with its various Muslim populations collectively referred to as "Turks" or "Tatars" by the Slavic peoples.^[13]

Historically significant Muslim populations in Europe include the Ashkali and Balkan Egyptians, Gorani, Torbeshi, Pomaks, Bosniaks, Chechens, Muslim Albanians, Ingush, Greek Muslims, Vallahades, Muslim Romani people, Balkan Turks, Turkish Cypriots, Cretan Turks, Yörüks, Volga Tatars, Crimean Tatars, Lipka Tatars, Kazakhs, Gajals, and Megleno-Romanians.^[7][10][15]