Written by award-winning author Tharik Hussain, Muslim Britain and Ireland is a unique, groundbreaking travel guidebook about the largely ignored historic and contemporary Muslim heritage and culture of the British Isles. It guides readers and travellers to places and spaces that tell the story of Islam in the region – from the 8th century, when Anglo-Saxon King Offa minted an Islamic coin, through to the building of the Central Cambridge Mosque, Europe’s most environmentally friendly Islamic place of worship. Region-by-region coverage introduces readers to points of interest typically overlooked by traditional travel guides, explaining their significance to the story of the British Isles – and articulating the impact of the region’s second-largest religious group on its language, food, art, culture and architecture. Under-appreciated personalities and narratives are celebrated – from the Ottomans defying Queen Victoria to feed the starving Irish during the Great Famine via Celtic’s bare-footed football star to the British-Indian lawyer Khwaja Kamal ud-Din who made Woking a ‘Mecca of Europe’ in the early 20th century. Throughout, the cultural richness is complemented by practical travel advice, including how ‘visible’ Muslims can travel safely and mosque etiquette for non-Muslims. Inspired and informed by Muslim Britain & Ireland, you can pray in northwest Europe’s oldest purpose-built mosque (Woking’s Shah Jahan), decipher the mystery of an 8th-century Islamic gold coin (held in the British Museum,) admire Europe’s finest collection of ancient Qur’ans (at Dublin’s Chester Beatty Library), hike through the Scottish Highlands in search of the resting place of Britain’s first female Hajji, visit the Glasgow birthplace of the dish that changed Britain’s culinary scene forever (chicken tikka masala), imagine British Islam’s future beneath the dome of Cambridge’s iconic and award-winning eco-mosque, or silently remember Britain’s Muslim fallen at Woking’s Peace Gardens. Written by an experienced guidebook author whose first travel narrative, Minarets in the Mountains: A Journey into Muslim Europe was showered in awards and critical plaudits, Muslim Britain & Ireland epitomises Bradt Guides’ eternally pioneering spirit – a guidebook that will take you to unexpected places and make you look differently at a region you thought you knew well.
