ekes reviewed Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe by Emily Greble
Detailed history of the Muslims in the Balkans and the development of the modern Nation State.
4 stars
The title of the book might be stretching what it covers a bit far, or alternatively not far enough. Emily Greble has been researching Muslims in the Balkans, in particular the lands that were in Yugoslavia, for years, this is where the focus of the book lies. The historical dynamic there could be the making of modern Europe, or the even the development of the modern nation state around the world. The period covered is from the later years of the Ottoman Empire, with the Congress of Berlin, where Muslims became citizens of Balkan countries, including the new concept of minority rights. Through the World Wars, into Tito’s Yugoslavia. With the impressive knowledge and research, the book is able to be more of a people’s history. Engaging with the diversity of the communities giving plenty of real life stories of ordinary folk, as well as important and influential people. To …
The title of the book might be stretching what it covers a bit far, or alternatively not far enough. Emily Greble has been researching Muslims in the Balkans, in particular the lands that were in Yugoslavia, for years, this is where the focus of the book lies. The historical dynamic there could be the making of modern Europe, or the even the development of the modern nation state around the world. The period covered is from the later years of the Ottoman Empire, with the Congress of Berlin, where Muslims became citizens of Balkan countries, including the new concept of minority rights. Through the World Wars, into Tito’s Yugoslavia. With the impressive knowledge and research, the book is able to be more of a people’s history. Engaging with the diversity of the communities giving plenty of real life stories of ordinary folk, as well as important and influential people. To paraphrase a whole book terribly the conclusions drawn are that the new ‘secular’ nation state was never neutral, and Muslim practices and minorities were silenced out of the interests of particular power groups. I fear these conclusions, even with the detail of the book, aren’t going to convince anyone who believes that the form of the modern state is superior and that Muslim structures such as Sharia are inherently wrong because they are incompatible with it. For anyone who is actually interested in the contention between quite diverse groups at this point of radical change in the organisation of societies this is a fascinating insight. Differing responses to the new possibilities given by ‘minority rights’ within the new nations, stemming in no small part from the existing power hierarchies, or potential new ones. The different responses of groups depending on where they were geographically, and linguistically – which makes it sound homogeneous, but also how many different languages were used and spoken by the same people. How the decisions of influential, or important, groups in these hierarchies had effect on the daily lives of people with far less power. Through the progression of conflicts that can lead to otherwise counter intuitive (and in reality actually counter productive) decisions such as growing conservatism aligning with the Fascists. The whole detail of groups being be written out of the linear development of history makes me want to have another read of Another Darkness Another Dawn (Becky Taylor 2014) which includes detail of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in Bulgaria, and Germany, from time of the Ottoman Empire through the same period of the development of new nation states. My memory of the changing freedoms, and restrictions, for groups of people there have many similarities here.