On Muslims living in Europe: the past not only informs the present, but also expands our sense of the politically and culturally possible.

Then I reached the country of Hungary, where the people called Bashghird live. They are descended from the first tribes that came from the lands of the Turks and entered the lands of the Franks. They are brave and their numbers are beyond counting.

Their land, which is known as Hungary, consists of seventy-eight cities, each of which has many fortresses, hamlets, farm-steads, mountains, forests and gardens. Uncountable thousands of the descendants of the Maghrebis

[Muslims from North Africa and Iberia] live there and thousands, likewise uncountable, of the descendants of the people of Khwarazm [western Central Asia] .

The people of Khwarazam serve the Christian kings and pretend to be Christians, although they practice Islam in secret. The descendants of the Maghrebis, on the other hand, do not serve the Christians, except in war, and openly practice Islam.

Abu Hamid Al-Andalusi Al-Gharnati, ca. 1150 CE (translated by P. Lunde and C. Stone)