How Islam Came to Germany -- Ursula Spuler-Stegemann

The history of Islam in Germany goes back as far as the 8th century. From the reign of Charlemagne, to Goethe's literature, to the Turkish guest workers who arrived in the 1950s and 60s and made a home here, the Muslim religion has been a part of German culture for hundreds of years.

At the time of Charlemagne, most of the Iberian Peninsula was already under the control of the Moors (more...), who ruled over this part of Europe for nearly 800 years until the final stage of the reconquista -- the Christian reconquest of Spain and Portugal -- in the year 1492. Additional military advances by the Muslims in Europe were stopped -- exactly one century after the death of the Prophet Muhammad -- in 732 at Tours and Poitiers and in 759 in Narbonne and Nimes in France.