Rediscovering the Umma: Muslims in the Balkans between Nationalism and Transnationalism - Hardcover

This clear and innovative work offers an important view from the Balkans on European Islam. Ina Merdjanova traces changes and continuities from the Ottoman period to the present, and pulls off the difficult feat of both showcasing Balkan specifics and examining important differences in religion and politics across distinct communities. Required reading for anyone interested in comparative Islamic studies. (John R. Bowen, Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis)

The book is a crucial contribution to scholarship on the Balkans, Islam, as well as for European nationalism and women's studies. (Julianne Funk, Europe-Asia Studies)

The detail-rich comparative account of Islam as a flexible religion adopting to the 'spirit of times' makes it an interesting reading (Dr Arolda Elbasani, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies)

This book discusses the role of Islam in the political and social developments in the Balkans after the end of the Cold War. With the newly-gained religious freedom, and in the context of multiple structural and cultural transitions, Muslim communities underwent remarkable transformations. They sought to renegotiate their place in formally secular legal and normative environments, mostly as minorities in majority-Christian societies. They reclaimed their Islamic faith, practices, and identities in a complex geopolitical situation dominated (particularly after 9/11) by anti-Muslim sentiments. The rising political and cultural self-awareness of Muslims in Southeast Europe was frequently expressed by recourse to two frames of reference: the national and the transnational. Despite a certain level of tension between those two perspectives, they were closely intertwined. Transnational Islamic influences often reinforced Muslim ethnonational identities rather than prompting a radical redefinition of religious allegiances in the key of a "universalist" Islam.

Merdjanova explores the transformations of Muslim identities in the region under the influence of various national and transnational, domestic and global factors, while also looking at the historical legacies that inform present complexities. Her book adds detail and nuance to ongoing debates about Islam in Europe.