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Parution : Sevgi Adak, Thomas Schmidinger (Eds), The Enduring Legacy of the Habsburg Islam Policy. Muslim Communities in Central and Southeast Europe, Edinburgh University Press, 2025 + Book launch — London and online, 16 October 2025

The Enduring Legacy of the Habsburg Islam Policy
Muslim Communities in Central and Southeast Europe

 

Edited by Sevgi Adak, Thomas Schmidinger

 

 

 

Examines contemporary legal and political structures governing Muslim communities in Central and Southeast Europe

  • Analyses in detail the status and governance of Muslim communities in the entire region of the former Habsburg / Austro-Hungarian Empire
  • Highlights the importance of the Habsburg legacy to understanding the historical continuities between the Islam Act of 1912 and the contemporary legal and political structures governing Muslim communities in Central Europe
  • Maps in detail the diverse trajectories followed by the successor states to the Habsburg Empire with regards to the governance of Islam and Muslim communities
  • Offers a specialised discussion of the case of Austria as the main successor to the Habsburg monarchy and home to the largest and most diverse Muslim population in Central Europe
  • Explores, in each national context, the complexity of the cultural and political dynamics that emerge as a result of the unique position of Central Europe as the home of centuries-old Muslim communities as well as of recent Muslim immigrants

When Otto Habsburg, son of the last emperor of the Austria-Hungarian Empire Karl I, died in 2011, among those who prayed at the funeral in Vienna’s Stephansdom was Mustafa Efendi Cerić, the Reis ul-ulema of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was to honour the long-lasting relationship between the bygone empire of the Catholic Habsburgs with European Muslims. The cornerstone of this association was the 1912 Islam Act (Islamgesetz) of the Habsburgs, which made Austria-Hungary the first Catholic European state to confer official status to Islam.

This book explores the legacy of this act and the ways in which it continues to impact the legal frameworks and political structures governing Islam and Muslim communities in the successor states of Austria-Hungary. It discusses the unique coexistence in Central Europe of centuries-old, ‘indigenous’ European Muslims with recently settled Muslim immigrants, and the trajectory of their interactions with the state. This volume is therefore not only crucial to the debate about European Islam but also to the question of the legal and political framework of Islamic religious communities in a secular Europe.

À retrouver sur le site de l’éditeur

 


Book Launch: The Enduring Legacy of the Habsburg Islam Policy
Muslim Communities in Central and Southeast Europe

 
October 16, 2025
London, United Kingdom
Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations
5:30 PM – 6:45 PM
 
 

Join the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC) on Thursday, 16 October 2025 for a Book Launch to celebrate with editors Sevgi Adak and Thomas Schmidinger the publication of The Enduring Legacy of the Habsburg Islam Policy: Muslim Communities in Central and Southeast Europe. This timely volume explores how Islam was governed, represented and instrumentalised under the Habsburg Empire, and how these imperial legacies continue to shape the treatment of Muslim minorities in contemporary Central and Southeastern Europe.

Published by Edinburgh University Press and AKU-ISMC as part of the Exploring Muslim Contexts series, the book draws on archival and ethnographic research across multiple regions to examine the enduring impact of imperial Islam policies in shaping state–Muslim relations. Published Open Access – download your free copy here.

Sevgi Adak is Associate Professor and Head of Research at AKU-ISMC. Thomas Schmidinger is Associate Professor at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr and Lecturer at the University of Vienna.

The event will be held at the Aga Khan Centre in London and will also be streamed live via Zoom.

Attendance is free, but registration is necessary, please register by clicking on one of the links below.

À retrouver sur le site de l’AKU


OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Chargé de diffusion scientifique (20 août 2025). Parution : Sevgi Adak, Thomas Schmidinger (Eds), The Enduring Legacy of the Habsburg Islam Policy. Muslim Communities in Central and Southeast Europe, Edinburgh University Press, 2025 + Book launch — London and online, 16 October 2025. IISMM. Consulté le 13 novembre 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/14hj6


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