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Islam in Iceland
Islam in Iceland is a minority religion. The Pew Research Center estimated that the number of Muslims in Iceland was below its 10,000 minimum threshold,[clarification needed] and official statistics put the figure at under 1,300, or 0.33% out of the total population of 385,230.
In 2011, Icelandic Muslims attracted the interest of Al Jazeera; the channel planned a documentary dealing with Muslims in Iceland and New Zealand. Al Jazeera was interested in how Ramadan is honored in the higher latitudes where the night without sun and the sun is 24/7 can be of unusual length when compared to the majority-Muslim lands.
The earliest mention of Iceland in Muslim sources originates in the works of Muhammad al-Idrisi (1099–1165/66) in his famous Tabula Rogeriana, which mentions Iceland's location in the North Sea.[citation needed]
The long-distance trading and raiding networks of the Vikings will have meant that various Icelanders, like the Norwegians Rögnvald Kali Kolsson or Harald Hardrada, came into direct contact with the Muslim world during the Middle Ages; indirect connections are best attested by finds of Arabic coins in Iceland, as also widely in the Viking world.
Following Iceland's conversion to Christianity around 1000, some Icelanders encountered the Islamic world through pilgrimage, for example to Jerusalem, of the kind described by Abbot Nikulás Bergsson in his Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan.[citation needed]
From around the late thirteenth century, a fantastical version of the Islamic world is prominent in medieval Icelandic romance, partly inspired by Continental narratives influenced by the Crusades. Although this image generally characterises the Islamic world as 'heathen', and repeats the misconceptions of Islam widespread in the medieval West, it also varies substantially from text to text, sometimes, for example, associating the Islamic world with great wealth, wisdom, or chivalry. Romance continued to serve as a medium for Icelanders to contemplate Islam in the post-medieval period, for example in Jón Oddsson Hjaltalín's eighteenth-century romance Fimmbræðra saga, which combined traditional storytelling with Continental Enlightenment scholarship.
Perhaps the earliest known example of Muslims coming to Iceland occurred in 1627, when the Dutch Muslim Jan Janszoon and his Barbary pirates raided portions of Iceland, including the southwest coast, Vestmannaeyjar, and the eastern fjords. This event is known in Icelandic history as the Tyrkjaránið (the "Turkish Abductions"). An estimated 400-800 Icelanders were sold into slavery.
Islam started to gain presence in Icelandic culture around the 1970s, partly through immigration from the Islamic world (for example Salmann Tamimi) and partly through Icelanders' exposure to Islamic culture while travelling (for example Ibrahim Sverrir Agnarsson). Some of the immigrants simply came of their own accord; others came as refugees, including groups from Kosovo. The Quran was first translated into Icelandic in 1993, with a corrected edition in 2003.
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Islam in Iceland
Islam in Iceland is a minority religion. The Pew Research Center estimated that the number of Muslims in Iceland was below its 10,000 minimum threshold,[clarification needed] and official statistics put the figure at under 1,300, or 0.33% out of the total population of 385,230.
In 2011, Icelandic Muslims attracted the interest of Al Jazeera; the channel planned a documentary dealing with Muslims in Iceland and New Zealand. Al Jazeera was interested in how Ramadan is honored in the higher latitudes where the night without sun and the sun is 24/7 can be of unusual length when compared to the majority-Muslim lands.
The earliest mention of Iceland in Muslim sources originates in the works of Muhammad al-Idrisi (1099–1165/66) in his famous Tabula Rogeriana, which mentions Iceland's location in the North Sea.[citation needed]
The long-distance trading and raiding networks of the Vikings will have meant that various Icelanders, like the Norwegians Rögnvald Kali Kolsson or Harald Hardrada, came into direct contact with the Muslim world during the Middle Ages; indirect connections are best attested by finds of Arabic coins in Iceland, as also widely in the Viking world.
Following Iceland's conversion to Christianity around 1000, some Icelanders encountered the Islamic world through pilgrimage, for example to Jerusalem, of the kind described by Abbot Nikulás Bergsson in his Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan.[citation needed]
From around the late thirteenth century, a fantastical version of the Islamic world is prominent in medieval Icelandic romance, partly inspired by Continental narratives influenced by the Crusades. Although this image generally characterises the Islamic world as 'heathen', and repeats the misconceptions of Islam widespread in the medieval West, it also varies substantially from text to text, sometimes, for example, associating the Islamic world with great wealth, wisdom, or chivalry. Romance continued to serve as a medium for Icelanders to contemplate Islam in the post-medieval period, for example in Jón Oddsson Hjaltalín's eighteenth-century romance Fimmbræðra saga, which combined traditional storytelling with Continental Enlightenment scholarship.
Perhaps the earliest known example of Muslims coming to Iceland occurred in 1627, when the Dutch Muslim Jan Janszoon and his Barbary pirates raided portions of Iceland, including the southwest coast, Vestmannaeyjar, and the eastern fjords. This event is known in Icelandic history as the Tyrkjaránið (the "Turkish Abductions"). An estimated 400-800 Icelanders were sold into slavery.
Islam started to gain presence in Icelandic culture around the 1970s, partly through immigration from the Islamic world (for example Salmann Tamimi) and partly through Icelanders' exposure to Islamic culture while travelling (for example Ibrahim Sverrir Agnarsson). Some of the immigrants simply came of their own accord; others came as refugees, including groups from Kosovo. The Quran was first translated into Icelandic in 1993, with a corrected edition in 2003.