By 711 CE, when Europe was sleeping in the slumber of the Dark Ages, they were knocking on the gates of Europe, barely a hundred miles away from Paris. Although very little is actually known of their settlements, recently one graveyard was discovered which sheds some light on their progress.

It appears that Muslims were living side by side with non-Muslims, in cordial friendship with them. Settlements and perhaps even cities were built. Of course, the shining light in all of this European adventure was Andalusia, where a civilization the likes of which the world had never seen flourished for over seven hundred years.

Below are three graves of North African Muslims, in Nimes, Southern France, that date back over a thousand two hundred years. You can clearly see their faces turned towards the qiblah.

Their names, and stories, remain a mystery, but their presence clearly shows that Islam has been a part of European history for over a millennia.

– Yasir Qadhi

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-muslim-graves-france-20160222-story.html