Combatants of Muslim Origin in European Armies in the Twentieth Century

Historians of twentieth-century warfare and military conflict have long studied the histories of soldiers and armies within national frameworks. Yet, in reality, most wars in modern history were fought between multi-national, multi-ethnic and multi-religious armies. Scholars of Europe’s empires have shown an increasing interest in the subject, as reflected, most notably, in works by Myron Echenberg, Gregory Mann and Tarak Barkawi. In particular, the history of Muslim soldiers in European armies has captured their attention, resulting in Nile Green’s work on Islam in the British imperial army, Belkacem Recham’s studies of Muslim recruits in the French armies and Ferdinand Hauptman’s work on Muslims in Habsburg ranks, to name just a few. Still, research on Europe’s Muslim combatants has usually been conducted within the historiographical frameworks of one empire. This volume, edited by Xavier Bougarel, Raphaëlle Branche and Cloé Drieu, is an attempt to bring together historians working on the history of Muslim combatants in different European armies to offer a comparative view. It grew out of a conference held at the Cité Nationale pour l’Histoire de l’Immigration in Paris in spring 2014

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