> is strange given its location,
Strange in the current context that it's not in the Middle East but not strange when you look at the map and see that it's a straight shot for a trading ship from the Middle East a thousand years ago.
Strange in the current context that it's not in the Middle East but not strange when you look at the map and see that it's a straight shot for a trading ship from the Middle East a thousand years ago.
Funny enough, it wasn't a trading ship from the Middle East, but the then-Chinese empire:
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2006222/chinese-admir... (no paywall link: https://archive.ph/f8622)
Even Spain/Iberia had a huge Muslim population, until the Reconquesta Kingdoms committed large scale genocide and deportions of Muslims and Jews.
And speaking of Unexpectedly Muslim, the Golden Hord (AKA Tattars) which existed on the Crimean region as one of the offshoots from Genghis Khan's conquests, was Muslim. In fact, they allied with the Mamluk kingdom of Egypt against Holugu, leader of another Mongol horde, Ilkhanate.