Germany made contacts with numerous Muslim rulers from Spain to Asia. Sparse and temporary Muslim appearances litter German history with Muslim slaves from Africa, Persian emissaries, and Turkish ambassadors. Following World War I and the Turko-German alliance, many Turkish Muslims settled in the European nation. Many German scholars were known for great contributions to scholarship regarding various aspects of the culture and practices of lands of Islam.
| 973 | The Jewish Moor Ibrahim ibn Yaqub reports the use of Muslim coins (from the Samanids) in his account of the German imperial city of Mainz. This Arabic- speaking physician and merchant traveled throughout Europe including Prague and Cracow. |
| 1189 | The Third Crusade begins in response to Saladin's campaigns in the east including the fall of Jerusalem. Richard the Lionheart of England, Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, and Philip II of France lead this Crusade. Frederick drowned in a river in the Middle East. |
| 1473 | According to Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, Muhammad the Conqueror offers to conclude peace with the monarch in exchange for passage through Hungary into Germany.Muhammad maintains an espionage network in Europe that extends to Germany; this leads some to believe that had it not been for his wars with Uzun Hasan, Central Europe would have fallen to the Ottomans. |
| 1600 | The journey of Uruch Beg and the Persian ambassador Husayn Ali Beg takes them to Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Prague, and throughout Italy including Rome. |
| 1619 | Relations of the Christianitie of Africa, and especially of Barbarie and Algier, published by Purchas, states that between 1609 and 1619, the highest number of renegades came from lower Germany with 857 renegades, followed by 300 from England. |
| 1699 | Charge of the private purse of the future King George I of England falls to an Ottoman captive named Mehemet (Muhammad). Mehemet, a trusted member of George's circle, will convert to Christianity taking the name Ludwig Maximilian Mehemet and remain in the service of England's king until the former's death. He will go on to marry a wealthy Hanoverian and one of his two children by her will rise up to captain of cavalry in Hanover's army. |
| 1703 | Mustafa, a Muslim captive taken by Swedish officer Balthasar von Klinkowström at Mistra in the Morea, enters the service of the future King George I. |
| 1714 | George I becomes King of England taking with him from Hanover his two protégés, Mustafa and Mehemet. Mehemt's mother and Mustafa's son will also reside in England. Due to their prominence in the court, Mustafa and Mehemet are depicted in the murals of Kensington Palace. |
| 1731 | The Duke of Kurland presents King Frederick William I with twenty Turkish guardsmen. |
| 1745 | King Frederick the Great forms the first Prussian lancer unit known as the Muslim Riders from Albanians, Bosniaks, and Tatars. |
| 1760 | A so-named "Bosniakcorp" of about 1000 men is established from deserters of the Russian army; among them is Lieutenant Imam Osman. This unit will take part in various battles in the Seven Years War. |
| 1761 | Ottoman Mustafa III signs a treaty of friendship with Prussia. |
| 1778 | The Bosniakcorp participates in the War of Bavarian Succession. Regiments of Muslim Tartars from newly-conquered West Prussia will be formed in the years leading up to the Napoleonic Wars. |
| 1798 | The newly established Muslim cemetery opened at Columbia Dam houses the body of Ottoman envoy to Germany, Ali Aziz Effendi. |
| 1805 | The Mamluks of Napoleon have their first battle at Nuremberg in October. In December, they will participate at the Battle of Austerlitz. |
| 1812 | Napoleon establishes a squadron of Lithuanian Tatars, under Mustapha Murza Achmatowicz, to assist in his battles against Russia. Following a heavy loss at Vilna, Captain Samuel Ulan (successor to the fallen Achmatowicz) with Lts. Ibrahim and Assan Aly lead the remaining unit of about 46 men back to Germany and were briefly attached to the Third Guard Lancers. After Napoleon's fall, they will be returned to Lithuania. |
| 1813 | Mamluks will be present in Napoleon's German campaigns, including seeing the defeat at Leipzig. |
| 1814 | Goethe visits Bashkir Muslims of Czar Alexander's army at prayer in a gymnasium at Weimar. The German poet had recently acquired an old Arabic manuscript of the last Sura in the Quran from a German soldier returning from Spain. |
| 1854 | Muhammad Ali ben Said, an African slave, enters the service of Russian aristocrat Nicholas Trubetzkoy. With his master, Muhammad (also known as Nicholas Said) will tour Germany, London, Paris, and Italy. In Germany, Said attends a conference with many European leaders leading him to ponder about the plight of his people back in Africa. In 1860, he will set sail for America where he will eventually join the Union army in the Civil War. |
| 1878 | Congress of Berlin meets to attempt to resolve political and territorial issues between the Great European powers and the Ottoman Empire. Delegates from the Ottomans included a Phanariot Greek, a Turkish official who has been in Berlin for two years, and a German convert to Islam who deserted the Prussian army. Treaty of Berlin sees Ottomans loses four-fifths of their European territory. |
| 1889 | Al-Afghani meets with Shah of Persia Nasir ud-Din in Munich.The Shah offers Jamal al-Din a position as Prime Minister in Persia. |
| 1915 | Around 15,000 Muslim prisoners of war during World War I are in Berlin. This year, the first mosque in Germay is founded servicing them. In 1930, it is removed. |
| 1919 | Johannes Avetaranian (born Muhammad Shukri in 1830 in Turkey in 1861) dies in Weisbaden. A descendent of Prophet Muhammad and a mullah himself, Johannes converted to Christianity and took up missionary work. He traveled to the Caucaus region, Chinese Turkestan (he translated texts into Uighur), Bulgaria and did worked with Americans, Europeans, and Asians. |
| 1922 | Students and merchants found the Islamische Gemeinde Berlin. |
| 1924 | Emily Ruete (b. Sayyida Salme in 1844, daughter of Sayyid Said bin Sultan Al-Busaid, Sultan of Zanzibar and Oman) dies in Germany. After marrying her neighbor Rudolph Heinreich Ruete, a German merchant, Salme converted to Christianity in 1867 and moved to Hamburg.Published in 1866 was her popular Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar. She revisited Zanzibar and lived for a time in Lebanon before returning to Germany. |
| 1941-1945 | Muslims fight on all fronts of World War II. Thousands of Muslim volunteers from the Caucasus, Crimea, Central Asia, Arabia, India (regiments from here also included Sikhs and Hindus), and the Balkans fight for the German army under the banner of anti-communism or anti-colonialism, two regimes which severely oppressed them. Colonial powers such as France and England counted significant numbers of Muslim troops from occupied areas in their forces. |
| 1951 | Geistliche Verwaltung der Muslimflüchtlinge in der Bundesrepublik Deutschlnad (Spiritual Administration for Muslim Refugees in the Federal Republic of Germany) forms. |
| 1980 | The Islamic Federation of Berlin opens. |
