page_title: Islam in France
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Islam in France / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Barbarossa's fleet_wintering_in_Toulon_1543 العربية: الأسطول العثماني تحت قيادة خير الدين بربروس باشا، راسياً بميناء تولون الفرنسي، أثناء فترة شتاء عام 1543م. لوحة للمؤرخ العثماني نصوح السلاحي
context_page_description: Islam is the second-most widely professed religion in France behind Christianity.
  France has one of the largest number of Muslims in the Western world primarily due to migration from Maghrebi, West African, and Middle Eastern countries. A 2017 Pew Research report estimates the Muslim population of France to be 5,760,000 or 8.8% of the total population.
  The majority of Muslims in France belong to the Sunni denomination. The vast majority of French Muslims are of immigrant origin, while an estimated 100,000 are converts to Islam of indigenous ethnic French background. The French overseas region of Mayotte has a majority Muslim population.
  Thirty-nine percent of Muslims surveyed by the polling group IFOP said they observed Islam’s five prayers daily, a steady rise from 31 percent in 1994, according to the study published in the Catholic daily La Croix.
  Mosque attendance for Friday prayers has risen to 23 percent in 2008, up from 16 percent in 1994, while Ramadan observance has reached 70 percent in 2008 compared to 60 percent in 1994, it said.
context_section_description: After their conquest of Spain, Muslim forces pushed into southern France. They were defeated at the Battle of Tours in 732 but held Septimania until 759.
  In the 9th century, Muslim forces conquered several bases in southern France, including Fraxinet. They were expelled only in 975.
  During the winter of 1543–1544, after the siege of Nice, Toulon was used as an Ottoman naval base under the admiral known as Hayreddin Barbarossa. The Christian population was temporarily evacuated, and Toulon Cathedral was briefly converted into a mosque until the Ottomans left the city.
  After the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain in 1609–1614, about fifty thousand Moriscos entered France, according to the research of Henri Lapeyre.
caption: Barbarossa's fleet in Toulon.
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