But in the last decade, Spain's Islamic population has exploded.
The country's predominantly Islamic population of 17,129,076 is mostly clustered in the far south and west of the nation.
All the nine timars had no Islamic population for one or two decades.
Europe's rising Islamic population only makes the problem more complex.
In 1990, the Islamic population was approximately 140,000 with more recent figures putting the current population of Muslims between 350,000 to 400,000.
Many of the new agents will be recruited from the Islamic population.
The city has one of the largest Islamic populations in the country, with about 80,000 people and 12 mosques.
That in no way means, of course, that a state with a large Islamic population cannot join.
I appreciate the fears of those who worry about Turkey' s Islamic population.
Independent estimates put the Islamic population in Italy anywhere from 0.8 million to 1.5 million.