ABSTRACT
The first contact that Icelanders had with Muslims goes all the way back to the summer of 1627, when two groups of “Turkish pirates” – who were actually from North Africa, one from the city of Sale in Morocco and the other from what is now Algiers – raided settlements on the south-west coast of Iceland (Grindavík, 20 June), the Westman Islands and the Eastern Fjords (mostly Berufjörður and Breiðdalur, 5-13 July). Approximately 400 people were abducted and sold into slavery. Most of the slaves died of disease, but it is also told that some converted to Islam and some were even set free. The most famous person from this raid is Guðríður Símonardóttir, better know as Tyrkja-Gudda, who returned to Iceland after a period of slavery in Algeria. After her return she was sent to Copenhagen in Denmark to relearn her native language and a Christian way of life. She soon fell in love with one of her teachers, Hallgrímur Pétursson, who at that time was a theology student. After their return to Iceland, he became a priest and one of Iceland’s most esteemed poets. The main church in Reykjavík, Hallgrímskirkja, is named after him.1
