Tharik is an author, travel writer and journalist specialising in Muslim heritage and culture.
His debut book, Minarets in the Mountains; A Journey into Muslim Europe, has been shortlisted for the 2022 Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year award and was longlisted for the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize. It was named a Book of the Year by the New Statesman, Prospect Magazine and the Times Literary Supplement, and a Travel Book of the Year by The Washington Post and Newsweek.
Minarets in the Mountains is the first book by a travel writer to explore indigenous Muslim Europe, and the first to do so through the eyes of a Muslim writer.
Tharik is also the author of several travel guides for Lonely Planet, including Saudi Arabia (shortlisted for the 2020 Travel Media Awards), Bahrain, Thailand, London and Great Britain, and he has written about encountering Muslim cultures and heritage across the globe for various media publications. Tharik’s work often serves to counter popular religious and cultural narratives and in July 2019, he created Britain's first Muslim heritage trails, in Surrey, England; in 2017 he was named one of the UK's most inspiring British Bangladeshis and in 2016 his BBC World Service radio documentary, America's Mosques; a story of integration, won Best Religious Program at the New York Festivals World's Best Radio Programs Awards.
Tharik is a Fellow of the Centre of Religion and Heritage at the University of Groningen, an advisor to the Institute of Islamic Art Thailand and has an MA in Islamic Studies. He possesses two decades of experience in media and education, and is a leading consultant on global Muslim culture and travel.
Tharik resides in London and is represented by David Godwin at David Godwin Associates Ltd.