Ron Geaves - Islam in Victorian Britain: The Life and Times of Abdullah Quilliam

A book of this kind involves a considerable debt to a large number of people who have assisted in so many ways. First I have to acknowledge the almost limitless patience of my wife Catherine who put up with the long hours in my study. She accompanied me on the journey to do research at the museum on the Isle of Man with great sacrifice, for she is no sailor! I also thank my son Dominic who at the age of six does not share his mothers forbearance, and demanded that Daddy stopped being boring and came out to play.

There is a very long list of those who have supported the research. My thanks go to Dollin Kelly, the writer of The New Manx Worthies, who helped me find my way around the archives on the Isle of Man and who engaged me in many a stimulating conversation about Quilliam. In this regard, I also want to thank the staff at the Isle of Man Museum, who were so helpful in assisting me with requests for documents. I also acknowledge my indebtedness to Martin Moir and his wife who provided the means to access confidential government files and even shared in the expense of this exercise. I thank also the various members of the Abdullah Quilliam Society for their support and access to various documents that they have collected. In particular, I am indebted to them for access to the first registered mosque in Britain on the day that Muslims prayed inside for the first time in over one hundred years. I pray that all their plans come to fruition. There are so many Muslim scholars and academics who have shared with me selflessly their knowledge of Abdullah Quilliam or the background history of nineteenth-century Islam in Britain. I thank Sophie Gilliat-Ray at Cardiff, Tim Winter at Cambridge, and Muhammad Seddon and Sadek Hamid at Chester, in particular, but there were so many others who approached me at conferences or seminars with nuggets of information.

Abdullah Quilliam has also attracted considerable interest from some British Muslims who have been fascinated by his life. Many have been excited by this venture and have communicated with me. Some have provided invaluable information from their own extensive investigations and others have offered me the support to complete the project by sharing their passion and encouragement with me. In this regard I acknowledge my debt to the kindness of Richard Cain who shared his passion for Quilliam with me and permitted access to the treasure trove of documents that he has collected over the years. I will remember the magical moment of discovering those four large boxes waiting for me on his floor.

Finally, but not least, I thank the undoubted skills of Yahya Birt, a patient and thorough editor and one who is not least amongst the scholars of Quilliam and British Muslims himself, as well as to record my gratitude to Kube Publishings reader who offered many helpful insights. Liverpool Hope University deserves a mention too for providing the facilities and the support for me to research this book.

There are probably many I have forgotten to acknowledge. I recognise their assistance and apologise for overlooking them.

Look out, for I will be back to you all, for, God willing, I havent finished with Sheikh Abdullah Quilliam yet nor him with me. There has been a wonderful serendipity at work in this project, so beyond all else I thank the power that has offered me such a wonderful opportunity.

Ron Geaves

January 2010

CHAPTER 1

O n the 28th July 1902, 1,000 Indian troops arrived in the city of Liverpool on a steamship from Bombay. They were en route to London to take part in the Coronation celebrations of Edward VII. The City Corporation took advantage of their presence to organise a parade through the city centre and to host a civic reception that evening at St. Georges Hall, the newly-built showpiece declaring Liverpools status as the second city of the British Empire and displaying the grandeur of the new municipality. The Indian troops took their seats in orderly and disciplined rows dressed in the splendour of their regiments. The hall was packed with civic dignitaries, members of the public who had managed to obtain seats and representatives of the press. An Englishman entered, dressed in the traditional robes and turban of an Ottoman alim. Five hundred of the soldiers stood and shouted, Allahu Akbar. As the takbir resounded around this most English of venues, the man took his seat amongst the official guests. One of the many remarkable things about this incident is that the Indian Muslim sepoys knew exactly who had entered the hall, and were prepared to break ranks to show their respect. An extraordinary life lies behind this one incident, and there are many significant reasons why this should be told, particularly at a time when Muslims in Britain experience considerable challenges concerning their loyalty, identity and citizenship, and when the survival of the British brand of multiculturalism is itself under pressure.

At a time when the British Empire was at its zenith and very few Muslim nations remained free from European domination, one man took it upon himself to promote Islam in the heart of historys greatest colonial enterprise. Fully believing in the truth of the revelation that the Prophet Muhammad received and passionate in his conviction that Islam, a religion that he described as being fully conversant with reason, he succeeded in converting more than 500 British men and women to Islam. For a period of fifteen years, he was rarely out of the media in Liverpool, the Isle of Man, the northwest of England and even nationally and internationally.

On the 29th July 1893, the Manchester Clarion reported (in the terminology of the day) that a Muhammaden mission in Liverpool was making converts amongst educated Englishmen. The article described a movement called the Liverpool Muslim Institute, and seemed to be astonished at the idea that a mosque should open every day for prayers in a busy English seaport. The reporter was surprised at the turning of the tables, the idea that the East was actually engaged in trying to convert the West. He stated that the honorary secretary distributed explanatory works on Islam and that tracts are scattered about on the premises, sowing the seeds of a new religion in the conventional missionary manner, which we, for other use, invented.

The missionary theme also appeared in an otherwise informative article that was printed in the Sunday Telegraph three years later. The article deserves to be set out in full and will be used to introduce readers to the subject of this biography. The article appeared under the headline, A Mosque in Liverpool where Britons pray to Allah, and read as follows: