In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Him, and may His peace and blessings be upon His final Messenger, Muhammad.
The distance between England and the Muslim-majority world may be sizable, but the country has some fascinating historical Islamic links of its own.
These connections are many, with the oldest even dating back over a millennium.
But let’s start a little more recently than that.
BACKGROUND
- In light of the Gaza genocide and a generally concerning political climate, it may be easy to forget that Islam has been around far longer than a mere one or two generations
- From the Victorian period to the Tudors, from the Normans to the Anglo-Saxons and quite possibly beyond, it's important that we learn about such connections
- By studying more about our history as British Muslims, we can be confident in our identity, as young Muslims, old Muslims, and generations to come
- After all, did you know that the first mosque in this country was founded over 130 years ago?
- And would it shock you to hear that the Shahada was once inscribed on an English coin?
1 | England’s Victorian mosques
It may come as a surprise to some, that not one but two mosques opened in England over 130 years ago.
The United Kingdom’s first mosque was established in Liverpool in 1887.
The other — and the first to be purpose-built — opened in Woking, Surrey, in 1889.
The Liverpool mosque
Now one of a dozen or so Liverpool mosques, it was founded by William Quilliam, a Briton who embraced Islam after a trip to Morocco, thereafter taking the name Abdullah.
Though initially run from a small rented premises, the mosque later moved to a more permanent site at Brougham Terrace on West Derby Road in 1891, as the Liverpool Muslim Institute. [1]
The mosque became an active missionary centre under Abdullah Quilliam’s leadership, and his efforts led to over 200 people becoming Muslim. [2]
Djem Ali Hamilton and Elizabeth Fatima Cates were among the earliest reverts. [3]
Robert Reschid Stanley, who went on to be Britain’s first Muslim mayor, also joined the congregation, accepting Islam in 1898. [4a] [4b]
Vital community projects launched
Eventually, the institute would expand to include boys’ and girls’ schools, a library, and a printing press, among other departments.
The mosque even had a weekly newspaper, the Crescent, with an international readership.
The paper covered a range of topics, from local community engagement to the welfare of Muslims in Sudan and China. [5] [6]
The publication encouraged British believers to see themselves as part of a global Ummah.
19th century Islamophobia
Of course, the community was not without its challenges.
For instance, the mosque’s windows were smashed in an Islamophobic attack, when Shaykh Abdullah performed the marriage ceremony of the Londoner Ellen Lena Hallemalden and Kerim Buksh of Lahore.
This was the seventh such mixed-ethnicity marriage to take place at the institute.
Title of Shaykh al-Islam bestowed to Abdullah Quilliam
Nonetheless, the efforts of Liverpool’s faithful even gained recognition from important rulers abroad.
The Ottoman Caliph, Sultan Abdulhamid II, conferred the title of “Shaykh al-Islam of the British Isles” upon Abdullah Quilliam, making him his country’s most senior Islamic leader in 1894.
The following year, renovations were completed at the institute, supported by donations from the Emir of Afghanistan.
The Woking mosque
Like the Liverpool Muslim Institute, Woking Mosque also received backing from abroad.
Shah Jahan Begum, the ruler of the princely state of Bhopal, India, provided significant funds for the mosque’s construction.
In fact, her contribution was so important, the house of prayer bears her name.
The mosque was established by Gottlieb Leitner, a Hungarian Jewish Orientalist scholar and founder of the nearby Oriental Institute.
One of the functions of Leitner’s institute was to provide skilled professional courses to well-to-do South Asian students from the British Empire’s dominions. To that end, the Shah Jahan Mosque’s role was not intended for missionary purposes, but rather to accommodate the religious needs of Muslim students. [7]
High-profile Muslims have visited the mosque
Woking Mosque was frequented by numerous high-profile Muslims, such as Queen Victoria’s Indian servant, Abdul Karim — portrayed in the 2017 film Victoria and Abdul. [8]
British reverts Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (known for his 1930 English translation of the Qur’ān which is still in use today) and Lady Evelyn Cobbold also visited. [9]
At age 66, Lady Evelyn — also known as Zainab — is believed to be the first female Briton to have completed the Hajj, making the trip in 1933. [10]
Shah Jahan Mosque also found fame in Victorian literature, being destroyed by an alien invasion (thankfully only fictionally) in H G Wells’ 1898 novel, The War of the Worlds. [11]
Revival after long periods of disuse
Both sites at Woking and Liverpool saw periods of disuse.
The former re-opened as a mosque in the 1970s. [12]
The latter, meanwhile, closed down in 1908, and the building was sold.
But, over a century later, a valiant community effort purchased part of the original site, and re-opened it in 2014. [13]
2 | Elizabethan outreach
English connections to Islam go back beyond the Victorian era too.
In fact, they are older than the United Kingdom! Some can even be traced back well over a century before the 1707 Act of Union joined England and Scotland.
Christian sectarian split led to Muslim ties
During her reign (1558-1603), the Tudor Queen Elizabeth I found her realm isolated on sectarian grounds.
When the Pope banned trade between England and its Catholic neighbours in 1570, the solitary Protestant kingdom found itself under economic pressure. [14]
The boycott prompted the Queen to seek out new partnerships with Muslim rulers farther afield.
Elizabeth focused mainly on ties with the Ottoman Empire and Morocco.
In 1579, she started what would be a long correspondence with the Ottoman Sultan Murad III (r.1574–1595), and sent diplomats to build commercial relations.
Trade ties with Islamic rulers like this literally brought home the goods, with sugar, coffee, carpets, cotton, and more entering England.
A Muslim ambassador’s offer to Elizabeth I
It was not only commodities that reached the country.
In 1600, an Andalusian-born Muslim ambassador arrived with his entourage in London.
The envoy, named Abd al-Wahid, met Elizabeth on behalf of the Marrakesh-based Saadi Sultanate. [15]
He came with a proposal some might find surprising. The diplomat invited the Queen to join forces and stage an allied Anglo-Moroccan invasion of their common enemy, Spain.
The ambassador’s mission was ultimately unsuccessful and he left London in 1601, having failed to garner Elizabeth’s support. But the Moorish visitor may have left behind an important legacy.
He is not only believed to be the first ever Muslim to have his portrait painted in English history; some also speculate that his visit inspired William Shakespeare’s 1604 play, Othello.
3 | Coastal corsairs and an Ottoman island?
Other interactions around this time were not always so cordial.
England has a deep history of seafaring. Sir Francis Drake (d.1596) — the Devonshire native and admiral — is perhaps one of the biggest household names.
Understanding Drake and his “profession” is key to another Muslim connection.
Drake was a privateer, essentially a pirate with a licence from the Crown that made his activities “legal”.
In fact, after receiving his commission from Elizabeth in 1572, he amassed a fortune raiding Spanish settlements in the Americas. [16]
Before this, however, Drake had also taken part in an Atlantic slave trading venture personally supported by the Queen. [17]
Intersection of slavery and privateering
Both slavery and privateering were widespread in the 16th and 17th centuries, and some Muslim rulers were by no means beyond participating in both.
Privateers, known as “Barbary corsairs”, often served Ottoman vassals in North Africa, and made a living by selling both captured slaves and loot. [18]
While they tended to operate in the Mediterranean, it was not uncommon for the corsairs to target Britain and Ireland too. [19]
Some even went as far as Iceland. [19]
Muslim and European corsair connection
Barbary privateers are generally known to have been Muslim and of North African origin, but Englishmen and other Europeans also joined their ranks.
At least some of these accepted Islam. And one of the most famous examples is the Kent-born John Ward, also known as Jack Ward. [20]
A contemporary of Drake’s, Ward also pursued a career as a privateer serving Elizabeth I, but later found his way to Tunisia.
While in the service of the local Ottoman ruler Osman Dayı, Ward became a Muslim around 1610, taking the name Yusuf Reis. He lived out the rest of his life in Tunis as a wealthy man. [21a] [21b]
Pirates of the Caribbean, anyone?
Ward was certainly well-known in his time.
In fact, in 1612 he was the subject of a play by the English dramatist Robert Daborne, titled A Christian Turn’d Turk.
Back then, “turning Turk” was a term used to describe conversion to Islam, and the play was intended to discourage its audience from doing just that.
The corsair may have another, even more impressive global status too.
It is said that while living in Tunis, Ward had a love for small birds, causing locals to give him the nickname Jack “Asfūr” (Arabic for sparrow).
This has led some to conclude that Ward is the inspiration behind Captain Jack Sparrow, the main character in the world-famous Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, played by Johnny Depp.
Was Lundy part of the Ottoman Empire?
England’s corsair connections do not stop there. Some even took control of English soil.
In 1625, corsairs occupied Lundy, a small island off the coast of Devon, and used it as a base of operations for a couple of weeks.
They would continue to seize the island on and off for similarly short periods over the next decade, raiding shipping, people, and property on the South West coast and beyond. [22]
What remains clear, however, is that in the 17th century, there were periods where an English island was under the control of Ottoman agents, raising the question,
“Can we consider Lundy and, therefore, a tiny piece of England, to have been part of the Ottoman Empire on more than one occasion?”
4 | A converted crusader
Ward is not the only English Muslim to have a fascinating backstory.
Over 350 years before the corsair was born, a crusader knight had a change of heart.
In 1184, Robert of St Albans — then a member of the Knights Templar, a zealous Christian military order with a reputation for ferocity when fighting Muslims — abandoned the group and embraced Islam. [23]
Some say he made the decision after developing a deep admiration for Muslims during his time in the Holy Land, and growing disillusioned with the Templar. [24]
Whatever his motivations, Robert is believed to have reached the highest echelons of Muslim society in the Middle East.
He is said, for instance, to have married the niece of Salāh al-Dīn — the world-renowned ruler famous for bringing Jerusalem back under Islamic rule in 1187, after nearly 90 years of crusader rule. [25]
He also put his military talents at the service of his new brethren, and died leading an army outside the sacred city, on behalf of Salāh al-Dīn.
5 | A king and a coin
English connections to Islam are even deeper than the crusades.
One of the country’s earliest links dates back over a thousand years, to King Offa (r. 757 to 796), the 8th century Anglo-Saxon ruler of Mercia.
In Offa’s time, England was largely split between different Anglo-Saxon rulers, and would not be united under a single monarch for well over a century yet, making some Islamic links older than the Kingdom of England itself.
English coins bearing the Shahada!
This link predating the Kingdom of England has been proved by a remarkable artefact.
The Mercian ruler is believed to have minted gold coins — not only with his own name on them in Latin text — but with Arabic-language Islamic inscriptions, copying the dinars of the Abbasid Caliphate.
Only one surviving coin has been found so far, but two important conclusions can be made because of it.
Firstly, it is likely that Offa produced these coins so he could trade in the Mediterranean, where gold dinars were widely accepted. This suggests a desire on his part to do business, rather than war with Muslims. [26]
Secondly, though they are imperfectly copied, the coins’ Arabic inscriptions still clearly bear the Islamic statements:
“None has the right to be worshipped except Allah, and He has no partners; and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.” [27]
These inscriptions reveal that Islamic messages came to England over a thousand years ago, even if Offa and the others they reached could not understand them.
Well, there you have it. This “green and pleasant land” has links to the Islamic world that are older than both the UK and the Kingdom of England themselves.
Better spread the word!
Action points
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Share at least one English Islamic link with your work colleagues, classmates, friends, or family.
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Take a look at the UK’s first Muslim publication, the Crescent. Digital copies are freely available online.
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Reflect on the experience of the Liverpool Muslims, and how they persisted against Islamophobia and supported the Ummah abroad.
Source: Islam21c
Notes
[1] Humayun Ansari, The Infidel Within: Muslims in Britain Since 1800 by Ansari, pp. 121-126.
[2] https://www.baytalfann.com/post/being-british-muslim-community-culture-history-yahya-birt
[3] Ron Geaves, Islam in Victorian Britain: The Life and Times of Abdullah Quilliam, pp. 61-67.
[4a] http://www.abdullahquilliam.org/family-robert-rachied-stanley-visit/
[4b] http://www.abdullahquilliam.org/appeal-members-british-public-robert-reschid-stanleys-family/
[5] https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/12/15/how-did-victorian-muslims-celebrate-christmas
[6] http://www.abdullahquilliam.org/crescent-results/
[7] https://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/london/mosque.shtml
[11] Wells, H. G. (1898). The War of the Worlds. p.41. London: William Heinemann.
[12] https://shahjahanmosque.org.uk/the-mosque/history/explore/
[13] http://www.abdullahquilliam.org/
[14] https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/elizabeth-i-and-the-ottomans-an-alliance-that-saved-england-55785
[15] https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/african-ambassador-who-almost-convinced-25234866
[16] https://www.britannica.com/story/pirates-privateers-corsairs-buccaneers-whats-the-difference
[17] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Drake
[19] https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Barbary-Pirates-English-Slaves/
[21a] https://www.dailysabah.com/cinema/2017/03/20/jack-sparrow-might-be-inspired-by-a-muslim-captain
[21b] https://www.historyextra.com/period/elizabethan/pirate-john-ward-the-real-captain-jack-sparrow/
[22] https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:62874/datastreams/CONTENT/content
[23] Childress, D.H. (2003) Pirates and the Lost Templar Fleet: The Secret Naval War Between the Knights Templar and the Vatican. Page 94. Adventures Unlimited Press.
[24] https://youtu.be/TJaEp2zr3U4
[25] The experience of crusading, Volume 2 Edited by Peter Edbury, Jonathan P. Phillips, pg.195
Ma sha Allah tabarak Allah this is a wonderful piece which I never knew being a British Muslim.