William Abdullah Quilliam
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William Abdullah or W. H. Quilliam (1851 – 1932) was a poet, solicitor, ambassador, Islamic scholar, journalist, and leader, who is particularly noted for founding England's first mosque and Islamic centre. A convert from Christianity to Islam, Quilliam was influential in advancing Islam within the British Isles, gaining many converts through his literary work and the many charitable institutions he founded.
A descendant of Captain John Quilliam RN, First Lieutenant on HMS Victory with Horatio Nelson, William Abdullah Quilliam was born in Liverpool to a wealthy watch manufacturing family in 1851. He soon established himself as a noted solicitor, founding the largest advocacy practice in the North. Either while visiting southern France in 1882 and crossing over to Algeria and Tunisia, or after visiting Morocco in 1887[citation needed], Quilliam learned about Islam and converted. Returning to Liverpool, he began to spread Islam among the masses, as Shaykh Abdullah Quilliam.
Quilliam influenced the paths of many converts, including his formerly Methodist mother, his sons, and prominent scientists and intellectuals. He soon published three editions of his masterpiece, The Faith of Islam, translated subsequently in thirteen languages, gaining him fame all over the Islamic world. The leaders of the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Morocco and Afghanistan accorded him many honours, including granting him finance for a potential English mosque.
The Islamic Institute and Liverpool Mosque was established by Abdullah Quilliam as England's first mosque, accommodating around a hundred Muslims, in Liverpool's Brougham Terrace. Soon followed a Muslim college, headed by the professors Haschem Wilde and Nasrullah Warren, which offered courses for both Muslims and non-Muslims. Quilliam's weekly Debating and Literary Society within the college attracted many non-Muslim intellectuals, leading to the conversion of over a hundred and fifty Englishmen towards Islam.
An active writer and essayist he produced a weekly paper, The Crescent, from 1893 until 1903. He received many awards, and was appointed Sheikh al-Islam by the Ottoman Sultan and Persian Consul to Liverpool by the Shah. He also received money from the Emir of Afghanistan to found an Islamic Institute of Liverpool.
Quillam's work in Liverpool stopped when he left England in 1908.
Quilliam's legacy lives on: the Abdullah Quilliam Society was formed in 1996, and his mosque is now Liverpool's Registry for Births, Deaths and Marriages. Western Muslims, particularly converts to Islam, see him as a forefather of the path they have undertaken.
[edit] External links
- Special BBC feature on Abdullah Quilliam and his Mosque, including audio testimonials from his grand-daughter and admirers
- The Muslim Council of Britain's special biography and profile on Quilliam's life
- The Riddle of Life, poem by Abdullah Quilliam
- Quilliam mentioned in early Ahmadiyya sources and his connection with the Woking Muslim Mission under the name Professor H.M. Leon
[edit] Sources
- Lewis, Philip (1994). Islamic Britain: Religion, Politics, and Identity among British Muslims: Bradford in the 1990s. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1850438617.
