Why Quilliam?

Shaikh William Henry Abdullah Quilliam (1856-1932) was a native Englishman, a solicitor, from Liverpool, England, who was a Muslim by choice. He and many of his contemporaries embraced Islam voluntarily and established Britain’s first mosque in Liverpool, now a national heritage site.

Quilliam’s community of nineteenth century Muslims were our forebears in British Islam.

The mass immigration of Muslims from the Indian subcontinent, while a welcome development, must not blur our understanding of the history of British Islam. Some academics trace the roots of Muslim presence to the eighth century, citing the Islamic minting of coins issued by Offa (d.796), King of Mercia (now known as the English Midlands). Chaucer in the introduction to his Canterbury Tales 1386 wrote of a ‘doctour of physik’ who learned from Muslim sources. In Tudor and Elizabethan times, Muslim influences were palpable in literature and trade. Captain John Ward of Kent (http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/ward.htm), for example, provides an instructive anecdote of his times. However, the first native Muslim community, dedicated to serving fellow Brits on the English mainland, was that of Abdullah Quilliam’s in Liverpool and, later, Lord Headley in Woking.

Article about Abdullah Quilliam’s political work please see:
‘W.H Quilliam: Britain’s first Muslim Activist?’ by Ashraf al-Hoque

For a more detailed biography of Abdullah Quilliam, please see:
www.abdullahquilliamsociety.org.uk

Poetry by Abdulluah Quilliam and more of his literary work is available at:
http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/bmh/bmh.htm

More information about Shaikh William Abdullah Quilliam can be found at:
http://www.abdullahquilliamsociety.org.uk/
http://www.wokingmuslim.org/pers/quilliam/

News articles mentioning Shaikh William Abdullah Quilliam can be found at:
The Independent
BBC