1894: Reconstructing a crucial year in Sheikh Abdullah Quilliam’s life
All researchers into Sheikh Abdullah Quilliam’s biography know that the richest sources about his life as the leader of the Liverpool Muslims are his own periodicals, The Crescent and The Islamic World.
To date, no active researcher has been able to locate the missing volume of The Crescent for the year 1894, including at the British Library, which has the fullest set, and so this year in Quilliam’s life has had to be reconstructed from whatever other sources are available.
I have attempted to set out a timeline of this crucial year in Quilliam’s life using other primary sources. I have been able to put together this timeline with assistance from the Quilliamania WhatsApp group. I am particularly indebted to scholarship and/or help of Ron Geaves, Jamie Gilham, Halim Gencoglu, Matt Sharp, Brent Singleton, Yusuf Teke among others. With special thanks to Abdurahman Abouhawas for digging up Quilliam’s legal cases that were recorded in the local press in 1894.
It is a work in progress, so anyone with new, evidenced, primary sources please contact me, so that it can be updated as a common resource.
There were certainly important developments for Quilliam in 1894:
(1) His first contact with the Amir of Afghanistan, who addresses him as leader of the faithful in England.
(2) His growing role as an intermediary between West African Muslims and the caliph.
(3) His first mission as a special representative of the caliph to West Africa to the consecration of a mosque in Lagos; his popular reception along the coastal cities of West Africa had a high-level impact.
(4) His growing influence among American Muslims because of a split in the convert movement there, led by Alexander Russell Webb. Some American organisations affiliate as chapters of the Liverpool Muslim Institute at least temporarily in 1894–5.
(5) Most significantly in my view, new evidence that the honorary title “Sheikh-ul-Islam of the British Isles” was not a formal appointment by the caliph or any other Muslim king but was the result of proposal and election by the members of the Liverpool Muslim Institute in September 1894, recognising his struggle to establish Islam in Britain since 1887. I will explore this in more detail in a forthcoming article.
Finally, if we did have access to The Crescent for 1894, then we would be able to shed more light on all these developments. Please see below, appeals for the missing Crescent volume in English, Urdu, Turkish, Bengla and Arabic to distribute among your contacts.
The 1894 Quilliam Timeline (work-in-progress)
Dated to the Year 1894
— appointed Treasurer of the Masonic Lodge of the Ancient Rite of Memphis, est. by John Yarker. (TC, 13/04/1903, p234.)
— writes the novel Wages of Sin (Who’s Who, 1902)
— In the spring of 1894, Q. writes to the Indian Division of Religious Endowments to stop funding Webb. (Lant Papers, Snow to Lant, 18 June 1894)
— M. Shitta Bey is named an honorary vice-president of the Liverpool Moslem Association (TC, 21/08/1895, pp115–16)
January 1894
4 — Q. at LBC defending debtors or creditors (LM, 5/1/1894, p5; LE, 4/1/1894, p4)
5 — Q. at LPC, Lancashire Sea Fisheries Board v. Thoms (LE, 5/1/1894; LM, 6/1/1894, p6)
5 — Farewell meeting at the LMI for Al-Hajj Haroun Al-Rashid, an ‘alim from the University of Fez and Chief Imam of Sierra Leone. Q. presides. Others present included Essad Kenan, Consul-General for Turkey at Liverpool, Moulvie Barakatullah, Z. H. Fusihuddien Ahmed (eldest son of the Nawab Rafaat Yar Jung Bahadoor of Chutterghat, Hyderabad), H.M. Dollie et al (LM, 6/1/1894, p7)
7 — Q. gives a lecture on the Song of Soloman. (IW, 9, Jan 1894)
8 — Q. at LPC, William Lewis, accused of burglary (LE, 8/1/1894, p4)
22 — Q. at County Magistrates’ Court, Edward Lambert was accused of robbery (LE, 22/1/1894, p4; LM, 23/1/1894, p7)
23 — H. Haschem Wilde, head of the Moslem College, received exam results in sciences and arts, and all pupils passed. Syed Hadi Hassan comes first among candidates in Liverpool, Mr Golam Akbar came second, and R. Ahmed Quilliam Bey came third, although 18 months younger than the other boys. All three got first-class certificates. Pupils were examined in Latin, English grammar, geography, French, mathematics and general science. In the preliminary exams, R. Ahmed Davies first with honours in three subjects, Omar Dollie came second with honours in two subjects. Miss E.C.B. Quilliam came first among the girls, with first-class certificates in three subjects. (LM, 23/1/1894)
24 — Q. at LPC, Owens v. Cunliffe (LM, 25/1/1894, p6)
February 1894
— Undated letter from M. Shitta and Y. Shitta to Q. requesting that he present their petition to the caliph to award the former for the building of a mosque in Lagos. Q. is addressed as “Sheikh-ul-Islam, England” in the letter. [BOA, Y. PRK. AZJ. 56/7]
25 — Q. performs the Islamic burial of Obeid-Ullah Cunliffe (Geaves, IVB, p74, source?)
26 — Q. described as “President of the Muslim Congregation” receives Ahmed Fahri Bey, representative of the Ottoman Empire at the Chicago Exhibition, with his secretary, Cassape Effendi. With Q. were Moulvie Mahommed Barakat-Ullah, Prof. of Arabic at the Muslim College and Essad Bey, Ottoman Consulate-General in Liverpool. Fahri leaves for London the next day. (LM, 28/2/1894, p6)
March 1894
— Second part of the “Song of Soloman” lecture published; Q. writes a poem in memoriam to William Obeid-Ullah Cunliffe. (IW, 11, March 1894)
1 — Q. at LPC, Staite v. Walton and Cowap (LM, 2/3/1894, p7)
2 — Q. writes in French to Emin Bey, Abdulhamid II’s Chamberlain, recommending that the Sultan accept the petition of M. Shitta to be decorated by the Sultan for building a mosque in Lagos. Recommends that someone from Turkey or England should travel to give it to M. Shitta. Use of Crescent/Islamic World letterhead at 15 Manchester St. Signed simply “W.H. Abdullah Quilliam”. [BOA, Y. PRK BŞK. 35/77, 27/N/1311]
6 — Q. lectures at Bootle Library on “A Month among the Moors” (The Seventh General Report of the Free Library and Museum Committee. For the year ending March 25th 1894. Bootle, UK: Bootle Printing and Publishing Co., p7)
8 — “Two Months in Morocco (illustrated by special photographic slides)”, 8pm, at Liverpool Geographical Society (LM, 9/3/1894, p6). Third-person summary of the talk given in W.M. Quilliam, “Two Months in Morocco”, Annual Report of the Liverpool Geographical Society. Liverpool: C. Tinling & Co., 1895, pp9–11.
9 — Q. at LPC, Bacon’s Curer’s Association of Great Britain and Ireland v. Spiers & Phillips (LM, 10/3/1894, p8)
12 — Q. at LPC, O’Toole & Grimley v. Davies & Allen & Bispham (LE, 12/12/1894, p3)
22 — Prize Day at the Liverpool Muslim College, Q. presides. Attendees include Essad Kenan Bey, Ottoman Consul-General in Liverpool, the headmaster H.H. Wilde, Moulvie Barakat Ullah, H. Leon (BA) and Major Ettride. Abdulhamid II had endowed the school for boys and girls out of his private purse. Pupils had come from India, Egypt and other Muslim countries for a western education. (LM, 23/3/1894, p7)
22 — Gabbinuddin Rasoul Havick Fasihuddin Ahmad, the eldest son of the Nawab Ishtaq Ahmad-ul-Mulk, Governor of South Hyderabad, arrives in Peel, IoM, to be hosted by Q. at his residence at Water’s Edge in Peel. (Mona’s Herald (IoM), 4/4/1894, p5)
27 — Q. chairs anti-imports talk by J.W. Mahony at Beacon Hall, Wavertree Rd, 8pm (LM, 28/3/1894, p6)
28 — Q. at LPC, Wakelin case (LM, 29/3/1894, p7)
29 — Q. at LPC, Dade was accused of stealing a jewel worth £300 and Wm. Brown, Taylor, Duffy, A. Browne, Moore, Burke, Harvey were accused of purchasing the jewel knowing it was stolen (LE, 29/3/1894, p4)
April 1894
3 — Q. at LPC, Wakelin case (LM, 4/4/1894, p8); Q. at LPC, Fish v. Cook (LE, 3/4/1894, p4)
12 — Q. at LPC, Cowin v. Marshall (LE, 12/4/1894, p4, LM, 13/4/1894, p5)
13 — Essad Kenan Bey, Ottoman Consult-General at Liverpool, hands over the Order of the Medjidieh 3rd Class and a document (brevete) to carry to Lagos and in the name of Abdulhamid II confer it upon Shitta Bey at the consecration of the mosque in Lagos. (LM, 14/4/1894, p6)
14 — Syed Hadi Hassan of Gya, pupil of the Liverpool Muslim College, passed his entrance exam to Gray’s Inn to study for the bar. Q. described as “leader of the Moslems of Liverpool”. (LM, 17/4/1894, p6)
20 — Q. at LPC, Joseph Marshall summoned for “leaving his horse and vehicle without anyone in charge.” (LM, 21/4/1894, p8)
May 1894
— Announcement that the Ameer of Afghanistan has ordered copies of TC and the IW to be forwarded to him. (IW, 13, May 1894, p34)
18 — Q. at LPC, Cunard Company v. Rooney & Furlong & Hamilton & Cordor & Forshaw & Duncan and Banks (LM, 19/5/1894, p7)
24 — Q. at LPC, Board of Trade v. William Fletcher (LL, 25/5/1894, p8)
30 — Q. sends letter to the Ameer of Afghanistan (IW, 18, Oct 1894, p187)
June 1894
3 — Farewell event at the LMI for two members, Shaikh Z.H. Fasihuddeen Ahmed and Q., who was leaving to present a medal to Shitta Bey in Lagos from Abdulhamid II. Speeches are given in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Bengali, Gujarati and Hindustani. 75 Muslims present at this meeting. (LM, 5/6/1894, p6)
6 — Q. sails for Lagos on the steamer Cabenda on a “special mission entrusted to him by the Sultan of Turkey”. Seen off by 35 LMI members, several friends and Essad Kenan Bey, the Ottoman Consul-General of Liverpool. (LM, 7/6/1894, p6) Q.is seen off by 40–50 Muslims, and in bidding farewell shout takbir and hold aloft a banner inscribed with the message “All’s well; God be with you.” (“Islam in Liverpool”, IW, 14, Jun 1894, pp40–41)
— H. Wilde deputised to act as President of the LMI in Q’s absence (LM, 27/09/1894, p6)
— Stops at Canary Islands, Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Gold Coast on the way to Lagos. At Gorce Island, Senegal, a hundred Muslims board and Q. prays with them regularly. (Abdallah Quilliam, “A Chapter in the History of Sierra Leone”, Journal of the African Society, 3/9, 1903, p83; TC, 07/12/1898, p347)
20 — Stops at Bathurst, Gambia, Q. is mobbed by well-wishers during a short visit of a matter of hours. At the residence of Mohammed Davies, one of his correspondents, he speaks to a multitude about the Liverpool Muslims and conversion. Some local Muslim religious leaders saw this visit as the fulfilment of a prophecy. (Sierra Leone Weekly News, 07/07/1894, p2)
22 — Stops at Freetown, Sierra Leone for 4 hours. Q. again greeted by large crowds. Goes to Wilberforce Hall where Q. speaks for an hour. Then a thousand-strong parade heads to the Foulah Town mosque, where Q. is addressed in Arabic by Muhammad Sanussi. Visits another mosque and the home of Mohammed Gheirawani and the offices of the Sierra Leone Weekly News. (Sierra Leone Weekly News, 25/06/94, p5; 07/07/1894, p3)
24 — The Cabenda stops at Monrovia, capital of Liberia. (IW, 22, Feb 1895, p290)
26? — Stops at Accra, Gold Coast, where Q. is welcomed by Mohammed Bayloo Davies on behalf of a thousand local Muslims in the town. (Lagos Weekly Record, 14/07/1894, p3)
28 — Arrives in Lagos, met by thousands of Muslims. Received by Alhajj Harun al-Rashid and Mohammed Shitta and then was taken to meet the Governor, Sir Gilbert Carter. (Lagos Weekly Record, 30/06/1894, p3)
July 1894
5 — Consecration of the Shitta Bey Mosque. Muslims from across West Africa attend including Governor Carter and Dr Blyden. The fact that Q. came as the Sultan’s representative was much appreciated. Both Q. and the Governor in their speeches emphasised the importance of religious tolerance. Q. also encouraged English education as a practical stance rather than as a pro-Empire policy, and urged West Africans to take advantage of government schools as the Indians had not with their boycott. Shitta Bey given the Turkish Order of the Medjidieh 3rd class by Q., “the special envoy of the Sultan”.(Lagos Weekly Record, 07/07/94, pp2–3, 21/07/1894, p2; TC, 14/08/1895, p107; LM, 25/9/1894, p12)
5 — Q. turns down the offer of marriage of two of a local chief’s daughters, Fatima and Ayesha, but has to do so with delicacy in order not to create a political issue. (Wide World Magazine, 17, May-Oct 1906, pp225–6)
25 — Q. returns to Freetown in the company of Dr Blyden, on the ship Matadi, and speaks again at Wilberforce Hall, departing the same day. Q. was stricken with malaria on this trip. (Lagos Weekly Record, 18/08/1894, p3; Sierra Leone Weekly News, 28/07/1894, p5; TC, 29/01/1896, p46)
August 1894
[No reports for this month; but the working assumption would be that Q. returned to Liverpool, still sick with malaria.]
September 1894
— Q. publishes essay, “How errors to Islam originate and are perpetuated” (IW, 17, Sept 1894)
— Q. is seriously ill with malaria contracted in West Africa. (Geaves, IVB, p76; source?)
21 — Alexander Russell Webb writes to Q. publicly exonerating himself of any hostile or malicious propaganda against the Liverpool Muslim Institute (The Moslem Chronicle (Calcutta), 23/1, 10/1/1895, supplement)
26 — Q. replies to a letter from John A. Lant, co-founder of a splinter group from A.R. Webb’s American Islamic Propaganda, the First Society for the Study of Islam in America, modelled more closely on the LMI and in particular its adoption of orthodox Islamic prayers (unlike the AIP). Under fire from various quarters, Lant asks for Q’s advice. Q. suggests that American Muslims unaffiliated to Webb form their own unified body. (Lant Papers, Q. to Lant, 26/09/1894)
26 — Reception for Q. at LMI on return from West Africa. Presided over by Essad Kenan Bey, the Ottoman Consul-General in Liverpool, representing Abdulhamid II (LM, 27/09/1894, p6) “Brother Mahommed Barakat-Ullah proposed the following resolution: ‘That this meeting of believers in the One and Only God and in His Holy Prophet Mahommed, cordially welcome home our trusted leader, companion, brother, and friend, Bro. W.H. Abdullah Quilliam, Sheikh-ul-Islam of the British Isles, and trust he will long be spared to lead this Institution on to continued victories for the Faith.’
He said that the services of Bro. Quilliam on behalf of Islam were well known to them, and he had now proved that he was even more ready to risk his life for the benefit of the faith most excellent. Without him Islam might, and probably never would have been introduced into England, and certainly never could have met with the success it had done. No man had ever more truly merited the title of Sheik-ul-Islam than their president; and he was glad to tell them that his Highness the Ameer of Afghanistan had recognised Bro. Quilliam’s work, and addressed him with that honourable distinction.
Mr N. Stephen, in supporting the resolution, said he had worked side by side with Bro. Quilliam in temperance work long before the advent of Islam in England, and that many a home had been made brighter by the inculcation of lessons of temperance and self-control then taught and still practised by Bro. Quilliam.
The resolution was carried with enthusiasm.
Bro. Quilliam, in responding, spoke of the seven and a half years’ pitiless persecution he had borne, and said that the welcome accorded him was sufficient to make him forget it. He believed that the future was pregnant with the greatest triumphs for the faith, and asked all to work in harmony and unity to strengthen and extend Islam in England.” (Mona’s Herald (IoM), 10/10/1894, p5)
October 1894
— Publication of letter to Q. from Ameer of Afghanistan. Addressed to “the leader of the faithful (in England) Sheikh Abdullah W. Quilliam”. Mostly full of pieties and prayers. Is pleased to hear about the progress of the community in Liverpool, to hear of further news, and promises “we are ready to do what we can for you whenever you will need our assistance.” Dated 7 Muharram 1312/[23 July 1894]. (IW, 18, Oct 1894, p189)
— Second part of Q’s essay, “How errors to Islam originate and are perpetuated” is published (IW, 18, Oct 1894)
4 — Letter of correction by Essad Kenan published in LM, reproducing his exact comments made on the return of Q. to Liverpool. In that speech he expressed the hope that this award to Shitta Bey had “strengthened the moral ties that attach the Mussulman population of these distant countries to the sacred throne of our magnanimous Calif in an indissoluble manner. I express my sincere hope that Mr. Quilliam’s visit may equally prove to be a means of giving a further impetus to the movement of the progress of Islamism in the remote corners of Africa.” (LM, 4/10/1894)
5 — Quilliam at LPC, Lancashire Sea Fisheries Board v. Kay & Milner (LM, 6/10/1894, p8)
30 — Q. at LCP, Stanhope, through Q., applied for a theatrical licence (LM 31/10/1894, p8)
November 1894
1 — Q. at LPC, Lancashire Fisheries Board v. Evans (LE, 1/11/1894, p4)
4 — Q. described as “Sheikh Abdullah W. Quilliam”, receives a letter from the Ameer of Afghanistan “with reference to the progress of Mohammedanism in England”. (Glasgow Herald, 5/11/1894, p6)
27 — Q. at LPC, Lancashire Sea Fisheries Board v. Jones & Armitage & Nightingale (Soulby’s Ulverston Advertiser and General Intelligencer, 29/11/1894); Q. at Dale-street Police Court, Wilcock, through Q., applied for a theatrical licence (LM, 28/11/1894, p7)
December 1894
— Q’s poem “Scale Force” is published (IW, 20, Dec 1894)
7 — Q. receives news by mail that the Gold Coast government will declare the Kingdom of Ashanti a British protectorate. (Belfast Newsletter, 7/12/1894, p6)
12 — Q. at the County Magistrates’ Court, Lancashire Sea Fisheries’ Committee v. Slack. (LM, 13/12/1894, p5)
13 — Q. at LPC, Lancashire Sea Fisheries’ Committee v. Fletcher (LM, 14/12/1894, p6)
15 — Quilliam at LPC, [Wife of Delaney] v. Delaney. (LM, 17/12/1894, p8)
19 — Meeting held at LMI “to protest against the misrepresentation of Islamic law and religion in connection with the alleged Armenian atrocities. “Sheikh Abdullah Quilliam” presides. (LM, 21/12/1894, p6)
20 — Q. represents the Mersey Quay and Railway Carters Union (MQRCU) at an inquest following the death of member carter in Bootle (LM, 21/12/1894, p7)
20 — Letter sent to Anjuman-i-Islamia of London, S. S. Ahmad, regarding the Armenian atrocities. Signed off as “W. H. Abdullah Quilliam, Sheikh of the United Societies of English-speaking Muslims of England and America”. (TC, 108, 2/1/1895, p7)
22 — Composes poem, “The Triumph of Truth” (published in IW, 21, Jan 1895, p263)
25 — Free tea and talk at the LMI which attracted “a large gathering”. Chaired by Q. Secretarial duties by S.M. Hassan. (LM, 26/12/1894, p5)
Abbreviations
BPC=Bootle Police Court; IVB=Geaves, Islam in Victorian Britain; IW=The Islamic World; LBC=Liverpool Bankruptcy Court; LE=Liverpool Echo; LL=Lloyd’s List; LM=Liverpool Mercury; LMI=Liverpool Muslim Institute; LPC=Liverpool Police Court; MQRCU=Mersey Quay and Railway Carters Union; MT=Manchester Times; Q.=Quilliam; TC=The Crescent
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