Robert Ahmed Quilliam and the Hijaz Railway

Ref: Ottoman State Archive, HR. SFR. 3. 00501. 00023. 005, Courtesy of Dr Halim Gencoglu, University of Cape Town

This document from the Ottoman archives provides some precious information about one of the duties that befell Robert Ahmed Quilliam Effendi (1879–1954), Sheikh Quilliam’s oldest son, as an Ottoman official. It is interesting to note that Robert, as a secretary to an Ottoman trade consul, was expected to help raise funds for the construction of the Hijaz Railway.

Commissioned by sultan-caliph Abdulhamid II (r. 1876–1909), it was meant to provide a rail link between the Ottoman heartlands and its central Arabian territories. While it was important for boosting trading and military communications, its religious importance should not be overlooked, as providing practical support for travelling Hajjis (the journey by caravan was arduous) and attaching symbolic importance to the Hajj.The first section, linking Damascus and Medina with a branch line to Haifaa, was completed in 1908. It was envisaged that the line would be extended to Istanbul to the north and Makkah to the south, but the outbreak of the First World War put paid to that ambition.

A British goods locomotive built for the Hijaz Railway

Below is a rough translation because some words in the letter are too obscure to make out. It is a letter from the Ottoman ambassador in London to the secretariat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Istanbul, dated 8 July 1901, and marked as received six days later. It gives notice of who has provided subscriptions for the Hijaz Railway in Britain and notification about a wage issue concerning the Turkish Consul-General in Liverpool:

The Sublime Porte

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

[Sent:]8 July 1901 [received:]13 July 1901

Mr. Ambassador,

Re: Subscriptions for the Hijaz Railway

In response to the dispatch No. 25565.70 from our Excellency dated 27 February, I have the honour to inform him that the Ottoman bank [in London?] was invited to retain from the salaries of Raghib Bey, 3rd Secretary of the Imperial Ambassador, and of Ahmed Quilliam Effendi, Chancelior [Chief Secretary] to the Turkish Consul-General in Liverpool, the sums that they have acquired in support of the Hijaz Railway, in ten monthly installments.

This establishment [i.e. the Ottoman Bank] has received an order to only deduct 100 piastres per month from the salary of Kiamil Bey, Consul-General of Turkey in Liverpool until further notice, and this is in accordance with his wishes, which he has confirmed.

Please appreciate, Sir, the assurance of my highest consideration.

[Signature:] Nirfik

Your Excellence
Aushopoulos Pasha,
Ambassador of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan
etc. etc. etc.

The former site of the London branch of the Ottoman Bank, near Cornhill in the City of London. Courtesy: Abdulmaalik Tailor.

Acknowledgements

With thanks to Dr Halim Gencoglu of the University of Cape Town for sharing this archival document, to the historian Abdulmaalik Tailor for information and the photograph about the Ottoman Bank that operated in London, and to Safiya Florence Ascolli-Ball for assistance with deciphering the letter.