William Henry Quilliam (10 April 1856 – 23 April 1932), who changed his name to Abdullah Quilliam and later Henri Marcel Leon or Haroun Mustapha Leon, was a 19th-century British convert from Christianity to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

, noted for founding England's first

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

and Islamic centre, and Britain's oldest Muslim organization, the Association of British Muslims.

Early life

William Henry Quilliam was born at 22 Eliot Street, Liverpool, on 10 April 1856, to a wealthy local family. He spent most of his childhood on the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

and was brought up as a Methodist. He was educated at the

Liverpool Institute The Liverpool Institute High School for Boys was an all-boys grammar school in the English port city of Liverpool. The school had its origins in 1825 but occupied different premises while the money was found to build a dedicated building on M ...

and the Manx King William's College. He became a solicitor in 1878, specialising in criminal law, and practising at 28

Church Street, Liverpool Church Street is a street in Liverpool, England, lying between Bold Street to the east and Lord Street to the west. It is the main shopping area of Liverpool and takes its name from St Peter's Church, which was demolished in 1922. The side s ...

. He defended suspects in many high-profile murder cases. In 1879, he married Hannah Johnstone. At this time, Quilliam was a Wesleyan Methodist and a proponent of the

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting Temperance (virtue), temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and ...

Conversion to Islam

Quilliam converted to Islam in 1887 after visiting Morocco to recover from an illness. Quilliam purchased numbers 8, 11 and 12 Brougham Terrace, Liverpool, following his conversion, thanks to a donation from Nasrullah Khan, Crown Prince of the

Emirate of Afghanistan The Emirate of Afghanistan, known as the Emirate of Kabul until 1855, was an emirate in Central Asia and South Asia that encompassed present-day Afghanistan and parts of present-day Pakistan (before 1893). The emirate emerged from the Durrani ...

. 8 Brougham Terrace became the

Liverpool Muslim Institute The Liverpool Muslim Institute was founded by Abdullah Quilliam in 1887. Overview William Henry Quilliam was born in Liverpool in 1856. He developed an interest in Islam when travelling in Morocco. In 1887 he converted to the religion, taking t ...

, the first functioning mosque in Britain; it opened on

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Chri ...

, 1889. Quilliam also opened a boarding school for boys and a day school for girls, as well as an orphanage, Medina House, for non-Muslim parents who were unable to look after their children and agreed for them to be brought up as Muslims. In addition, the Institute hosted educational classes covering a wide range of subjects, and included a museum and science laboratory. In 1889, he first published ''The Faith of Islam'', which was concerned with

dawah ' (, , "invitation", also spelt , , , or ) is the act of inviting people to Islam. The plural is () or (). Preachers who engage in dawah are known as da'i. Etymology literally means "issuing a summons" or "making an invitation". Gramma ...

to Islam and its key principles. Initially, 2,000 copies were published, but a further 3,000 copies were produced in 1890. Quilliam also published ''The Crescent'', a weekly account of Muslims in Britain, and ''Islamic World'', a monthly publication with a worldwide audience. In 1890, Quilliam orchestrated protests against the showing of

Hall Caine Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine (14 May 1853 – 31 August 1931), usually known as Hall Caine, was a British novelist, dramatist, short story writer, poet and critic of the late 19th and early 20th century. Caine's popularity during his lifetim ...

's play, ''Mahomet''. The first public Muslim burial in Liverpool was of Michael Hall, a former Methodist preacher who had converted to Islam, in 1891. A number of notables converted to Islam as a result of Quilliam's preaching. They included professors Nasrullah Warren and Haschem Wilde, as well as Robert Stanley, JP and former mayor of

Stalybridge Stalybridge () is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, it had a population of 26,830. Historic counties of England, Historically divided between Cheshire and Lancashire, it is east o ...

. It is estimated that around 600 people converted to Islam in Britain as a direct result of Quilliam's work. Quilliam Brookwood Cemetery 2019

He travelled extensively and received many honours from the leaders of the Islamic world.

Abdul Hamid II Abdulhamid II or Abdul Hamid II (; ; 21 September 184210 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a Decline and modernizati ...

, the 26th Ottoman Caliph, granted Quilliam the title of

Shaykh al-Islām Shaykh al-Islām (; ; , ''Sheykh-ol-Eslām''; , Sheikh''-ul-Islām''; , ) was used in the classical era as an honorific title for outstanding scholars of the Islamic sciences.Gerhard Böwering, Patricia Crone, Mahan Mirza, The Princeton Encyclope ...

for the British Isles. The Emir of Afghanistan recognised him as the

Sheikh Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning "elder (administrative title), elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim ulama, scholar. Though this title generally refers to me ...

of Muslims in Britain and he was appointed as Persian

Vice Consul A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

in Liverpool by the Shah. He had contact with English-speaking West African Muslims and toured the region's coastal cities on his way to

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

to attend the consecration of the Shitta Bey Mosque in 1894. Quilliam's work in Liverpool stopped when he fled to Turkey in 1908 in advance of being struck off the Roll of Solicitors for unprofessional conduct as a solicitor, fabricating details to make a divorce legally enforceable. The Muslim community, which believed in contractual divorce, felt Quilliam's conduct was not offensive. Regardless, in his absence, his son swiftly disposed of the property that had been used as a mosque and Islamic centre. Without Quilliam's influence and funding, the Muslim community in Liverpool dispersed. He returned to England around 1910 and legally married his second wife, legitimizing their children. Going by the name Henri Mustapha de Léon, he founded a magazine, ''The Philomath'', in 1913, then another, ''The Physiologist'', which ran concurrently beginning in 1917. The Muslim community seems to have been aware of his former identity, and he frequently spoke at meetings of his British Muslim Society. He spent most of his twilight years at Onchan on the Isle of Man, where unlikely rumors of keeping a harem swirled around him. He died in Taviton Street,

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

, London in 1932, and was buried in an unmarked grave at

Brookwood Cemetery Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regist ...

near

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...

. The prominent Anglo-Muslims Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (who each translated the Qur'an), and Lord Headley were later buried near him.

Political views

Quilliam argued that Muslims should not "take up arms" against other Muslims on the behalf of non-Muslims. During the war in Sudan, Quilliam published a pamphlet stating that any British Muslim that decided to aid in some manner the expedition was acting in "contrary to the

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

t". His political views and allegiance to the

Ottoman Caliph The Ottoman Caliphate () was the claim of the heads of the Turkish Ottoman dynasty, rulers of the Ottoman Empire, to be the caliphs of Islam during the late medieval and early modern era. Ottoman rulers first assumed the style of caliph in t ...

led some to denounce him as a traitor.

Legacy

His legacy is principally maintained by the Abdullah Quilliam Society, which was founded in 1996. The society aims to complete the restoration of the Liverpool Muslim Institute on Brougham Terrace. The society has been assisted by academics including Ron Geaves, formerly of

Liverpool Hope University Liverpool Hope University (abbreviated LHU) is a public university with campuses in Liverpool, England. ‌The university grew out of three Normal school#United Kingdom, teacher training colleges: Saint Katharine's College (originally Warring ...

, and Mehmet Seker of

Dokuz Eylül University Dokuz Eylül University () (DEÜ) is a Public university, public research university in İzmir, Turkey. Founded in 1982, it is organized into 18 faculties. It holds the distinction of being the first university in Turkey to implement the probl ...

. The society also offers university student accommodation. Quilliam, originally The Quilliam Foundation, a think tank aimed at challenging extremist Islamist ideologies, launched in 2008, was named after him. Nawaz, Maajid. ''Radical''. W.H. Allen, London: (2012): p. 327

Notes and references

Sources

* * (Includes poems by Quilliam and others)

External links

Abdullah Quilliam Society

Abdullah Quilliam: The History of British Muslims

Quilliam Foundation

''Forgotten champion of Islam: One man and his mosque'' The Independent newspaper, 2 August 2007

Special BBC feature on Abdullah Quilliam and his Mosque, including audio testimonials from his grand-daughter and admirers

The Muslim Council of Britain's biography and profile on Quilliam's life

Quilliam mentioned in early Ahmadiyya sources and his connection with the Woking Muslim Mission under the name Professor H. M. Leon

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quilliam, William Abdullah 1856 births 1932 deaths Converts to Islam from Protestantism English religious writers English former Christians 19th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Burials at Brookwood Cemetery English people of Manx descent Clergy from Liverpool People educated at King William's College People educated at Liverpool Institute High School for Boys English Muslims English solicitors