The choice of Abdullah Quilliam (1856-1932), ennobled as the Sheikh
of Islam of the British Isles in 1894 by the Ottoman caliph and by the
Emir of Afghanistan, as a symbolic flag-bearer for British Islam is
less straightforward than it might appear. One recent appropriation of
his legacy presents him as a kind of proto-Brownite patriot, a social
entrepreneur working in the third sector (and of course he did great
social works like setting up a school, an orphanage and many other
institutions in building up his unique community in Liverpool at the
end of the nineteenth century), larded with Brownite-style explicit
invocations of Britishness. Seen by the new eponymous foundation
as a æ»orebearer?for British Islam, (a retrieval that should not be
æµlurred?by the complications of the great postwar migrations from the
Commonwealth,) Quilliam name is invoked o help foster a genuine
British Islam, native to these islands, free from the bitter politics
of the Arab and Muslim world?
But even a cursory glance at Quilliam life immediately reveals a
more complicated personality than the simpler invocations of British
Muslim patriotism will allow.
For instance, Quilliam community called the adhan out
aloud, which would surely have fallen foul of the Bishop of Rochester,
who is not a fan of the amplified call to prayer. We can hear the
echoes of the Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali in the complaint of the
Liverpool Review of 1891:
To hear the muezzin here it is most incongruous,
unusual, silly and unwelcome, and the man who stands howling on the
first floor of a balcony in such a fashion is certain to collect a
ribald crowd, anxious to offer a copper or two to go into the next
street, or even ready to respond to his invitation with something more
than jeers. [1]
Quilliam lived during the high noon of European colonialism, and, in
particular, of the British Empire. In 1900, eleven (mostly) European
empires had 160 million Muslim subjects (or 80% of the umma);
the British Empire itself had 100 million Muslims stretching from
northern Ghana to Kelantan in SE Asia (so half of all Muslims were
subjects of the Crown). By contrast, the independent Muslim states ?
the Ottoman Empire, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Morocco and
Afghanistan ?had a mere 41 million Muslims. [2] After 1870, the
European denial of rogress?in Muslim terms (for rogress?could
only truly be European in character) fed the growth of the Salafiyya
movement, which advocated a return to the ways of the earliest
generations of Islam. In some ways, Salafiyya was an analogue of
nineteenth-century European classicism, and it tended, at this time,
towards nationalism and was critical of what it saw as Ottoman
despotism. This general pessimism towards the Ottoman Empire grew with
the Balkan Crisis of the 1870s and the loss of Tunisia to the French
and Egypt to the British in the 1880s, and much Muslim public opinion
turned against it. The idea of the sultanate was still promoted in the
independent Muslims states while stressing the religious dimensions of
the role as amir al-mu抦inin (in some ways close to the
European idea of æ…¸efender of the faith?, while British royalty was
also known to invoke caliphal authority at the same time. But
generally, Muslim political elites began to detach the idea of
sovereignty from the sultan (or empire), and to invest it in the
nation-state, expressed in the constitutional movements of the early
twentieth century.
Quilliam, based in the colonial metropole, was seen to be an
anti-imperial agitator. He was unashamedly pro-Ottoman and a supporter
of the Emirate of Afghanistan, a fact naturally reflected in the string
of scholarly, religious and diplomatic titles and honours he had
acquired by 1908:
His Excellency Abdullah Quilliam Bey Effendi, Faziletlu
Hazratlaree, B.A., F.G.S., LL.D., Sheikh-ul-Islam of the British Isles
and Dominions, Turkish Consul and Persian Vice-Consul [3]
He opened the pages of his publications to George Rule, the
Honourary Ottoman Consul in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and to Enver Bey, the
Ottoman Consul in Liverpool. His interventions on foreign policy were
generally regarded as æ–n-British?by the press of the day. He
questioned the virtue of Muslim imperial subjects fighting on behalf of
the Empire against their fellow brethren in the Sudan (see the original
text below). He defended the Ottomans from criticisms he regarded as
unbalanced or unfair over the Armenian uprisings in 1895. And as
British foreign policy began to move away from support of the Ottomans
at the beginning of the twentieth century, Quilliam was seen to be out
of step.
After Quilliam left Britain in 1908 for Istanbul, it would have been
impossible for him to return to Britain as Sheikh-ul-Islam particularly
during the First World War (when the Turks sided with Germany). Yet
there is some evidence that he did return under the pseudonym of H.
Mustapha Leon or Henri M. Leon, some dating the return as early as
December 1914 while others place it after the war in 1922. [4] Muhammad
Marmaduke Pickthall, the famous translator of the Qur抋n, before and
after his conversion to Islam in 1917, was seen as security risk?in
official circles. [5] Indeed, in this whole period, according to the
leading historian of British Islam,
British Muslims were greatly affected by the First World
War. Turkey involvement on the side of Germany caused immediate
doubts about the loyalties of all classes of Muslims within the empire,
which reinforced perceptions that Muslims were essentially
æ–n-British? [6]
How contemporary that predicament sounds! And it indicates that
Quilliam experiences are more poignantly pertinent a hundred years
later than hasty patriotic appropriations would crudely suggest.
From Liverpool, Quilliam worked alongside Joosub Moulvi Hamid Gool
of Cape Town and Hassan Musa Khan of Perth to unite together the
diasporic Indian Muslim communities in places as far afield as
Australia and South Africa, on the basis of a strong rhetoric of
international brotherhood mobilised in support of the Caliphate. His
strongest support came from the NW part of the British Raj in Gujrat,
the Punjab and the NW Frontier Province, and particularly from the
Afghans. However, the elite of the Indian Muslim diaspora couched their
pan-Islamism in Anglophilia, claiming their Britishness as they sought
to claim their equal status and worth. (And it is the Anglophilia
rather than the context or the substance that seems of utility to hasty
appropriators.)
In the high tide of Empire, Quilliam wrote his subversive
pan-Islamist tracts in favour of defensive jihad, ummatic solidarity
and the support and defence of the beleaguered caliphate. At least in
the mid-1890s, he seemed to be a staunch Islamist, to use the current
terminology, and thus seems an unlikely candidate for the latest
fashion in Britslam-makeovers.
Despite the context, Quilliam was certainly unabashed and
unapologetic about his loyalties. Here, in the two texts from 1896, he
calls upon Muslims not to fight on behalf of the British Empire against
fellow Muslims, and argues that supporting the caliphate is the mark of
the mu抦in (believer) and the only guarantor of Muslim unity.
Given the current climate, it seems more than likely that his writing
of the period would have fallen foul of current anti-terrorism laws on
incitement and propagandising. The Daily Mail might even have seen him as one of those reachers of hate?
*****
Text One: Quilliam on Jihad
In the name of God, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful!
Peace be to all True-Believers to whom this shall come!
Know ye, O Muslims, that the British Government has decided to
commence military and warlike operations against the Muslims of the
Soudan, who have taken up arms to defend their country and their faith.
And it is in contemplation to employ Muslim soldiers to fight against
these Muslims of the Soudan.
For any True Believer to take up arms and fight against another
Muslim is contrary to the Shariat, and against the law of God and his
holy prophet.
I warn every True-Believer that if he gives the slightest assistance
in this projected expedition against the Muslims of the Soudan, even to
the extent of carrying a parcel, or giving a bite of bread to eat or a
drink of water to any person taking part in the expedition against
these Muslims that he thereby helps the Giaour against the Muslim, and
his name will be unworthy to be continued upon the roll of the faithful.
Signed at the Mosque in Liverpool, England, this 10th day of
Shawwal, 1313 (which Christians erroneously in their ignorance call the
24th day of March, 1896),
W.H. ABDULLAH QUILLIAM, Sheikh-ul-Islam of the British Isles.
[Source: The Crescent, March 25th 1896, Vol. VII, No. 167, p. 617; original punctuation and spelling retained.]
*****
Text Two: Quilliam on the Caliphate
[681] In the name of God, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful!
Peace be to all the faithful everywhere!
æ™ True-Believers, fear God with His true fear; and die not unless
ye also be True-Believers. And cleave all of you unto the covenant of
God, and depart not from it; and remember the favour of God towards
you.?Sura 3, he Family of Imran,?Ayat, 103
All praise be to God Who, in His unlimited goodness, has favoured us
with the gift of the True religion of Islam, and Who has ordered the
brethren to be united, and declared this to be His law in the
before-quoted Ayat of the Holy and Imperishable Koran!
Among Muslims none should be known as Turks, Arabs, Kurds, Ajem,
Afghans, Indians or English. They are all Muslims, and verily the
True-Believers are brethren. Islam is erected on the Unity of God, the
unity of His religion, and the unity of the Muslims. History
demonstrates that the True-Believers were never defeated while they
remained united, but only when disunion crept into their ranks.
At the present time, union is more than ever necessary among
Muslims. The Christian powers are preparing a new crusade in order to
shatter the Muslim powers, under the pretext that they desire to
civilise the world.
This is nothing but hypocrisy, but armed as they are with the
resources of Western civilisation it will be impossible to resist them
unless the Muslims stand united in one solid phalanx.
O Muslims, do not be deceived by this hypocrisy. Unite yourselves as
one man. Let us no longer be separated. The rendevous of Islam is under
the shadow of the Khalifate. The Khebla of the True-Believer who desires happiness for himself and prosperity to Islam is the holy seat of the Khalifate.
It is with the deepest regret that we see [682] some persons seeking
to disseminate disunion among Muslims by publications issued in Egypt,
Paris and London. æ¤erily, they are in a manifest error.?/p>
If their object ?as they allege it ?be the welfare of Islam, then
let them reconsider their action and they will perceive that instead of
bringing a blessing to Islam their actions will have a contrary effect,
and only further disseminate disunion where it is ?alas that it should
be said ?only too apparent.
We fraternally invite these brethren to return their allegiance, and
call them to the sacred name of Islam to re-unite with the Faithful.
Muslims all! Arsh is under the standard of the Khalifate. Let us unite there, one and all, and at once!
Given at the Mosque at Liverpool, this 5th day of Dhulkada, 1313,
which Christians in their error call the 20th day of April, 1896
W.H. ABDULLAH QUILLIAM, Sheikh-ul-Islam of the British Isles.
[Source: The Crescent, Vol. VII, No. 171, April 22nd 1896,
pp. 681-682, original punctuation and spelling retained, pagination
indicated in square brackets in the text.]
*****
Far from being æ»ree?of the æµitter politics?of the Muslim world,
Quilliam seemed fully engaged, working not only against the British
Empire but also the tide of opinion in the Muslim world that had become
anti-Ottoman, rallying the Muslims of the diaspora to a defiant defence
of the caliphate. In a way, his mixture of local public service and
global political concern makes Quilliam an oddly resonant figure for
young British Muslims today ?a marionette for our anachronistic fears
and hopes.
Notes
[1] H. Ansari, The Infidel Within (London: Hurst, 2004), 83.
[2] R. Schulze, A Modern History of the Islamic World (London: I.B. Tauris, 2000), 25.
[3] E. Germain, æ…¡outhern Hemisphere Diasporic Communities in the
Building of International Muslim Public Opinion at the Turn of the
Twentieth Century? Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 27/1, 2007, 126-138, citation at 130, n. 30.
[4] Germain, 134, notes an attestation to 1922, but there is the Islamic Review,
January 1915, pp. 4-7, that records a speech by Prof. H. Mustafa Leon
in London in December 1914, which was in fact the inaugural address to
the newly-formd British Muslim Society, based in London. The speech is
reproduced here online: http://www.wokingmuslim.org/work/bm-soc1.htm.
Quilliam vision for the new Society sounds very similar to how he had
envisaged the role of the Liverpool Muslim Institute in the previous
decade: he Society will, I trust, keep us in touch with each, though
separated by miles of land; bind us together into one great
brotherhood; help us along the Islamic pathway; and strengthen each and
all of us to play our part in the battle of life and the defence and
exposition of those eternal principles of human conduct and Islamic
religion and doctrine for which we are fighting. It. will, I hope, also
serve to keep us in touch with the other parts of our world-wide
brotherhood. Union is strength. May it be a uniting link not only
between every British Muslim but between us and the Muslims everywhere,
consolidating and binding the whole into one unbroken and unbreakable
chain, stretching through the Orient and Occident, Africa, and the
South and North American States. We have now planted the banner of
Islam in the heart of the British Empire, its silken folds are
fluttering on the breeze, good and noble men and true and gentle women
are rallying beneath it. Let us keep it flying on the winds unstained,
untarnished, as spotless as when it was first unfurled on Arabia
burning sands over fourteen hundreds years ago.?/p>
[5] P. Clarke, Marmaduke Pickthall (London: Quartet, 1986), 31.
[6] H. Ansari, 89.
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