Victorian Muslim : Abdullah Quilliam and Islam in the west

Description

After formally announcing his conversion to Islam in the late 1880s, the Liverpool lawyer William Henry Abdullah Quilliam publicly propagated his new faith and established the first community of Muslim converts in Victorian Britain. Despite decades of relative obscurity following his death, with the resurgence of interest in Muslim heritage in the West since 9/11 Quilliam has achieved iconic status in Britain and beyond as a pivotal figure in the history of Western Islam and Muslim-Christian relations. In this timely book, leading experts of the religion, history and politics of Islam offer new perspectives and shed fresh light on Quilliam's life and work. Through a series of original essays, the authors critically examine Quilliam's influences, philosophy and outlook, the significance of his work for Islam, his position in the Muslim world and his legacy. Collectively, the authors ask pertinent questions about how conversion to Islam was viewed and received historically, and how a zealous convert like Quilliam negotiated his religious and national identities and sought to indigenise Islam in a non-Muslim country. Content: Introduction / Jamie Gilham and Ron Geaves -- Abdullah Quilliam: a Muslim revolutionary socialist? / Mohammad Siddique Seddon -- Abdullah Quilliam and the rise of international esoteric-Masonic Islamophilia / Patrick D. Bowen -- The significance of Abdullah Quilliam's literary output / Ron Geaves -- 'Fairer to the ladies' and of benefit to the nation: Abdullah Quilliam on reforming English society by Islamising gender relationships / Diane Robinson-Dunn -- Abdullah Quilliam, Marmaduke Pickthall and the politics of Christendom and the Ottoman Empire / Geoffrey Nash -- Abdullah Quilliam, first and last 'Sheikh-ul-Islam of the British Isles' / Jamie Gilham -- Abdullah Quilliam's international influence: America, West Africa and Beyond / Brent D. Singleton -- Preachers, patriots and Islamists: contemporary British Muslims and the afterlives of Abdullah Quilliam / Yahya Birt.