Two
centuries later, the younger brother of the famed Richard the Lion Heart, King
John, is reported to have undertaken an unusual diplomatic move. After having
quarreled with the Pope, he was excommunicated. Further struggles with the land
barons led him to send an emissary to the Muslim ruler of Spain, Muhammad
An-Nasr, in which he offered to accept Islam. King John was willing to submit
himself and his kingdom to the rule of Islam under one condition: that An-Nasr
would send an army of Muslim soldiers to help him in his battles against the
land barons. After much deliberation An-Nasr declined, but imagine how different
life would have been had he accepted King John’s offer.
During
this same period, the late 12th century, a famous monk and Knight Templar,
Robert of St. Albans, traveled to Jerusalem with the Crusaders. Intending to
recapture the city from the Muslim “savages,” what he found instead was the
honorable values and rich heritage of Islamic civilization. This appeal not only
led him to accept Islam but to marry the grandaughter of the famous Salah Ad-Din
Al-Ayyubi (Saladin).
A
few centuries later we find John Ward, a famous pirate, who lived in the late
16th century. This is a period when the Islamic civilization was at the height of its abundance of knowledge and wealth, with cities such as Baghdad and Damascus conjuring up the same grand associations as London, New York, and Paris do today.
Algiers
was no exception. An account reads how a British ambassador to Algeria, William
Lithgow, visited the British convert to Islam John Ward and was shocked to see
that the apostate had a higher standard of living than he himself! Records also
show that there were about 15,000 converts who were living in Algiers at the
time.
In
the 17th century we find Dr. Henry Stubbe, a theologian who mastered Latin,
Greek, and Hebrew and who authored a text entitled An Account of the Rise and
Progress of Mohametism and a Vindication of His Religion From the Calumnies of
the Christians. Imprisoned for heresy, Dr. Stubbe attempted to publish his
book three times, but failed. The text, which was eventually published in the
19th century, intended to expose that the core teachings of Islam were not
dissimilar to the post-reformation Unitarian Christian beliefs.
In
the same period we also read of Joseph Pitts, a sailor from Exeter captured by
Algerian pirates who was taken to Algiers and sold as a slave. His slave master
was kind enough to teach him Islam. Having been convinced of its truth, Pitts
accepted Islam and was set free. His former slave master furthermore paid for
him to go on pilgrimage to Makkah. Pitts documented his experience in a book
entitled A Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of Mohametism,
which is the first recorded Hajj carried out by an Englishman.
In
terms of social dynamics, the 17th century saw intensified trade with the East
and the introduction of coffee by Muslim traders, which fueled the Starbucks of
that century with more than 350 coffee houses in London alone by 1650 CE. These
coffee houses created a sober environment, a center for business dealings,
contrasting the public houses attended in the evenings where people would go for
entertainment.
|
| Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking; the first mosque in Britain |
Between
the 19th and 20th centuries we come across the story of Abdullah William Henry
Quilliam, reportedly the first Englishman to reach the town of Wazan, located in
the Sahara Desert. He accepted Islam when traveling in Morocco in 1889 and later
studied Islam at the University of Fez. He was famed for establishing a mosque,
a publishing house, a library, a debating society, a school, and even an
orphanage in Liverpool named the Medina Children’s Home.
We
also find, at the beginning of the 20th century, the story of Robert Rashid
Stanley who, born in Cardiff to wealthy tea traders, was engaged in
Turkish-British trade relations. Twice the mayor of Staylbridge, he was profiled
in The Crescent—a weekly record of Islam in England that can be found
at the British Library—in April 1907. Robert’s great-great grandson is also
a Muslim.
Finally,
there is Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, who was educated at Harrow—one of
England’s leading private schools—and traveled the world extensively. He
accepted Islam in 1917, studied Arabic, and became the imam at the first
purpose-built mosque in England, based in Woking, approximately 30 minutes by
car from central London. He is perhaps more famously known for having produced
an English translation of the Qur’an, entitled The Meaning of the Glorious
Quran, in 1928.
While
the accounts above are by no means comprehensive, they do shed light on a
heritage that many of us living in the United Kingdom are oblivious of. Perhaps
with time, and a greater deal of research, we can learn more about the
interaction between the Muslim world and Britain. One thing is certain: I
attended the talk hoping to find some answers to the questions raised by the
program, only to leave the lecture hall with even more questions that I hope to
answer one day.
*
This is a review of a lecture that was delivered by Mohammad Siddique Seddon of
the Islamic Foundation and was part of the program of the Islam Awareness Week,
which took place in Great Britain from Monday the 21st – Sunday the 27th of
November 2005. For more information about the week's activities visit http://www.iaw.org.uk/.
**
Farrukh I. Younus holds a masters degree in international business
management and works in the emerging telecom industry. He resides in Surrey, UK.
His interests include travel, nouvelle cuisine, and chocolate. You can contact
him at
farrukh@ntlworld.com.
