tomb, sacrificing animals, and leaving offerings.
Pilgrims seek the saint’s blessing, intercession in
fulfilling personal requests of God such as healing
and fertility, or a mystical experience.
Though some literalist Muslims, influenced
by the writings of the jurist taqi al-din ahmad
ibn taymiyya (d. 1328), are opposed to such ven-
eration on the grounds that Islam does not allow
human intercession between an individual and
God, saints throughout the Islam world continue
to inspire the admiration of Muslims.
See also martyrdom; miracle; prayer; prophets
and prophethood; wal aya
Mark SoileauFurther reading: Farid al-Din Attar, Muslim Saints and
Mystics: Episodes from the Tadhkirat al-Auliya (“Memo-
rial of the Saints”). Translated by A. J. Arberry (New
York: Arkana, 1990); Michael Gilsenan, Saint and Sufi
in Modern Egypt: An Essay in the Sociology of Religion
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973); Bernd Radtke and
John O’Kane, The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic
Mysticism: Two Works by Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi (Rich-
mond, U.K.: Curzon Press, 1996); Grace Martin Smith
and Carl W. Ernst, Manifestations of Sainthood in Islam
(Istanbul: Isis Press, 1993).
Webb, Alexander Russell (1846–1916)
American journalist and publisher who was an early
spokesman for Islam in the United States
Alexander Russell Webb, one of the earliest
known American converts to Islam, was born in
Hudson, New York, near the end of the Second
Great Awakening, a period of renewed interest
in religion, spirituality, and social activism. His
father, Alexander Nelson Webb, was a leading
journalist of the time. Webb was raised a Presby-
terian but found the church uninspiring and left it
while still a young man.
Like his father, Webb became a journalist,
working for several newspapers in St. Louis, Mis-
souri, including the Missouri Morning Journal and
the Missouri Republican. While in St. Louis, Webb
became involved in the Theosophical Society, a
group that worked to promote the study of world
religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and
Zoroastrianism. He developed an interest in spiri-
tuality and religions other than Christianity.
In 1887 President Grover Cleveland named
Webb the American consul to the Philippines,
based in Manila. Although Catholicism was the
dominant religion in the Philippines at the time,
Webb encountered some Muslim merchants from
India and began reading about Islam, including
the writings of members of the aligarh move-
ment, formed to promote modern edUcation
among Muslims in India. In 1888 Webb produced
a pamphlet in which he declared his conversion to
Islam; he adopted the name Mohammed Alexan-
der Russell Webb.
Over the next few years, Webb corresponded
with Muslim scholars in India, including Ghulam
Ahmad (d. 1908), the leader of the ahmadiyya
Muslims. In 1892 he resigned his position as
consul and traveled around India, studying and
raising money for an effort to spread Islam in the
United States. When he returned to the United
States in February 1893, he set up the American
Mission in New York, dedicated to spreading
knowledge about Islam. The center, which was
the first mosque in America, included a library
and reading room and offered lectures on Islamic
doctrines and customs. He also set up a publish-
ing arm, the Oriental Publishing Company, which
published his writings, including his major work,
Islam in America. In May 1893 he published the
first issue of Moslem World; designed to “spread
the light of Islam in America,” it was the earliest
Islamic missionary periodical in the United States,
lasting only until November 1893.
In September 1893 the World’s Parliament of
Religions, the first formal gathering of representa-
tives of both Eastern and Western spiritual tradi-
tions in the United States, was held in Chicago.
Webb gave two speeches at the parliament: “The
Influence of Islam upon Social Conditions” and
“The Spirit of Islam.” Dubbed by the press “theK (^708) Webb, Alexander Russell