Marmaduke Pickthall Islam and the Modern World (Muslim Minorities)

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chapter 3

Abdullah Quilliam (Henri De Léon) and

Marmaduke Pickthall: Agreements and

Disagreements between Two Prominent Muslims

in the London and Woking Communities

Ron Geaves

Abdullah Quilliam (1856–1932) joined the London and Woking commu-

nity of Muslims as Henri de Léon after his return to England before the

outbreak of the First World War. There he became a significant figure

along with Marmaduke Pickthall and Lord Headley. As a long term sup-

porter of the Ottoman Caliphate, it was inevitable that he would come

into contact with Pickthall through their respective support of the Kh-

ilafat movement, membership of the Anglo-Ottoman Society, and their

sympathy with reforming/modernist tendencies in the Muslim world.

However, there were significant differences in their views on Turkey and

the Young Turk movement and on Islamic reform. The article will focus

on these similarities and differences and the tensions caused by the First

World War and the Ottoman alliance with Germany.

Abdullah Quilliam and Marmaduke Pickthall (1875–1936) are arguably the most
significant British Muslim converts of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth
centuries, both continuing to have an impact on the contemporary Muslim
scene. William Henry Abdullah Quilliam had converted to Islam in 1887 after
visiting Morocco. A well-known Liverpool solicitor, he formally announced his
conversion in the Liverpool media in 1888 and changed his name to Abdul-
lah. The Liverpool Muslim Institute and British Muslim Association, which he
founded to promote Islam in Britain, opened in September 1887 in the city and
are certainly the first Muslim organisations formed with the purpose of Islamic
da’wa in the Western world.
Abdullah Quilliam was a tour de force in the annals of British Muslim his-
tory. His family origins might seem to make him an unlikely convert to Islam in
the late nineteenth-century. His ancestors had fought with Nelson at Trafalgar
and his parentage was closely linked to Methodism, especially the Temper-
ance movement. His parents were Robert Quilliam, a successful watchmaker
in the city, and Harriet Quilliam, née Burrows, the daughter of John Burrows,