Abdullah Quilliam (Henri De Léon) and Marmaduke Pickthall 79
were disparaging, accusing Quilliam of being a one-man band in support of
the “great assassin”.22
This enraged Quilliam, and he spent a lot of his energy as a writer defend-
ing his beloved Ottoman civilisation and trying to explain the hypocrisy inher-
ent in the Western European position, pointing out that in no circumstances
would they have allowed breakaway movements from their respective em-
pires. Quilliam’s view would remain consistent until the events of the World
War that began in 1914 rendered his position impossible. He perceived Britain’s
policy of siding with rebellions in the Balkans and Armenia as a Christian con-
spiracy against Islam aimed at breaking up the Ottoman Empire. He accurately
foresaw that such a policy would eventually send the Ottomans into the arms
of Germany in search of a powerful European ally. For Quilliam, the ultimate
beneficiary of such a policy would be Russia.
As with Pickthall, Quilliam visited the region but his relations with the Porte
were much closer. He was a confidante of the Sultan and a recipient of Ot-
toman honours. In addition his relations with Abdul Hamid ii went beyond
respect for a reformist ruler, as Quilliam fervently believed in the Ottoman ca-
liphate to be the legitimate successors of the Sunni caliphate founded after the
death of Muhammad. In 1905 he was summoned to Constantinople and was
dispatched by the Sultan on an important fact-finding mission to the Balkans.
This time he was accompanied by his eldest son and Major Nuruddin Ibrahim
Bey, an aide de camp to the Sultan. 23 The Crescent announced that the Sultan
had sent the Sheikh on a fact-finding mission to obtain an independent and
reliable report of the conditions in Eastern Roumelia, but secrecy was being
maintained as to the exact nature of the mission, which had been revealed to
Quilliam after a prolonged meeting with the Sultan on the 24th February.24
Whatever the true purpose of the expedition, Quilliam would provide de-
tailed accounts of his travels that were reported in The Crescent throughout
March until his return to Liverpool on the 24th April. From the precise travel-
ogue it is possible to ascertain that the Sheikh’s mission was to enquire about
the exact nature of the insurgencies in the region and especially the degree of
Bulgarian involvement. One unlooked for side effect of the Sheikh’s activities
in the region was the banning of The Crescent in Bulgaria.25
22 Daily Mirror, 9 May 1906.
23 The Journal de Salonique, 25th February 1905.
24 tc 634, 8 March 1905.
25 The news of the ban was reported in The Liverpool Courier, 7 June 1905, and in The Daily
Mail on 8 June 1905. It was also reported in The Hellenium, which was published in Paris,
and the Bulletin D’Orient, which was published in Athens.