THE restoration of the Grade II listed Victorian building that begins this month in Liverpool marks the refurbishment and development of one of the earliest mosques to be established in the UK. Opened on Christmas Day at 8 Brougham Terrace in 1889 by Abdullah (Henry) Quilliam, the son of a wealthy local watchmaker and a convert to Islam, the long overdue restoration firmly locates Islam as an integral part of Britain’s religious and social fabric.
Quilliam was an enthusiastic Muslim by all accounts, given to calling prayer out of a first floor window. Some years later, however, he decided to go traveling and by 1908, the mosque had fallen into disuse.
Mohammad Akbar Ali set up the Abdullah Quilliam Society in 1997 after discovering 8 Brougham Terrace was the address of the mosque.
“It is extremely important, especially for the younger generation who are searching for roots in this area. You have become a Muslim, you have adopted the whole heritage of the Muslim nation and you have something concrete to look to which is Brougham Terrace, the first mosque established by an Englishman on English soil.” True enough if you discount Gottlieb Leitner who was “English” by official standards although Hungarian by birth.
“We want to make it into a heritage center for Islamic culture and interfaith dialogue,” said Galib Khan, chairman of the Abdullah Quilliam Society.
The £3-million project plans to renovate the Liverpool mosque, adding a courtyard, museum, art gallery, learning center for interfaith dialogue and a library.
A language lab will be set up in the learning center for the teaching of Arabic, Persian and other languages. The restored and expanded center will also host sessions to educate Britons about Islam and Muslims.
Although claimed as “Britain’s oldest mosque” by Khan who said: “This truly is the birthplace of Islam in Britain,” Brougham Street is at least the second oldest, if not the third mosque in the UK. And it was not the English who can lay claim to the first mosque, but (geographically) the Welsh — and by a margin of 30 years.
The Register of Religious Sites, an august and detailed document now held by the Office of National Statistics, records the registering of a mosque at 2 Glynrhondda Street, Cardiff in 1860. It was founded by Yemeni seafarers while laying over between trips from Aden to Cardiff.
Aden had assumed great importance as a coaling stop for ships plying to imperial India on the route established by the East India Company in 1830. Permission to use Aden took six years of talks with the Sultan of Lahij, two treaties and a bond that resulted in payment of an annual rent of £1,300 ($6,500) for Anglo-Indian use of the port.
The Glynrhondda Street mosque, in a substantial brick-built semi-detached three story Victorian residence, is still a registered and working mosque known as the Al-Manar Islamic & Cultural Centre.
The claim to second-oldest but first purpose-built mosque in the UK is safely in the care of the Shah Jehan mosque in Woking, Surrey. As with the Brougham Street mosque, it too was founded by a British citizen but significantly a non-Muslim.
Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner was born in Budapest, Hungary and developed an extraordinary ability in languages. At the age of eight he went to Constantinople to learn Arabic and Turkish, and by the age of 10 he was fluent in Turkish, Arabic and most European languages. At 15, he was appointed Interpreter (First Class) to the British Commissariat in the Crimea, with the rank of colonel. When the Crimean War ended, he wanted to become a priest and went to London to study at King’s College.
He is reputed to have had an acquaintance with 50 languages many of which he spoke fluently. At 19, he became lecturer in Arabic, Turkish and Modern Greek, and at 23 was appointed professor in Arabic and Muslim Law at King’s College, London.
In the spring of 1884, Letiner bought a large building, formerly The Royal Dramatic College, for his proposed Oriental Institute, intended to teach outward bound civil servants something of the Orient before posting. The institute trained Asians living in Europe for the learned professions, undertook studies of linguistics and culture, and taught languages to Europeans who wished to travel to the East.
Leitner saw the need to cater for the spiritual needs of his students of all major faiths who lived within reach of his institute. He planned to build a synagogue, a church, a temple and a mosque. First was the mosque, probably because the price of the land was provided by the Nizam of the State of Hyderabad, and a substantial amount for the construction of the mosque was defrayed by the Begum.
It was, according to Woking Borough Council, built and opened in 1889, slightly in advance of Brougham Terrace. It is still a very active Islamic center and, without doubt, the most attractive looking mosque in the UK. Now serving a wide community, spread across the home counties, it may not be the first mosque, but as the first purpose-built one as well as a beautifully designed building, it is something of an icon in the Islamic history of Britain.
The Brougham Street project will surely add to that history and with its declared intent to promote interfaith dialogue, will carry on a noble tradition that began a century and a half ago.