The Significance of Abdullah Quilliam’s Literary Output

This chapter discusses the significance of Abdullah Quilliam by primarily focusing on the writings through which he framed his conversion to Islam and wrote as a lens for Victorian society to revisit Islam. A classification of the types of writing undertaken and their role in the promotion of Islam within Britain and internationally in the late Victorian and Edwardian period is explored. Quilliam wrote extensively on the crisis facing Victorian Christianity and was intensely aware of the burning political issues of his time, especially those concerning British foreign policy. However, above all else, he was a Muslim of conviction, and the leader of British Muslims, and his unique status lies in his promotion of Islam in the West as a religious worldview disconnected from ethnicity or "otherness." This examination of his writings explores his vision of Islam and demonstrates that Quilliam’s concerns in his writings remain the essential themes drawn upon by young contemporary British Muslim activists and converts to the religion.