First edition of The Crescent 14 January 1893

The Crescent was an Islamic newspaper, published in the United Kingdom from 1893 to 1908.

History

1893 to 1908

The Crescent 30 January 1901 vol. 16 no. 420

The Crescent - a weekly record of Islam in England[1] was originally published weekly in Liverpool from 1893. As such, it can claim to be oldest and first regular publication reflecting and serving the early convert[2] and Muslim community within the British Isles, although its readership quickly grew via subscription to a global community. The first edition was published on 14 January 1893 from 32 Elizabeth Street,[3] Liverpool, shortly before moving to Brougham Terrace. It was edited by W. H. Abdullah Quilliam and represented Muslims in England and growing convert community between 1893 and 1908.

A statement in The Crescent to its advertisers in 1908[4] declared that "in addition to the thousands of copies in circulation within the British Isles, in addition to which thousands of copies of the Paper are sent regularly abroad to subscribers in France, Spain, Switzerland, Constantinople, Smyrna, Syria, Turkey in Asia, Russia, Morocco, Tunis, Algeria, Malta, Egypt, Persia, Beluchistan, Ceylon, Arabia, the Cape Colony, the Transvaal, Zanzibar, Lagos, Gambia, Sierra Leone, the west Coast of Africa, Afghanistan, Penang, Singapore, China, British Guiana, Trinidad, Canada, the United States of America, and many parts of India, this forming a capital advertising medium". The advertising rate was stated as being 2s. 6d.[5] per inch per insertion.

After outgrowing the Muslim prayer hall established by Quilliam in Mount Vernon, Liverpool, in 1888 he rented 8 Brougham Terrace[6][7] and also acquired the neighbouring properties, numbers 10 and 12 in 1889, and in the basement a printing press was established to produce the monthly editions of The Islamic World,[8] which was subscribed to globally. In 1893, it evolved into the weekly publication The Crescent - a weekly record of Islam in England.

Plans were announced for a purpose-built mosque to be built to the design of J. H. McGovern[9] on the site of 10 and 12 Brougham Terrace, but did not materialise, any more than did those of 1902, for a mosque in the community's new centre at Geneva Road, Elm Park, Liverpool where The Crescent continued to be published until May 1908.

The Crescent newspaper is a social history of a growing Muslim convert community. Such names as Yahya McQuinn, T. Omar Byrne, Fatima Cates, Yahya Nasser Parkinson, Nasrullah Warren, J. Bokhari Jeffery, and Omar Roberts appear regularly in the editorial, but the wider community would include Lord Stanley of Alderley, Hasan El-Arculli a Muslim G.P. and many others.

2003 relaunch

A 12-page tabloid format was launched in 2003 but failed due to the overheads of printing and distributing a community-based paper

2021 relaunch

The Crescent was relaunched in 1443 AH (October 2021) as an on-line newspaper. It appeared as both printed[10] and on-line[11] editions. It is planned to publish the paper monthly on the first Friday of each new lunar month and move to a fortnightly publication thereafter. The Crescent newspaper's target audience was the indigenous English-speaking and convert Muslim community resident within the UK and Ireland, but access via the Internet opened the readership to the English-speaking world. The Crescent newspaper was independent, community-based and not aligned to any political party.

See also

The Crescent archives 1893-1908

The Abdullah Quilliam Society have digital archives online for the years 1893-1908

The Crescent newspaper is archived on microfilm at the British Library and is complete except for 1894

The Catalogue reference is given as:

Title: The Crescent - A weekly record of Islam in England
Publication Details: Liverpool
Uniform Title: The Crescent (Liverpool, England : 1893)
Place Name: Liverpool
Identifier: System number 013898565
Notes: Discontinued.
Wanting 1894.
Creation Date: 1893
UIN: BLL01013898565
Publication Details: Liverpool
Uniform Title: The Crescent (Liverpool, England : 1893)
Place Name: Liverpool
Identifier: System number 013898565
Notes: Discontinued.
Wanting 1894.
Creation Date: 1893
UIN: BLL01013898565

References & Notes

  1. ↑ British Newspaper Library ref: BLL01013898565 Title: The Crescent : (A weekly record of Islam in England)
  2. ↑ Convert is the English word most often used for one who embraces a religion after being raised in another faith. A common definition of the word "convert" is to "change from one religion or belief to another." A person is considered to have converted to Islam from the moment he or she sincerely makes this declaration of faith, called the shahadah, and this declaration encompasses their acceptance and belief in the five pillars, or foundations, of Islam and that there is only one God and Creator, referred to as Allah (the word for the name of God in Arabic) and that the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, is His last and final messenger. Converts are sometimes referred to as Reverts as Muslim teaching holds that everyone is Muslim at birth because every child that is born has a natural inclination to goodness and to worship the one true God alone, but his or her parents or society can cause him or her to deviate from the straight path. When someone accepts Islam he/she is considered to revert to his/her original condition.
  3. ↑ Elizabeth Street now forms part of the Faculty of Medicine at Liverpool University, but his father, Robert Henry Quilliam, a successful watchmaker, was trading from the premises under his father's name Samuel Quilliam
  4. ↑ The Crescent - statement to advertisers in the last edition published on 28 May 1908 from Geneva Road, Liverpool.
  5. ↑ 2s. 6d. (two shillings and sixpence, or half a crown) equates to 12.5 pence decimal
  6. ↑ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1062583)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
  7. ↑ 8 Brougham Terrace
  8. ↑ The Islamic World - an intermittent monthly publication from 1889 which preceded The Crescent - ref: Islam in Victorian Britain: The Life and Times of Abdullah Quilliam ISBN 1847740103
  9. ↑ The Crescent - article 28 March 1900 – Proposed mosque in Liverpool. J. H. McGovern had provided architectural detailed plans for the proposed mosque at the new site and these plans were forwarded to Quilliam in Istanbul in 1898, so that he could submit them to the Sultan, Abdul Hamid II for approval and financial assistance.
  10. ↑ British Library ref: ISSN 2517-4975 - printed edition
  11. ↑ British Library ref: ISSN 2517-4983 - electronic edition
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