Our Fatima of Liverpool: The Story of Fatima Cates, the Victorian woman who helped found British Islam

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I would go to her grave thinking about how her son would have stood, aged four, having lost his mother, with Abdullah Quilliam leading her janazah, also considering the pain of Fatima’s mother having to bury a child. And there would have been others there such as orphaned children from the children’s home, Medina House. This is directly linked to the publication of this book through the efforts of the co-author, Hamid Mahmood who spent years searching primary sources for information about Fatima’s life. The original choir in those times was formed by convert women and I’d wanted to revive this tradition. When the fledgling community moved to expanded premises at 8 Brougham Terrace in December 1889, Fatima became the face of the rebooted Liverpool Muslim Institute as its international profile grew, particularly in British India, where her poetry and prose was published in the Allahabad Review. And, despite her family’s opposition, she succeeded in bringing her husband, Hubert Henry Cates, and two of her sisters, Clara and Annie, to the faith.

Born to a working class family in Birkenhead, Frances Elizabeth Murray showed signs of an independent and curious mind. She was unafraid to act on her convictions. She was in the first cohort of children to receive instruction under the Education Act of 1870. Picture 3: A remarkable likeness between Hubert Haleem (left) and Abdullah Quilliam (right), as younger men. Sources: British Military Identity Certificate, Hubert Cates, No. 838723, 1920; B.G. Orchard, Liverpool's Legion of Honour (Birkenhead, 1893), facing 484.The lives of these amazing early British Muslims will continue to inspire contemporary Muslims and the legacy of the first Liverpool Muslim community lives on in the work of The Abdullah Quilliam Society. It would be great to see Fatima’s biography and other trailblazing British Muslims made into movies or television series.

Last week, the launch of a new book, ‘Our Fatima of Liverpool’ took place at the first Mosque in England that we know of, built there in 1887. Tragically Fatima passed away at the young age of 35 in 1900 after a short period of illness. Abdullah Quilliam fondly remembers her and the support she gave him during the establishment of the LMS and compares her role to that of the Prophet’s first wife Khadijah. Born Frances Elizabeth Murray, she lived in a time when her native city of Liverpool had become associated with drunkenness and criminality.Picture 2: Interior of England's first mosque, showing the stage at the rear of the mosque where Divine services were held on Sundays. Islamic hymns were sung, accompanied by an organ, seen on the right. Source: J.H. McGovern, Lectures in Saracenic Architecture (Liverpool, 1896-1898), frontispiece.