The Crescent (newspaper)
The Crescent is an online Islamic electronic web based newspaper in the United Kingdom.
History
1893 to 1908
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[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] 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,[7] 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[8] 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 communities 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 Henry, Lord Stanley of Alderly, Hasan El-Arculli a Muslim G.P. and many others.
2003 relaunch
tabloid 12 page format launched in 2003 failed due to the massive overheads of printing and distributing community based paper
2018 to present
The Crescent Newspaper was relaunched in 1440 A.H. (September 2018) by British Muslim converts residing in UK and Eire (Ireland) as an on-line newspaper with the title 'The Crescent newspaper'. It appears as both printed[9] and on-line[10] editions. It is planned to publish the paper monthly on the first Friday of each month from the first Friday of the Muslim New Year in Muharrem[11] 1440 and move to a fortnightly publication thereafter.
Regular content and features
- UK News
- World News
- News Briefs
- People - Profiles, News, Diaries
- History
- Calendar
Sections
- Crescent Arts
- Crescent Environment - Green Living, Creation & Nature
- Crescent Life
- Crescent Matrimonials
- Crescent Money
- Crescent Community - Obituaries, Births, Engagements, Marriages, Deaths
- Crescent Property
- Crescent Travel
- Crescent Small Free Ads - Crescent Buy, Crescent Sell, Crescent Wants
- Crescent What's on
Target readership
The Crescent newspaper's target audience at the point of conception to launching the on-line edition, was aimed at the indigenous English speaking and Convert Muslim community resident within the British Isles and Eire, but access via the Internet has opened the readership to the global English speaking world.
Ownership
Independent community based
Political allegiance
The Crescent newspaper is not aligned to any political party.
External links
- About Abdullah Quilliam
- Abdullah Quilliam - Wordpress
- Robert Reschid Stanley(1828-1911)- Mayor of Stalybridge
- Yahya-En-Nasr (John) Parkinson (1874-1918)
- Marmaduke Pickthall
- Al-Hajj Kamaluddin - founder of Woking Mosque
- Major Farooq Farmer M.B.E.
- Lady Evelyn Zainab Cobbold
- Lord Headley
The Crescent archives 1893-1908
The Crescent newspaper is archived 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
- British Newspaper Library ref: BLL01013898565 Title: The Crescent : (A weekly record of Islam in England)
- 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.
- 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
- The Crescent - statement to advertisers in the last edition published on 28 May 1908 from Geneva Road, Liverpool.
- 2s. 6d. (two shillings and sixpence, or half a crown) equates to 12.5 pence decimal
- 8 Brougham Terrace
- 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
- 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.
- British Library ref: ISSN 2517-4975 - printed edition
- British Library ref: ISSN 2517-4983 - electronic edition
- Muharram (Arabic: المحرّم) is the first month of the Islamic calendar and marks the start of the Islamic new year.