Muslims in Wales: Tracing Islam's National Origins

The ties between Wales and Islam can be found stretching back hundreds of years, a new study from Cardiff University finds.

In a journey taking him to all parts of the country, Dr Abdul-Azim Ahmed traced the origins of Islam across the nation. The results of his research are detailed in his book, Muslim Wales – A History in Nine Places.

One story the research highlights is the quiet chapel in rural Carmarthenshire which is home to the nation's first Muslim grave.

Khadija Amelia Buksh, formerly Amelia Davies, was born in 1867 and converted to Islam before marrying Sheikh Meeran Buksh, a law student descended from the Buksh family, which produced several notable figures in the history of India. She had met him after moving to live with her brother in London and while he was a scholar at Gray's Inn.

Their marriage was conducted in the Liverpool Muslim Institute.

Khadija's husband's faced obstacles to his legal career when he was prevented from gaining access to the bar due to an ongoing court case. He took an appeal to the House of Lords regarding the allegations, which were found to be without foundation.

Their story was covered in the Western Mail at the time, which said, "the learned Sheikh was extremely devoted to his wife, who helped in every particular in his fight with the benchers of Gray's Inn."

Sadly, Khadija never got to hear her husband's name had been cleared. She died at the age of 26 in 1893 from a brain haemorrhage before he could arrive home to tell her the good news.

Dr Abdul-Azim Ahmed, deputy director at the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK, who conducted the research, said: "Khadija Amelia Buksh's story is one of many I found exemplifying the rich history and links between Islam and Wales."

"The accounts of Muslim women converts are few and far between in the historical record, but nonetheless present. Notably, Black or Asian Muslim women in Wales are almost entirely invisible in records until we enter the last few decades. Some of this is due to numbers, but not entirely. Sadly, their lives and activities rarely attracted documentation, just as Khadija's life might been left as little more than a name on a gravestone but for a single journalist who covered the story.

"Today, Khadija Amelia Buksh's story stands as testament to the roots of Islam in Wales. Her grave is one of many historic sites that tell the story of Islam in Wales that should be celebrated."

Today there are in the region of 67,000 Welsh Muslims. The stories in the book also include the history behind the stunning Islamic stained glass windows found in a collection of ancient churches in Anglesey, the background to the very first translation of the Quran into Welsh in 1879 in Aberdare and the life story of Sheikh Abdul Hamid, who founded the Muslim Society of Wales and was killed by Nazi bombing of London in 1944.

Dr Ahmed said: "The overall story that is told provides a sense of how and why Muslims came to be at home in Wales, and the many ties that connect Wales and Welshness to Islam. The key argument running through this book is that there is a Muslim Wales: vibrant, historic, and with a future ahead of it."