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THE LAST OF THE LASCARS
DEDICATION
‘He dreamed of the ship on the sea,
That would carry his father and he,
To a place they could never be found,
To a place far away from this town,
A Newcastle ship without coals,
They would sail to the island of souls.’
Sting, The Soul Cages (1991).
This book is dedicated to the loving memory of my great-grandfather, George Paul Oldacre Parker (1893–1981), who formerly worked as a fireman (stoker) on a Swedish merchant steamer vessel on his passage home to Britain in 1924 from Australia, travelling through Singapore, India, Aden, Suez and the Mediterranean.
THE LAST
OF THE
LASCARS
YEMENI MUSLIMS IN
BRITAIN, 1836–2012
Mohammad Siddique Seddon
The Last of the Lascars: Yemeni Muslims in Britain, 1836–2012
First published in England by Kube Publishing Ltd.,
Markfield Conference Centre
Ratby Lane, Markfield,
Leicestershire LE67 9SY
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1530 249230
Fax: +44 (0) 1530 249656
Website: www.kubepublishing.com
Email: [email protected]
© Mohammad Siddique Seddon, 2014
All rights reserved
The right of Mohammad Siddique Seddon to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
CIP data for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-84774-036-6 casebound
ISBN 978-1-84774-035-9 paperback
ISBN 978-1-84774-068-7 ebook
Cover design: Fatima Jamadar
Book design: Naiem Qaddoura
Typesetting: Nasir Cadir
Printed by IMAK, Istanbul, Turkey
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Chronology
List of Illustrations
Transliteration Table
Foreword by Professor Humayun Ansari
Prologue
1 Yemen: A Brief History of Arabia Felix
2 From Aden to ‘Tiger Bay’, ‘Barbary Coast’ and ‘Little Arabia’
Lascar Destitution and Christian Mission
Muslim Rites and Rituals
Lascar Settlement in Manchester
3 First World War: From Sacrifice to Sufferance
Trade Unionism and Lascars
World War One
The 1919 Mill Dam Riots
‘Mixed Race’ Marriages and ‘Mongrol’ Children
‘Arab-Only’ Boarding Houses and Cafés
Muwassiṭ Rivalries
Restricting Lascar Settlement
4 Interwar Period: Shaykh Abdullah Ali al-Hakimi and the ‘Alawī Ṭarīqah
Shaykh Abdullah Ali al-Hakimi
Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Muṡṭafā al-˓Alawī
The ˓Alawī Ṭarīqah in Britain
The Establishment of Zawāyā
Al-Hakimi in Cardiff
Manifestations of Religious Identity
The Free Yemen Movement
Al-Hakimi’s Legacy
