The archaeology of Islam in Britain:

recognition and potential

Andrew Petersen
What did the British know about Islam before the modern period? The author reviews evidence
which shows that there was contact with, and appreciation of, Muslim culture from almost the
time of the Hegira in the seventh century. This appreciation varied and was reflected in different
choices of material culture: coinage, ceramics and architecture, in successive periods from the
eighth century to the nineteenth.
Keywords: Britain, Islamic archaeology, coinage, ceramics, architecture

Introduction
Any examination of British war graves from around the world will show that large numbers
of Muslims died fighting as part of British forces in both the First and Second World Wars.
Certainly Muslims constituted the largest religious cultural group of the British Empire,
and in the nineteenth century the British Empire contained the majority of Muslims in the
world as a whole. Whilst none of these facts may seem surprising, the relationship between
Britain and Islam further back in the past is less well known and there is a presumption that
the Muslim presence in Britain and British contact with the Muslim world are relatively
recent phenomena.
Recently, however, a number of historians have begun to challenge this concept of a
sharply divided world with little or no contact between the Islamic Mediterranean and
Britain before the twentieth century. Important new studies include Scarfe Becketts work
on the relationship between Anglo Saxon England and Islam (Scarfe Beckett 2003) and
Nabil Matars work on Englands relationship with Turkey and North Africa in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries (Matar 1998). However, there has been little attempt to examine
the archaeological record for traces of contact with the Muslim world or even for evidence
of Muslims in Britain. There are, for example, intriguing references to Muslims working in
a variety of occupations in seventeenth-century London which may suggest some form of
Islamic infrastructure (Matar 1997).
The material presented here is by no means exhaustive but does aim to show the range
of ways in which archaeology (the study of material culture) can illuminate both our
relationship with the Islamic world as well as the role of Islam as a cultural factor in British
society. Obviously the scope of material is large and I have chosen to concentrate on three
areas where there is most potential. These are coins, ceramics and glass, and architecture.

Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Wales Lampeter, Ceredigion, SA48 7ED, UK (Email:
andrewduncanpetersen@yahoo.co.uk)

Received: 2 January 2008; Accepted: 15 May 2008; Revised: 5 June 2008

ANTIQUITY

82 (2008): 10801092

1080

Andrew Petersen

Figure 1. Offas dinar, British Museum (Cat. CM1913-12-13-1). Copy of Abbasid dinar dated AH 157 (AD 773-4) made
for King Off of Mercia (r. AD 773-96). Note OFFA REX is upside down compared with the Arabic.

There are of course other types of evidence which could be looked at including foodstuff
and spices, fabrics (carpets and silks), weapons and metalwork technologies (for metalwork
see Allan 1994).

Muslim coinage arrived early in Britain either through direct contact with the Mediterranean
or via Scandinavian trade routes. The former is characterised by gold coins whilst the latter
consists chiefly of silver coinage (Scarfe-Beckett 2003: 5460). The most famous example
of Islamic gold coinage associated with England is Offas dinar which although found in
Italy was probably struck in England (Figure 1). This coin is a copy of an Abbasid dinar of
al-Mansur from the year AD 774 and includes the words Offa Rex as well as the more usual
Arabic inscriptions (Lowick 1973; Webster & Backhouse 1991). The dinar has attracted
considerable attention and a number of theories have been advanced to explain why it was
made, including the unlikely suggestion that Offa had converted to Islam (Hannah 2000).
A more probable explanation is that the coin was one of a number of coins minted as part
of a tribute to the Pope and the choice of an Arab dinar indicates that this was the most
respected currency in Europe at the time. The eighth-century Mediterranean exchange with
Britain is demonstrated by finds of gold dinars in London, Oxford, Dorset and Sussex (St.
Leonards-on-Sea, Arundel and Eastbourne, Figure 2: nos. 14, 6).
The Scandinavian trade routes have been well documented (Jansson 1985; Kromann &
Roesdahl 1996) with large numbers of silver coins found in Sweden (70 000+), Denmark
(5000+) and Finland (1700+). By far the largest group of coins are silver and are found
in hoards associated with Viking or Danish settlements or trade dating to the ninth and
tenth centuries (Figure 2: nos. 5, 713). Prominent examples include hoards from Bangor
(Caernarfonshire), Goldsbrough (Yorkshire) and the Cuerdale (Cumbria). It is noticeable
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Coins and precious metals

The archaeology of Islam in Britain: recognition and potential

that the majority of these coins were found

either within the area of Danelaw or within
areas of Norse settlement in the northwest and Ireland. The Bangor Hoard,
discovered in 1894, dates shortly after AD
921. It consists of eight English coins,
five Kufic coins, a fragment of HibernoViking stamped armlet and a cast silver
ingot. Current opinion considers that these
Kufic coins represent traffic in the late ninth
and tenth centuries in silver bullion, from
the region of the Caspian Sea, northwards
up the Volga river. This silver came from
the valuable silver mines of the Hindu
Kush region (near modern day Kabul), with
the coins minted at al-Shsh (Tashkent),
Samarqand and Andarbah (Boon 1986:
924).
Later on in the medieval period (i.e.
Figure 2. Map of Britain showing locations of principal
post 1066) there are fewer examples of
finds of early medieval Islamic coins. 1. St. Leonards-on-Sea,
Islamic coins found in Britain though it
2. London, 3. Oxford, 4. Croydon, 5. Cuerdale, 6. Arundel
Castle, 7. Bridgnorth, 8. Goldsborough (Yorkshire), 9. Dean
is notable that the treasury of Henry III
(Cumbria), 10. Wymesmold, 11. Postwick, 12. Dublin, 13.
contained a significant quantity of Islamic
Bangor.
gold coins (Grierson 1974). The find of 400
Moroccan gold coins from a seventeenthcentury shipwreck at Salcombe Bay is exceptional. The latest of the coins date to AD 1640
and are minted in the name of the Saadian Sharifs indicating some sort of trade or perhaps
piracy (Porter 2000).

Ceramics and glass

One of the earliest and most spectacular examples of the inter-relatedness of British and
Irish culture with that of Islam is the ninth-century Ballycottin cross which is a piece of
jewellery in the form of a cross with a glass bead in the centre inscribed with the Bismallah
in Kufic scipt (Porter & Ager 1999). However, most examples of glass and ceramics belong
to the medieval period.
Although the total quantity of pottery from the Islamic world excavated so far is not great,
the large number of find spots throughout the British Isles as well as the chronological spread
indicates a sustained interest in Islamic ceramics as luxury items (Hurst 1977). Amongst the
earliest types of Islamic pottery found are some sherds of blue-green alkaline glazed wares
from Syria found in a tenth-century context relating to an Anglo-Scandinavian settlement
at Flaxengate, Lincoln (Adams 1979). The pottery is of a type which may be identified
as coming from the central Middle East (Syria, Iraq, Iran) during the rule of the Abbasid
caliphs and as such may be linked to the Scandinavian trade with the Islamic world mostly
1082

known through coinage. Of a slightly later

date are pieces of Raqqa ware found at
a number of locations (see Figure 3) including London (Merton Priory; personal
observation), Dublin (McCutcheon 2006)
and Grosmont Castle, Monmouthshire
(ONeil 1932). Raqqa ware is a name
applied to a series of stonewares made
of frit paste (a combination of quartz
and clay) which ensures that the glaze
becomes fused with the body. Traditionally
called Raqqa ware as it was thought to be
produced in the city of Raqqa, in Syria,
between the 1170s and 1259 when the city
was sacked by the Mongols (Porter 1981;
Mason 1995). Petrological analysis has
shown that many of the British examples are
attributable to a provenance in Damascus
(Mason n.d.). One of the largest excavated
Figure 3. Map of Britain showing principal finds of
pieces of Raqqa ware is the rim of a jar
medieval Syrian pottery and glass. 1. Grosmont Castle, 2.
with a pseudo epigraphic inscription from
London (Merton Priory, Westminster Abbey and Plantation
Place), 3. Carmarthen, 4 Dublin, 5. Reigate.
Grosmont Castle in Wales (ONeil 1932:
Figure 4). The pieces found in Britain are
all of the blue under-glaze painted variety
which would certainly have looked exotic
and sophisticated within the context of
British green, yellow and brown glazed
earthenwares produced during this period.
Also from Syria, though of later date,
are a number of Mamluk (12501401)
fritware jars recently excavated at Plantation
Place in London (Pearce & Martin 2003:
99109). It is possible that the earlier
Syrian ceramics were brought to Britain
by soldiers returning from the Crusades
although other methods are also feasible
(for a discussion of trade see Abulafia
Figure 4. Neck of jar with pseudo-epigraphic decoration
1994).
probably made in Raqqa, Syria from Grosmont Castle,
Directly related to the ceramic finds from
Wales.
Syria is the discovery of fragments of an
enamelled glass jar also probably made in the vicinity of Raqqa. The glass sherds were
found within a twelfth/thirteenth-century medieval ditch in Reigate associated with
the extension to a medieval house (Williams 1983). The glass jar was decorated with
arabesques tendrils, leaf forms and an Arabic inscription in red enamel and gilt and
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The archaeology of Islam in Britain: recognition and potential

would have been approximately 17cm tall by analogy with similar vessels. Other finds
of Islamic glass from medieval contexts include two neck fragments of a jar from the
Chapel of Pyx in Westminster Abbey decorated with an Arabic inscription in gold against
a blue enamelled background (London Museum 1967: 293, Plate 84). Another piece
of Syrian glass which was almost certainly imported into Britain during the Middle
Ages is the famous Luck of Edenhall in the
Victoria and Albert Museum (Figure 5).
This glass beaker is decorated in red,
blue, green and white enamel and is
also gilded (Charleston 1959). Besides
glass of unmistakably Syrian Islamic origin
there are a group of vessels known as
Syro-Frankish glass which have been
found in a variety of locations in Europe
which are of similar form, decoration
and composition to the Syrian glass but
which have inscriptions in Latin rather
than Arabic script. The majority of finds
of Syro-Frankish glass in the British Isles
have been found in London (Cook 1958;
Clark 1983) though examples have also
been found at Restormel Castle in Cornwall
(six fragments of the neck of a jar), Dale
Abbey in Derbyshire and Weoley Castle
in Warwickshire (Cook 1958: 1767).
There has been considerable argument over
whether these were made in Syria for the
European market or in Europe (Venice)
Figure 5. Glass beaker (Luck of Eden Hall) probably made
in Syria or Egypt in the 1200s and imported into England
using Syrian techniques and craftsmen (e.g.
soon after manufacture. Currently in the Victoria & Albert
Engle 1982; Clark 1983). Whatever the
Museum (Cat. C.1-1959).
outcome of this debate it is clear that the
Syro-Frankish wares are directly derived from Syrian prototypes and must have been
manufactured with direct knowledge of the Syrian methods of production.
Pottery from medieval Spain (Hispano-Moresque wares) although still quite rare occur
more frequently than material from Syria (Figure 6). Documentary evidence for the import
of ceramics for Muslim Spain includes a ship inventory from Portsmouth which contains
lustreware from Malaga en route to Edward Is wife, Eleanor of Castile (Dunning 1961:
8). Significant quantities have been recovered from major ports such as London and
Southampton whilst occasional pieces have been found at sites throughout Britain and
Ireland (Hurst 1977; Ray 1992). Imported Spanish pottery comprises both fine glazed
wares as well as unglazed earthenware storage jars though these have only occurred within
the port contexts in the south of England. The distinctive feature of the Spanish fine wares
was the use of tin glazes which was a technique not used in Britain until the sixteenth century.
Most of these wares were decorated with lustre painting which involves the application of
1084

a metallic over-glaze which is fixed to the

glaze by a second firing. The majority
of these vessels were decorative dishes or
bowls with a few decorated jars (albarelli)
(Hurst 1977: 76). Although not all of
the Spanish pottery was from parts of the
peninsula under Muslim rule certainly the
technology, decoration and forms were of
Islamic origin. It is perhaps worth noting
that the quantity of pottery coming from
Spain did not increase when these areas
were no longer Muslim indicating that
religion does not appear to have been a
factor in the trade.
Ceramic finds from other parts of the
Islamic world are rarer, probably indicating
individual gifts or purchases rather than
trade. Such objects were highly prized as
can be seen from a Turkish Iznik ewer in
Figure 6. Map of Britain showing locations of principal
the British Museum made in the 1580s
finds of Spanish medieval Islamic pottery. 1. London, 2.
which is embellished with a silver lid and
Bristol, 3. Southampton, 4. Melrose, 5. Dunstanbrough
Castle, 6. Bedord, 7. Exeter, 8. Lundy, 9. Poole, 10. Jarrow
spout bearing a London date letter for
and Newcastle, 11. Gloucester and Westbury, 12. Selbourne,
15978 (Sweetman 1991: 389, 5051,
13. Sopwell St. Albans, 14. Canterbury, 15. Sandwich, 16.
Figure 23). Another piece of Iznik pottery,
Boston, 17. Haverholme, 18. Norwich, 19. Lindisfarne,
in the form of a nearly complete shallow
20. Oxford, 21. Battle, 22. Hull, 23. Monmouth, 24.
Abergavenny, 25. Cardiff, 26. Swansea, 27. Carrickfergus,
dish, was recovered from an archaeological
28. Cork, 29. Dunboy, 30. Limerick, 31. Dublin, 32. Lesnes
context in a cesspit in Sewardstone Street,
Abbey.
Waltham Abbey (Huggins 1969). The Iznik
dish along with a Delftware dish and a slip
painted charger were thought to be the remnants of a single meal dating to 1669 when the
owner of the house was arrested and charged with sodomy. Environmental evidence recovered
from the pit allowed the contents of the meal to be reconstructed which included a dozen
oysters, three joints of mutton, half a pigs head, a fowl and a desert containing raspberries
(raspberry seeds were found adhering to the surface of the Iznik dish which also had cut
marks).
The best documented finds in London come from the recent excavations at Limehouse
where fragments of Iznik vessels datable to the seventeenth century (Killock et al. 2005: 46
8, Figure 28.24) as well as a large shallow fritware dish in blue, black and white from Kirman
in Iran were recovered (Killock et al. 2005: 39, Figure 24.7; see also Tyler 2001). In general
however finds of post-medieval Islamic pottery are rare (an exception is a North African twohandled flask recovered from Dover Castle, Mynard 1969: 36) probably indicating that by
this time the Europeans had learnt many of the techniques of Islamic potters (e.g. tin-glaze).
From the eighteenth century Orientalising Islamic themes began to appear in British
potteries, such as Chelsea, Bow, Derby and Longton Hall (Sweetman 1991: 678,
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The archaeology of Islam in Britain: recognition and potential

Figure 7. Figure of a Turk in biscuit porcelain excavated

from the Bow Porcelain factory, London (Grey & Pearce
2007: 26).

Figure 32). This phenomenon began in

Germany during the 1740s when representations of Turks began to be produced by the
Imperial Porcelain factory at Meissen (est.
1710). Other European factories copied
this fashion so that the factories at S`evres
in France and Copenhagen in Denmark
were also producing figures of Turks by the
1780s (Folsach 1996). Recent excavations
at the Bow Porcelain factory recovered one
of these figures (Figure 7; Grey & Pearce
2007). It is also worth noting that both
the Copenhagen and Meissen porcelain
factories also produced coffee cups (small
cups without handles) at least some of
which were exported to Turkey. Another
intriguing example of Turkish influence in
ceramics is an Ottoman style chibouk (pipe
bowl fitted to the top of a water pipe) from
London. The chibouk is of identical form
to the Turkish product but made of English
pipe clay (Jarret 2007). It is tempting to
associate this find as well as those of genuine
Turkish manufacture with the development
of London coffee houses (see below).

Architecture
As perhaps the most highly developed
aspect of Muslim material culture, Islamic
architecture has had a significant impact
on European and British architecture
from the Middle Ages to the present
Figure 8. Sixteenth-century Ottoman Turkish cannon in
Horse Guards Parade indicates how deeply Islamic material
day. This was certainly recognised by Sir
culture is embedded into British national life. A plaque next
Christopher Wren who stated that what
to the gun reads, TURKISH GUN made by Murad, son
we now vulgarly call the Gothick, ought
of Abdullah, chief gunner in 1524 taken in Egypt by the
properly and truly be named Saracenick
British Army 1801. The gun is inscribed The Solomon
of the Age of the Great Commander the dragon guns (to
Architecture refined by the Christians (Wren
be made) when they breathe roaring like thunder. May
1750: 306; Sweetmen 1991: 55 n. 36).
the enemies forts be raised to the ground. Year of Hegira
Important features of building technology
931.
derived from the Muslim world include
the Gothic (two-centre) pointed arch developed in Palestine in the seventh to
eighth centuries (examples include the Dome of the Rock and the Anaziyya cisterns
in Ramla; Creswell 1989: 116) and the Tudor four-centre pointed arch first
1086

developed in ninth-century Iraq (the Qasr al-Ashiq in Samarra; Creswell 1989:

247) and not used in architecture in Britain until the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries.
The most famous examples of Islamic inspired Orientalist buildings in Britain include
the Royal Pavilion in Brighton (1815), the Arab Hall at Leighton House in London (1866)
and the Arab Room in Cardiff Castle (1869). However, examples of architecture designed
or used by Muslims are harder to find. This is partly because the number of Muslims
present in Britain before the nineteenth century can only ever have been small. Despite
these limitations there are a few examples of architecture in Britain which are clearly directly
related to cultural contact with the Muslim world.
There is little or no archaeological evidence of Islamic architecture in Britain which can be
dated to the Middle Ages (AD 1000-1500). However, this does not mean that evidence will
not be recovered in the future; there is, for example, documentary evidence that medieval
English monarchs employed Muslim mercenaries in their battles against the French in
Normandy (Gillingham 1999: 295; Moss 2002: 155).
When we move to the post-medieval period the evidence for buildings with Muslim
connections increases significantly. Probably the best known examples are the bath houses
(Ar. sing. hammam) constructed at the Tudor palaces of Whitehall and Hampton Court
(Thurley 1993: 16771). Although not built for Muslim patrons, these bath houses represent
the first archaeological evidence of a fashion for Turkish baths which became widespread
in nineteenth-century Britain. The essential difference between Turkish baths and their
Classical/Roman predecessors is their use of hot running water produced in a boiler rather
than the ancient hypocaust system. The examples excavated at Whitehall with sunken stone
sauna baths were clearly modelled on Turkish hammams and one can imagine that they
were built in consultation with a Muslim Turk or at least by someone with experience of
the Ottoman world (cf. Thurley 1993: 171).
Another form of building with Turkish connections is the coffee house which first
appeared in London and Oxford in the seventeenth century. Coffee appears to have first
been cultivated as a stimulant in Arabia from the fifteenth century, if not earlier. Its early use
within the Islamic world seems to have been associated with Sufis; by the sixteenth century
it had spread to Constantinople and then Christian Europe (Wild 2004: 478). Although
as yet no coffee houses have been identified archaeologically in Britain, the locations and
names of many of the establishments are known (see for example the Hindoostanee Coffee
House, 34 George Street, Portman Square; Lillywhite 1964). Within the Ottoman Turkish
world coffee and smoking were intimately associated so that excavated remains may be
identified as a coffee house from coffee cups and tobacco pipes (see section on pottery). It
would be interesting to investigate some of the known locations of coffee houses in London
to see if they also yield similar assemblages.
Both the coffee shops and the bath houses may be linked to the increasing contacts
between Britain and the Ottoman empire consolidated with the treaty between Elizabeth
I and the Ottoman Sultan Murad III in 1581 (Jardine 2004: 210). A concurrent process
was the development of contacts with Morocco based on a shared antipathy towards Spain.
The culmination of this relationship was the appointment of Kair Jaudarben Abdullah as
the first Moroccan ambassador to London in 1637.
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The archaeology of Islam in Britain: recognition and potential

In 1661 Britain became more directly involved with the Islamic world when Charles II
acquired Tangier on the Atlantic coast of Morroco as part of the dowry of the Portuguese
princess Catherine of Braganza (Routh 1905: 62). The establishment of the colony included
the construction of a large mole to protect the harbour and a civilian settlement which Sir
Hugh Chomley, the chief engineer, named New Whitby after his home town in North
Yorkshire. Both the fortifications and the houses of the settlement were built of mud,
presumably following local (Moroccan) building practice (Routh 1905: 70). Outside Tangier
the English became acquainted with finer aspects of Islamic architecture. Thus Colonel Kirke
described Mequinez (Meknes) as extremely delightful, the walks being adorned with rows of
orange trees that grew through a pleasant and glittering pavement of painted tiles (Routh
1905: 73). The remoteness of Tangier from England meant that there was a shortage of
skilled workers to build the town and the governors resorted to using Muslim masons and
stonecutters whilst the labour was provided by English troops and former (Muslim) galley
slaves (Aylmer 1999: 386-7). Although no architectural work in Britain is known to have
resulted directly out of the occupation of Tangier it was important as the beginning of
Britains colonial encounter with Muslim architecture.
If we move to the eighteenth century when the expansion of British mercantile interests
extended into areas with large Muslim populations, we can see an increasing interest in
Islamic culture in the form of antiquities, such as the sixteenth-century gun which now
stands in Horse Guards Parade (Figure 8), and in the imitation of Orientalist architecture
in British buildings. Although the Royal Pavilion in Brighton is perhaps the best known
example of Mughal inspired architecture in Britain, the earliest is the now destroyed mosque
built by William Chambers at Kew in 1761 (Chambers 1763; Figure 9). This was one
of three buildings built by William Chambers at Kew, the others being a Chinese Pagoda
(still extant) and a representation of the Alhambra palace (no longer extant). All three
buildings reflect a growing interest in
exotic architecture and provide a means of
embodying the experiences of merchants
and travellers who had visited romantic
and foreign places (Crinson 1996: 21). The
mosque is particularly interesting as it is
the first full scale 3D representation of a
mosque in Britain. It is assumed that this
building was non-functional, merely built
for illustrative purposes with no mihrab
(niche to indicate direction of Mecca).
As the building no longer stands, the
absence or otherwise of a mihrab can
Figure 9. Drawing of mosque designed by William
not be verified without excavation, which
Chambers and built at Kew in 1761.
incidentally could also indicate whether the
whole building was oriented to the qibla (direction of prayer). Other notable eighteenthcentury architectural representations of the Muslim world include the Turkish tent built
for Charles Hamilton at Painshill Park, Surrey, in 1760. Although superficially a tent, in
fact this was a substantial structure with a brick floor and brick walls covered in canvas
1088

which could be stowed away in winter. The roof was made of wood and crowned with an
elaborate lead covered dome. The tent was dismantled in 1870 and in 1995 excavated and
rebuilt by the Painshill Park Trust using the original design of Henry Keene (Newton 2007:
70).
We have to wait until the nineteenth century for the first undisputed examples of mosque
architecture in Britain. The oldest officially recognised mosque is the Abdullah Quilliam
mosque in Brougham Terrace, Liverpool, established in 1887. Although not purpose-built
the mosque and reading room were re-modelled from two pre-existing Georgian houses,
complete with features typical of Islamic architecture, such as cusped arches, a mihrab and
polychrome stylised non-figural decoration. Unfortunately the building fell into disuse soon
after Quilliams death in 1932 and now stands in a semi-derelict condition (Savage 2007).
The oldest purpose-built mosque in Britain is the Woking mosque built in 1889 by Dr
Gottlieb Leitner for the Nawab of Bhopal, Begum Shah Jehan. Originally intended as a
private place of prayer this later became a public mosque and is now a centre for Muslim
devotional activity. This is one of only two British mosques which are listed by English
Heritage (the other is a former synagogue). Unfortunately there is not space to discuss either
of these buildings in detail except to state that both were built by Muslim converts rather
than people born into the faith.
When we get to the twentieth century we have the first purpose-built functional mosques
for Muslim immigrants who had begun to arrive as workers in large numbers during the
nineteenth century (Halliday 1992). In a process which echoes that of Jewish immigrants
during the nineteenth century, Muslims were at first reluctant or too poor to build their
own places of worship and instead utilised houses as well as redundant churches and
chapels. One of the first purpose-built mosques in Wales was the Nur al-Islam mosque
built on the initiative of a prominent Yemeni cleric Abdullah al-Hakimi in 1944 at a cost
of $7000 (Halliday 1991: 1757, Plate 7). Unfortunately the mosque was demolished
during redevelopment in 1958 and a purpose-built replacement was not completed until
the 1980s. In the meantime a community hall was utilised. Since the orientation of the
building (E-W) was unsuitable, the solution adopted was to mark a series of parallel lines
perpendicular to the qibla (i.e. diagonal lines) on the floor of the prayer hall. The mihrab
itself was a wooden box with a niche placed in the south-west corner. This process is
particularly interesting because it echoes a similar process in Syria and Palestine at the
start of the Muslim era (seventh century) when Byzantine churches were converted into
mosques.
With the advent of even larger numbers of Muslim immigrants following the Second
World War, large purpose-built mosques were constructed for the first time. Prominent
examples include the Coventry mosque built during the 1950s to cater for the large numbers
of south Asian workers in the citys car factories (Castle & Kennedy 1996: 23). The Regents
Park mosque built in 1974 represents a very different type of building both in terms of
the type of community it serves and its role within British public life. The mosque was
built on land donated by the British government in 1944 to provide a place of worship for
members of staff at London-based embassies of Muslim countries. However it took 30 years
before any building work was carried out largely due to disagreements amongst the various
countries involved (Anon n.d.: 1-2). The mosque which was eventually built was largely
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The archaeology of Islam in Britain: recognition and potential

financed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is indicative of the leading role which this
country has had in the development of Islam within the wider British Muslim community.

Conclusion
What does this brief review tell us about contacts between Britain and the Muslim world?
The most notable feature is that each of the three categories examined became important at
different times. Thus coins are most plentiful in the first period (early medieval), ceramics in
the medieval period and architecture from the early modern period. Each point to a dynamic
changing relationship: in the first period Islam was financially and culturally dominant as
exemplified by Offas dinar. In the second period (medieval) Muslim goods (ceramics) were
imported because of their technical sophistication as luxury objects. In the third period
British technology could produce ceramics of equal sophistication to that of the Islamic
world which instead became a source of design motifs most notably in architecture and
the decorative arts. This schema is obviously too simplistic, although it does indicate how
archaeology and the study of material culture can be used to create a fuller and deeper
interpretation of the relationship between Britain and Islam.
The need for such an understanding and for improved engagement of Muslims within
British heritage is amply demonstrated by studies such as Heaths (2007) work on Islam in
British museums and recent work on Islam in British universities (El-Awaisi & Nye 2006:
45; Siddiqui 2007). However to create such engagement requires a conscious effort to
further identify and collate information which relates to our Muslim past.
Acknowledgements
The preparation of this article benefitted from advice and discussions with Nigel Blackamore (National Museum
of Wales), Venetia Porter (British Museum) and Tony Grey (Museum of London) without whose expertise this
article could not have been written. I would also like to thank to Professor Alastair Northedge and an anonymous
reviewer for the comments which have been very helpful, especially in correcting the more obvious blunders.
Any remaining mistakes are my own responsibility.

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