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

Fatima Elizabeth Cates (1865-1900) was a founding figure and leader of Britain’s first mosque community, as well as its first treasurer. One of the earliest women to convert to Islam in England (in 1887), Fatima showed great courage and fortitude in overcoming great opposition from society and her own family to call people to the faith by word and by example. Read more about her and the lives of the other early Muslima converts she influenced in this first ever biography dedicated to our Fatima of Liverpool. “Through their telling of Fatima Elizabeth Cates’ story, Mahmood and Birt render an invaluable service to Muslims in Britain and beyond, to historians (including feminist historians), and to society as a whole – their narrative is incisive, evidential and moving, and does justice to this strong woman.” Dr Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor Associate Professor in the Sociology of Islam, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University “This compelling account of the life and tragic death of Fatima Elizabeth Cates moves us to consider the significant role that women played in the advent of Islam in Britain.” Prof. Ron Geaves University of Cardiff, author of Islam in Victorian Britain (2010) and Islam and Britain: Muslim Mission in an Age of Empire (2019) Hamid Mahmood is the founder of Fatima Elizabeth Phrontistery in London, an Islamic supplementary school, and a teacher by profession with an interest in history of Islam and the West. Yahya Birt is a community historian who has published widely on Britain’s early Muslim history, including Islam in Victorian Liverpool (2021) and The Collected Poems of Abdullah Quilliam (2021).