Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb
1846-1916

"Unless one feels his mental independence and determines to exercise it firmly; unless he divests himself completely of the prejudices acquired from those with whom he has been in constant intercourse all his life, and which cling to him more closely than the barnacles to the ship's bottom, his investigation will be of little real value to him"
[Excerpted from Webb's book "Islam in America"]

Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb lived most of his life during the Victorian period and was among the first Anglo-American converts to Islam. He was the father of the American Islamic Press, founded one of the earliest mosques in New York City, was a prominent Muslim American diplomat in the Philippines and his Muslim Mission, which he launched in Manhattan in 1893, was among the first Islamic Missions in the United States.


Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb was born on November 9, 1846 in Hudson, Columbia county, New York to Mr. & Mrs. Alexander Nelson Webb. A.N. Webb was a leading journalist of his day and perhaps influenced his son's later journalistic exploits.

A.R. Webb received his early education at the Home School in Glendale, Massachusetts and later attended college at Claverack College near Hudson, New York. He excelled in college and upon finishing school purchased a weekly newspaper in Unionville, Missouri and became the publisher. After completing his education, he began to write as a short-story writer and an essayist. In a short time, he excelled in journalism and was offered city editorship of 'St. Joseph Gazette' and 'Missouri Republican'.

Next he became associate editor of the Missouri Morning Journal. Later he became one of the editors at the Missouri Republican in St. Louis. This newspaper was the second oldest and largest daily newspaper at that time.

While working for the Missouri Republican, he was appointed (in September, 1887) by President Cleveland to be Consular Representative to the Philippines at the U.S. office at Manila. According to the editor of his book The Three Lectures, he had given up any concept of religion at least fifteen years before that point. He started his life as a Presbyterian but found it dull and restraining. As early as 1881 he started a search for his true faith by reading in books from a well stocked library of over 13,000 volumes that he had access to. He started his study with Buddhism and finding it lacking , he began to study Islam.

In recognition of his broad knowledge and expertise in American and international affairs, he was appointed as the United States consul at Manila, Philippines in 1887. During his stay in Manila, he studied Islam as a way of life, interacted with native Muslims and some Muslim businessmen from India, and after protracted study embraced Islam.

In 1888, he formally declared himself to be a Muslim.

At that time he had yet to meet a Muslim but was put in contact with several Muslims in India by a local Parsi businessman. A newspaper publisher, Budruddin Abdullah Kur of Bombay, published several of Webb's letters in his paper. A local businessman, Haji Abdullah Arab, saw these letters and went to Manila to see Webb.

After the visit, Webb began plans to tour India and then return to the U.S. to propagate Islam. Webb's wife, Ella G. Webb, and their three children had also accepted Islam. Hajee Abdullah returned to India and raised funds for Webb's tour. Webb visited Poona, Bombay, Calcutta, Hyderabad, and Madras and gave speeches in each town. All are published at least once separately and some are published in collection.

He resigned his post in 1892 and toured India then returned to the U.S.. His family stayed in San Francisco till he sent for them. Settling in New York, he established the Oriental Publishing Company at 1122 Upper Broadway. Muhammad Webb developed a lasting interest in sharing the truth of Islam with his fellow Americans through the 'Islamic Propagation Mission.' In 1893, Webb represented the Muslim World at Chicago's World Exposition Conference on World Religions. In 1893, he also wrote a book entitled "Islam in America."

This company published his writings (including his magnum opus- Islam in America). Islam in America contained 70 pages divided into eight chapters namely: I) Why I Became a Muslim; II) An Outline of Islamic Faith; III) The Five Pillars of Practice; IV) Islam in Its Philosophic Aspect; V) Polygamy and the Purdah; VI) Popular Errors Refuted; VII) The Muslim Defensive Wars; and, VIII) The American Islamic Propaganda. Along with this venture he started the organ of the American Muslim Propagation Movement called Moslem World. The first issue appeared May 12, 1893 and was dedicated to "The Interests of the American Islamic Propaganda" and "To spread the light of Islam in America". It lasted for seven monthly issues (May to November 1893).

Webb was the main representative for Islam at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. On September 20th and 21st, 1893, he gave two speeches. His speeches were entitled: "The Influence of Islam Upon Social Conditions" and "The Spirit of Islam" and were published in the large two volume proceedings of the Parliament called "The First World's Parliament of Religions" (1894).

For the rest of his life he was the main spokesman for Islam in America. On Broadway, in Manhattan, he founded a short-lived masjid. The reasons for the termination of this Masjid are unknown, but it could be due to a lack of financial support from India.

He is also known for his writing a booklet about the Armenian and Turkish Wars from a Muslim point of view (The Armenian Troubles and Where the Responsibility Lies) and for being appointed the Honorary Turkish Consul in New York by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The Sultan had been shown plans by Webb for a Muslim cemetery and Masjid and complimented Webb on them. Unfortunately these plans never materialized.

From 1898 to the time of his death on 1st October 1916, he lived in Rutherford, New Jersey. He died at the age of seventy and was buried in Hillside Cemetery on the outskirts of Rutherford. After his death his efforts were largely forgotten. There continued to exist a vague coming to Islam in the African American community and there exists some lines in the writings of the first American Islamic Nationalist, Noble Drew Ali, showing that if he hadn't met Webb at least he had heard of his efforts.


The following is Muhammad Webb's account of his journey to Islam as reported in the abridged version of "Islam - Our Choice" published by Begum Aisha Bawani Wakf, Karachi, 1970:

I have been requested to tell you why I, an American, born in a country which is nominally Christian, and reared under the drippings, or more properly perhaps the driveling, of an orthodox Presbyterian pulpit, came to adopt the faith of Islam as my guide in life.

I might reply promptly and truthfully that I adopted this religion because I found, after protracted study, that it was the best and only system adapted to the spiritual needs of the humanity. And here let me say that I was not born as some boys seem to be, with a fervently religious strain in my character. When I reached the age of twenty, and became practically my own master, I was so tired of the restraint and dullness of the Church, that I wandered away from it and never returned to it...

Fortunately I was of an enquiring turn of mind - I wanted a reason for everything, and I found that neither laymen nor clergy could give me any rational explasm and monads (explanation of this faith), and yet not one of them could tell me what were mysterious or that they were beyond my comprehension.

About eleven years ago I became interested in the study of Oriental religions... I read Mill [J.S., died1873] and Locke [J., d. 1704], Kant [I., d.1804], Hegel [G.W.F., d.1831], Fichte [J.G., d. 1814], Huxley [A., d. 1963], and many other more or less learned writers discoursing with a great show of wisdom concerning protoplasm and monads, and yet not one of them could tell me what the soul was or what became of it after death...

I have spoken so much of myself in order to show you that my adoption of Islam was not the result of misguided sentiment, blind credulity, or sudden emotional impulse, but it was born of earnest, honest, persistent, unprejudiced study and investigation and an intense desire to know the truth.

The essence of the true faith of Islam is resignation to the will of God [Allah] and its corner stone is prayer. It teaches universal fraternity, universal love, and universal benevolence, and requires purity of mind, purity of action, purity of speech and perfect physical cleanliness. It, beyond doubt, is the simplest and most elevating form of religion known to man.