1
Somerville College houses archival materials related to the Oxford Majlis, which was a student society modeled after the Cambridge Majlis...
Key
- Building
- Blue plaque
- People
- Walks / Tours / Trails
- Museum and Archive
- Heritage Project
- Organisation or Family History
- Cemeteries & graves
- Academia
- Publication and Articles
- Place
- Digital Resources
- Art & Culture
- Film and TV
- Mosques and Shrines
- Monuments /Memorials
A Muslim History of Oxford Walking Trail
Discover the wide-ranging histories of Muslims who settled across the city of Oxford from the late nineteenth century to the present.
This trail is an output of 'A Muslim History of Oxford', a community history project in partnership with the University of Oxford's Community History Hub and Everyday Muslim. The trail was developed in consultation with Uncomfortable Oxford, an Oxford-based social enterprise and tour guide organisation.
Image credit: POX0562439, Notices displayed at Central Oxford Mosque in Bath Street, 2009, Courtesy of the Oxfordshire Historical Centre.
2
Jamal's Tandoori Restaurant has been a significant place of networking for Muslims across the city. During the 1950s and 1960s,...
3
Al Shami restaurant was the site of Oxford's first halal butchers, and was established in the 1960s. Prior to its...
4
Founded in 1921, City of Oxford Motor Services Limited was an important site of employment in the 1950s and 1960s...
5
Founded in 1678, the Ashmolean Museum features an Islamic and Middle East Gallery which exhibits a selection of artifacts made...
6
On 3 December 1964, Malcolm X addressed the Oxford Union when he partook in the 'Queen and Country' debate. He...
7
In trying to identify some of the earliest Muslim students to matriculate at the University after the enactment of the...
8
Brothers Wasif Ali and Naseer Ali Mirza became the first racialised minority and Indian students to be enrolled at Trinity...
9
The Oxford Martin School was the sity of of the Oxford Indian Institute, which provided training to Indian civil servants....
10
Next to the Pitt Rivers Museum is the sire of current Oxford Islamic Society meeting space. There is a rich...
1960
Al Shami
Al Shami restaurant was the site of Oxford's first halal butchers, and was established in the 1960s. Prior to its opening, Muslim residents of the city had to travel widely to find halal products, or butcher their own meat. An interviewee - one of the first Pakistanis to settle in Oxford - remembered the difficulty of transporting chickens from local farms to his home in East Oxford, with one escaping on the bus. These businesses highlighted the embedded presence of Muslims in Oxford, as Muslim entrepreneurs navigated the local economy to create services which would support a more comfortable long-term settlement.
Notice that the earliest Muslim migration to the city was in Jericho. Until 1960s, this was where many immigrants and working-class people settled. Council-sponsored slum clearances in the late 1960s, however, pushed families into the East End of Oxford – various migratory trajectories, so to speak.
Collections this record belongs to
Sources and Attribution
Interview with Mr Khuja, A Muslim History of Oxford (4 September 2024)
Shaw, A., A Pakistani Community in Britain (Oxford: Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988).
Aleena Din - Aleena is a historian of gender, class and race in modern Britain. Her DPhil research, which was completed at Balliol College and the Faculty of History in 2022, focuses on the migration, settlement and labour experiences of working-class British-Pakistani women who settled in Middlesbrough and Oldham between 1962 and 2002. Aleena is the co-investigator of the community history project 'A Muslim History of Oxford', in collaboration with the national heritage organisation 'Everyday Muslim'. In addition, she is a postdoctoral research associate for the digital humanities project, 'Remaking Britain: South Asian Connections and Networks, 1830 to the Present' at the University of Bristol (2025).
Licensing
Spotted an issue Report this record