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...
1896
Somerville College
Somerville College houses archival materials related to the Oxford Majlis, which was a student society modeled after the Cambridge Majlis and the Oxford Union. It was a broadly left-wing and anti-imperialist forum for students who came from South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The society hosted debates and social events, with notable speakers including Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. Members include Liaquat Ali Khan, who became the first Prime Minister of Pakistan and was heavily involved with the Indian independence movement.
Kamal Hossain, who drafted the first constitution for Bangladesh, reflected on the history of the Majlis in a magazine published in 1986. In it, he highlighted the difficulty with which leaders of independence movements (including him) negotiated their experiences as students at Oxford with the university’s position as an imperial centre. Kamal suggested that these leaders would often discuss their time in Oxford with ambivalence. This poses interesting questions about the extent to which networking and connection-making affected the politicisation of these individuals.
Collections this record belongs to
Sources and Attribution
See: Anuj Mishra, 'Can you revive something that’s long dead?: the Oxford Majlis', Cherwell (1st December 2023). Also see: 'The Majlis in the Mid-Fifties', by Kamal Hossain.
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