These Minutes are currently held in the East London Mosque Archives, East London Mosque & London Muslim Centre, 46–92 Whitechapel Road, London, E1 1JX. They consist of a series of papers, bound together with occasional additional documents, in one large file.
The range of alternative spellings of personal names as well as of terms used in the Minutes has been retained for authenticity. This inconsistency is due in part to contemporary inconsistencies in transliteration and changes in spelling of words over time. For example, ‘Mussulman’ is used at some points, as are ‘Moslim’, ‘Moslem’, and ‘Muslim’. Likewise, ‘Sayyid’, ‘Sayed’, ‘Sayyed’, and ‘Syed’ are all variations on the same title. While this kind of usage of language has been left as it was in the original documents, readers can find variant spellings in the Index, which will direct them to the correct biographical entry where applicable. Similarly, any small grammatical or spelling errors have been left as in the original documents.
Biographical details for major figures related to the development of the East London Mosque are contained in Appendix I. These vary in length, depending on the availability of information of relevance to the subject. The first mention in the Minutes of anyone whose details are contained in Appendix I is marked with an asterisk. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to identify all those individuals mentioned in the Minutes. Appendix II contains the complete text of the 1948 Articles of Association of the East London Mosque Trust Limited. It, along with the selection of documents included in Appendix III, have not been annotated, as they are primarily intended to supplement the information contained in the Minutes themselves.
Some references annotated in the footnotes are spelled out in detail if they are hard to find. For others that are more easily accessible, for example via a link to a website or a readily available text, just the reference to the source is provided.
This annotated record ends with the Minutes of December 1951. This date marks the end of the first collection of minutes preserved at the Mosque, at a time when the ‘old guard’ of Trustees was still largely in charge of the project, despite the fact that by then India and Pakistan had attained independence. There is no obvious later cut-off point that, first, would have excluded material that might still be regarded as confidential or lacking a suitable historical context, and, secondly, would have avoided the edition becoming too large for publication in this form.
I have had generous assistance from many people in preparing this edited collection. In particular, Hamzah Foreman gave liberally of his time, facilitated access to the archival material, and provided much useful information. Thanks must also go to Mohammad Shakir, Mueenuddin Chowdhery, and Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari. Many others at the East London Mosque answered my questions and allowed me access to background information. Gail Boxwell and June Jackson meticulously transcribed the Minutes and appendix material, and both Gail and Farhaan Wali helped to research additional material for the Introduction. Finally, I am extremely grateful to the Marc Fitch Fund for its support for this project.
