A mum has spoken of the moment she discovered a Muslim grave in Manchester from 1902 was in fact that of her great uncle.

It came at a time when Asian Image published a special investigation in June looking at the history of Muslim graves in the region. In it, we revealed that a grave from 1902 discovered at Southern Cemetery belonged to man of Syrian descent.

The story was part of a wider feature on finding the first Muslim graves in the region.

Mum-of-four, Zeina El Debs had been living in the UK for 26 years and on a visit to Beirut, Lebanon had been told by her father that her great-grandfather’s brother, Mohammad Yaseen Hallaby, had a successful textile business in Manchester between the 19th and 20th centuries.

Her father had suggested that Mr Hallaby would have arrived in Manchester by 1870, perhaps even earlier but may have died in 1920.

She said, “This story inspired me and I resolved to find my forefather’s grave in my home city of Manchester.

“After all, my father mentioned that Mr Hallaby had had no wife nor children and thus no immediate descendants.

"I was worried that his memory would be forgotten and thus resolved to revive his legacy."

Asian Image:

Her father told her that Mr Hallaby was buried in Southern Cemetery, Didsbury, Manchester and that there was a Turkish hat (fez) engraved on his grave.

She said, “When I got back to Manchester in June 2017 I started making some phone calls and looked through online archives but kept running into dead ends.

“As I later discovered, I was both misspelling his name (with an ‘i’ instead of ‘y’ and with one instead of two ‘l’s) and was using 1920 as his year of death instead of 1902.”

Zeina was advised to use the microfilms at Manchester Central Library.

“The staff were very helpful and allowed me to look at the microfilms dated 1901-1920 as well as 1921-1940. I was assuming that Mr Hallaby’s date of death lay somewhere in the middle of these two date ranges and therefore did not find what I was looking for."

She was then reminded that there is an office at the Southern Cemetery which could help her in her search for the grave’s location.

She said, “I called the Southern Cemetery the next day and told them that I was looking for a relative who passed away a long time ago.

“I spelt the name as ‘Mohamed Halabi’ but Cliff Sheffield, the customer services officer at the Southern cemetery, could not find him in the record of burials.

“Although I was initially hesitant to do so, I mentioned to him that there was a fez engraving on the grave. This time his reply was instantaneously positive. The spelling of my forefather’s name as it was recorded in the archives was Hallaby instead of Halabi. He was a merchant and in fact he had passed away in 1902, not 1920!

“When I asked Mr. Sheffield how he knew this, he said that a reporter had come to the cemetery only two months ago looking for the first Muslim grave in Manchester and it was his! "He later gave me a copy of the article.”

She was personally taken to the grave and here before her was the distinguishing Turkish hat engraved into Mr Hallaby’s grave stating ‘Born in the city of Damascus.’

“I now feel more at peace that I have recovered the grave of my lost forefather.”

She says finding the grave has inspired her to raise money to help build a well in his name. “I wish to revive his memory as he had no direct descendants. In his name, I want to raise money for a well in Nigeria for displaced, needy refugees.

“This will be the hundredth well constructed there by the charity FREE (UK Charity No: 1164143).”

According to the group ‘Rethink Rebuild Society,’ a non-profit organisation that acts as an umbrella for the British Syrian community, the findings emphasise the historical connection between the UK and Syria, primarily textile merchants, dating back to the 19th century.

Before the most recent wave of Syrian arrivals as refugees, Manchester had an extensive history with Syrian traders and businessmen dating back more than a century and a half.

Dr. Yasmine Nahlawi, Research and Policy Coordinator from Rethink Rebuild Society said, "While Syrians in the UK are often viewed through the prism of the ongoing and tragic refugee crisis, this finding sheds light on another compelling dimension of Syrians' interaction with the UK in general and the city of Manchester in particular.

“It is important to appreciate this deep historical connection between Syrians and the city of Manchester which enriched the city both economically and culturally."

To help Zeina you can donate at the following link