Alexander Russell Webb, the first prominent American convert to Islam, initially became interested in the religion around late 1886. While there were several factors influencing this interest, one of the most important factors was his reading circulars and letters from Ghulam Ahmad, the future founder of the Ahmadiyya movement. Brent Singleton, for his book Yankee Muslim, had located and reprinted copies of some of the letters exchanged between Webb and Ahmad, but he apparently could not find a copy of Ahmad's first letter to Webb.
Just this morning, I found a copy.
I will be discussing this letter--along with several other previously unknown writings from the 1800s by and concerning Webb--in my forthcoming book "A History of Conversion to Islam in the United States, Vol. I: Early White American Converts" (Brill 2015)
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