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==Biography==
==Biography==
Marmaduke William Pickthall was born in [[Cambridge Terrace]], near [[Regent's Park]] in London, on 7 April 1875, the elder of the two sons of the [[The Reverend|Reverend]] Charles Grayson Pickthall (1822–1881) and his second wife, Mary Hale, ''née'' O'Brien (1836–1904).<ref name="shaheen">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Shaheen|first=Mohammad|encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|title=Pickthall, Marmaduke William (1875–1936)|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Charles was an [[Anglican]] clergyman, the [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|rector]] of [[Chillesford]], a village near [[Woodbridge, Suffolk]].<ref name="shaheen"/><ref name="murad">{{cite web|last=Murad|first=Abdal Hakim|title=Marmaduke Pickthall: a brief biography|url=http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/bmh/BMM-AHM-pickthall_bio.htm}}</ref> The Pickthalls traced their ancestry to a knight of [[William the Conqueror]], Sir Roger de Poictu, from whom their surname derives.<ref name="murad"/> Mary, of the Irish [[Baron Inchiquin|Inchiquin]] clan, was the widow of William Hale and the daughter of Admiral [[Donat Henchy O'Brien]], who served in the [[Napoleonic Wars]].<ref name="murad"/><ref name="fremantle">{{cite book|last=Fremantle|first=Anne|author-link=Anne Fremantle|title=Loyal Enemy|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.84785|year=1938|publisher=Hutchinson & Co.|location=London}}</ref> Pickthall spent the first few years of his life in the countryside, living with several older half-siblings and a younger brother in his father's [[rectory]] in rural Suffolk.<ref name="muriel">{{cite journal|last=Pickthall|first=Muriel|title=A Great English Muslim|journal=Islamic Culture|year=1937|volume= XI|issue= 1|pages=138–142}}</ref> He was a sickly child. When about six months old, he fell very ill of measles complicated by bronchitis.<ref name="fremantle"/> On the death of his father in 1881 the family moved to London. He attended [[Harrow School]] but left after six terms.<ref name="rentfrow">{{cite web|last=Rentfrow|first=Daphnée|title=Pickthall, Marmaduke William (1875–1936)|url=http://www.modjourn.net/render.php?view=mjp_object&id=mjp.2005.01.029|work=The Modernist Journals Project|access-date=9 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306000044/http://www.modjourn.net/render.php?view=mjp_object&id=mjp.2005.01.029|archive-date=6 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> As a schoolboy at Harrow, Pickthall was a classmate and friend of [[Winston Churchill]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/05/victorian-muslims-britain-160514100711278.html|title=The Victorian Muslims of Britain|website=www.aljazeera.com|access-date=2016-06-18}}</ref>
Marmaduke William Pickthall was born in [[Cambridge Terrace]], near [[Regent's Park]] in London, on 7 April 1875, the elder of the two sons of the [[The Reverend|Reverend]] Charles Grayson Pickthall (1822–1881) and his second wife, Mary Hale, ''née'' O'Brien (1836–1904).<ref name="shaheen">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Shaheen|first=Mohammad|encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|title=Pickthall, Marmaduke William (1875–1936)|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Charles was an [[Anglican]] clergyman, the [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|rector]] of [[Chillesford]], a village near [[Woodbridge, Suffolk]].<ref name="shaheen"/><ref name="murad">{{cite web|last=Murad|first=Abdal Hakim|title=Marmaduke Pickthall: a brief biography|url=http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/bmh/BMM-AHM-pickthall_bio.htm}}</ref> The Pickthalls traced their ancestry to a knight of [[William the Conqueror]], Sir Roger de Poictu, from whom their surname derives.<ref name="murad"/> Mary, of the Irish [[Baron Inchiquin|Inchiquin]] clan, was the widow of William Hale and the daughter of Admiral [[Donat Henchy O'Brien]], who served in the [[Napoleonic Wars]].<ref name="murad"/><ref name="fremantle">{{cite book|last=Fremantle|first=Anne|author-link=Anne Fremantle|title=Loyal Enemy|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.84785|year=1938|publisher=Hutchinson & Co.|location=London}}</ref> Pickthall spent the first few years of his life in the countryside, living with several older half-siblings and a younger brother in his father's [[rectory]] in rural Suffolk.<ref name="muriel">{{cite journal|last=Pickthall|first=Muriel|title=A Great English Muslim|journal=Islamic Culture|year=1937|volume= XI|issue= 1|pages=138–142}}</ref> He was a sickly child. When about six months old, he fell very ill of measles complicated by bronchitis.<ref name="fremantle"/> On the death of his father in 1881 the family moved to London. He attended [[Harrow School]] but left after six terms.<ref name="rentfrow">{{cite web|last=Rentfrow|first=Daphnée|title=Pickthall, Marmaduke William (1875–1936)|url=http://www.modjourn.net/render.php?view=mjp_object&id=mjp.2005.01.029|work=The Modernist Journals Project|access-date=9 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306000044/http://www.modjourn.net/render.php?view=mjp_object&id=mjp.2005.01.029|archive-date=6 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> As a schoolboy at Harrow, Pickthall was a classmate and friend of [[Winston Churchill]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/05/victorian-muslims-britain-160514100711278.html|title=The Victorian Muslims of Britain|website=www.aljazeera.com|access-date=2016-06-18}}</ref>
[[File:Marmaduke Pickthall Grave Brookwood.jpg|thumb|160px|right|Grave of Muhammad Pickthall in [[Brookwood Cemetery]]]]
[[File:Marmaduke Pickthall Grave Brookwood.jpg|thumb|160px|right|Grave of Muhammad Pickthall in [[Brookwood Cemetery]], inscribed with a quote from [[Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un|Verse 2:156]] of the Quran (his translation): "Lo! we are Allah's and lo! unto Him we are returning."]]
Pickthall travelled across many Eastern countries, gaining a reputation as a Middle-Eastern scholar, at a time when the [[Collapse of the Caliphate|institution of the Caliphate had collapsed]] with the Muslim world failing to find consensus on appointing a successor.<ref>[https://meeraath.wordpress.com/2020/02/14/khilafah-islamic-state-revealed-law/#_ftn2 GRAND MEETING REGARDING THE COLLAPSE OF KHILAFAH] translated by Meeraath</ref> Before declaring his faith as a Muslim, Pickthall was a strong ally of the [[Ottoman Empire]]. He studied the [[Orient]], and published articles and novels on the subject. While in the service of the [[Osman Ali Khan, Asif Jah VII|Nizam of Hyderabad]], Pickthall published his English translation of the [[Quran]] with the title ''[[The Meaning of the Glorious Koran]]''. The translation was authorized by the [[Al-Azhar University]] and the ''[[Times Literary Supplement]]'' praised his efforts by writing "noted translator of the glorious Quran into English language, a great literary achievement."<ref name="Hurst">{{cite book|title=America on the Cusp of God's Grace|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p0jndZXU-34C|publisher=[[IUniverse]]|pages=155–156|last=Hurst|first=Dennis G|year=2010|isbn = 9781450269551|access-date=7 September 2013}}</ref> Pickthall was conscripted in the last months of [[World War I]] and became corporal in charge of an influenza isolation hospital.<ref name="Hurst" />
Pickthall travelled across many Eastern countries, gaining a reputation as a Middle-Eastern scholar, at a time when the [[Collapse of the Caliphate|institution of the Caliphate had collapsed]] with the Muslim world failing to find consensus on appointing a successor.<ref>[https://meeraath.wordpress.com/2020/02/14/khilafah-islamic-state-revealed-law/#_ftn2 GRAND MEETING REGARDING THE COLLAPSE OF KHILAFAH] translated by Meeraath</ref> Before declaring his faith as a Muslim, Pickthall was a strong ally of the [[Ottoman Empire]]. He studied the [[Orient]], and published articles and novels on the subject. While in the service of the [[Osman Ali Khan, Asif Jah VII|Nizam of Hyderabad]], Pickthall published his English translation of the [[Quran]] with the title ''[[The Meaning of the Glorious Koran]]''. The translation was authorized by the [[Al-Azhar University]] and the ''[[Times Literary Supplement]]'' praised his efforts by writing "noted translator of the glorious Quran into English language, a great literary achievement".<ref name="Hurst">{{cite book|title=America on the Cusp of God's Grace|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p0jndZXU-34C|publisher=[[IUniverse]]|pages=155–156|last=Hurst|first=Dennis G|year=2010|isbn = 9781450269551|access-date=7 September 2013}}</ref> Pickthall was conscripted in the last months of [[World War I]] and became corporal in charge of an influenza isolation hospital.<ref name="Hurst" />


When news of the [[Armenian genocide]] reached Britain, Pickthall frequently wrote in defense of the Ottomans by downplaying atrocities committed against Armenians, whom he also made derogatory remarks about.{{sfn|Clark|1986|pp=30–33}} During the war, Pickthall developed a reputation as "a rabid [[Turkophilia|Turkophile]]", consequently denying him a position with the [[Arab Bureau]]. The role was instead given to [[T. E. Lawrence]].{{sfn|Clark|1986|p=31}}
When news of the [[Armenian genocide]] reached Britain, Pickthall frequently wrote in defense of the Ottomans, writing in 1915 that the Turkish Government's decision to move the Armenian population to concentration camps was "as much with a view to their protection ... as with a view to prevent further treachery."{{sfn|Clark|1986|pp=30–33}} During the war, Pickthall developed a reputation as "a rabid [[Turkophilia|Turkophile]]", consequently denying him a position with the [[Arab Bureau]]. The role was instead given to [[T. E. Lawrence]].{{sfn|Clark|1986|p=31}}


In June 1917, Pickthall gave a speech defending the rights of Palestinian Arabs, in the context of the debate over the [[Balfour Declaration]]. In November 1917, Pickthall publicly took [[shahada]] at the [[Woking Muslim Mission]] with the support of [[Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din]]. He followed this with a speech contrasting the Christian and Muslim approaches to religious law, arguing that Islam was better equipped than Christianity to handle the post-World War world.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Jamie Gilham |chapter=Marmaduke Pickthall and the British Muslim Convert Community |title=Marmaduke Pickthall : Islam and the modern world |date=2017 |location=Leiden |isbn=9789004327597}}</ref>
In June 1917, Pickthall gave a speech defending the rights of Palestinian Arabs, in the context of the debate over the [[Balfour Declaration]]. In November 1917, Pickthall publicly took [[shahada]] at the [[Woking Muslim Mission]] with the support of [[Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din]]. He followed this with a speech contrasting the Christian and Muslim approaches to religious law, arguing that Islam was better equipped than Christianity to handle the post-World War world.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Jamie Gilham |chapter=Marmaduke Pickthall and the British Muslim Convert Community |title=Marmaduke Pickthall : Islam and the modern world |date=2017 |location=Leiden |isbn=9789004327597}}</ref>


Pickthall, who now identified himself as a "[[Sunni]] Muslim of the [[Hanafi]] school", was active as "a natural leader" within a number of Islamic organizations. He preached Friday sermons in both the [[Woking Mosque]] and in London. Some of his [[khutba]]s (sermons) were subsequently published. For a year he ran the Islamic Information Bureau in London,<ref name="Islamic Book Trust">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0bLvq9GDxvIC&q=london+%22Islamic+Information+Bureau%22+pickthall&pg=PA29  |title=Brave Hearts: Pickthall and Philby: Two English Muslims in a Changing World |author=Sherif, M A|date=2011|work=Islamic Book Trust|page=28|publisher=The Other Press |isbn=9789675062742 |access-date=3 February 2020}}</ref> which issued a weekly paper, ''The Muslim Outlook''.<ref name= "British Muslim Heritage">{{cite web|url=http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/bmh/BMM-AHM-pickthall_bio.htm  |title=Marmaduke Pickthall - a brief biography |work=British Muslim Heritage|access-date=4 February 2020}}</ref> Pickthall and Quran translator [[Abdullah Yusuf Ali|Yusuf Ali]] were trustees of both the [[Shah Jahan Mosque, Woking|Shah Jehan Mosque]] in [[Woking]] and the [[East London Mosque]].<ref>Khizar Humayun Ansari, ‘Ali, Abdullah Yusuf (1872–1953)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oct 2012; online edn, Jan 2013 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/95416, accessed 6 February 2020]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eastlondonmosque.org.uk/history  |title=East London Mosque - London Muslim Centre |work=East London Mosque|date=12 February 2017 |access-date=6 February 2020}}</ref>
Pickthall, who now identified himself as a "[[Sunni]] Muslim of the [[Hanafi]] school", was active as "a natural leader" within a number of Islamic organizations. He preached Friday sermons in both the [[Woking Mosque]] and in London. Some of his [[khutba]]s (sermons) were subsequently published. For a year he ran the Islamic Information Bureau in London,<ref name="Islamic Book Trust">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0bLvq9GDxvIC&q=london+%22Islamic+Information+Bureau%22+pickthall&pg=PA29  |title=Brave Hearts: Pickthall and Philby: Two English Muslims in a Changing World |author=Sherif, M A|date=2011|work=Islamic Book Trust|page=28|publisher=The Other Press |isbn=9789675062742 |access-date=3 February 2020}}</ref> which issued a weekly paper, ''The Muslim Outlook''.<ref name= "British Muslim Heritage">{{cite web|url=http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/bmh/BMM-AHM-pickthall_bio.htm  |title=Marmaduke Pickthall - a brief biography |work=British Muslim Heritage|access-date=4 February 2020}}</ref> Pickthall and Quran translator [[Abdullah Yusuf Ali|Yusuf Ali]] were trustees of both the [[Shah Jahan Mosque, Woking|Shah Jehan Mosque]] in [[Woking]] and the [[East London Mosque]].<ref>Khizar Humayun Ansari, ‘Ali, Abdullah Yusuf (1872–1953)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oct 2012; online edn, Jan 2013 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/95416, accessed 6 February 2020]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eastlondonmosque.org.uk/history  |title=East London Mosque - London Muslim Centre |work=East London Mosque|date=12 February 2017 |access-date=6 February 2020}}</ref>


In 1920 he went to India with his wife to serve as editor of the ''Bombay Chronicle'', On the behest of [[Osman Ali Khan, Asif Jah VII|Nizam of Hyderabad]] he was appointed Principal at [[Chadarghat High School]] in the Princely [[State of Hyderabad]] in 1926. The [[Nizam]]’s Government proposed to establish a Publicity Bureau in the Hyderabad State as it appeared in the Mushir-i-Deccan on 14 June 1931, that Marmaduke Pickthall is to be appointed Publicity Officer in addition to his own duties as Principal of the [[Chadarghat High School]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sherif |first1=M. A. |title=Marmaduke Pickthall: Islam and the Modern World |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-32759-7 |pages=106–136 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004327597/B9789004327597_008.xml |access-date=31 May 2023 |language=en |chapter=Pickthall’s Islamic Politics}}</ref> Returning to England only in 1935, a year before his death at St Ives, Cornwall.
In 1920 he went to India with his wife to serve as editor of the ''Bombay Chronicle''. On the behest of [[Osman Ali Khan, Asif Jah VII|Nizam of Hyderabad]] he was appointed Principal at [[Chadarghat High School]] in the [[State of Hyderabad]] in 1926. The [[Nizam]]’s Government proposed to establish a Publicity Bureau in the Hyderabad State as it appeared in the Mushir-i-Deccan on 14 June 1931, that Marmaduke Pickthall is to be appointed Publicity Officer in addition to his own duties as Principal of the [[Chadarghat High School]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sherif |first1=M. A. |title=Marmaduke Pickthall: Islam and the Modern World |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-32759-7 |pages=106–136 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004327597/B9789004327597_008.xml |access-date=31 May 2023 |language=en |chapter=Pickthall’s Islamic Politics}}</ref> Returning to England only in 1935, a year before his death at St Ives, Cornwall.


Pickthall was buried in the Muslim section at [[Brookwood Cemetery]] in Surrey, England,<ref name=":0" /> where [[Abdullah Yusuf Ali]] was later buried.
Pickthall was buried in the Muslim section at [[Brookwood Cemetery]] in Surrey, England,<ref name=":0" /> where [[Abdullah Yusuf Ali]] was later buried.
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==Written works==
==Written works==


*''All Fools – being the Story of Some Very Young Men and a Girl'' (1900)
*''All Fools – Being the Story of Some Very Young Men and a Girl'' (1900)
*[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100864353 ''Saïd the Fisherman''] (1903)
*[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100864353 ''Saïd the Fisherman''] (1903)
*''Enid'' (1904)
*''Enid'' (1904)
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==External links==
==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071114044153/http://www.al-sunnah.com/call_to_islam/quran/pickthall/ Marmaduke Pickthall: a brief biography by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad]
;Quran translations
*[https://quran-archive.org/explorer/marmaduke-pickthall Quran Archive] The Meaning of The Glorious Koran; An Explanatory Translation, ''Alfred A. Knopf'', New York, First Edition (1930).
*[https://quran-archive.org/explorer/marmaduke-pickthall Quran Archive]{{Dead link|date=November 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }} The Meaning of The Glorious Koran; An Explanatory Translation, ''Alfred A. Knopf'', New York, First Edition (1930).
*[http://al-quran.info/?x=y#&&sura=24&aya=1&trans=en-marmaduke_pickthall&show=both,quran-uthmani&ver=2.00 Online Quran Project] includes the [[Qur'an]] translation by Marmaduke Pickthall.
*[http://al-quran.info/?x=y#&&sura=24&aya=1&trans=en-marmaduke_pickthall&show=both,quran-uthmani&ver=2.00 Online Quran Project] includes the [[Qur'an]] translation by Marmaduke Pickthall.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071114044153/http://www.al-sunnah.com/call_to_islam/quran/pickthall/ Web based Quran Search application] Based on the translation from Marmaduke Pickthall.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071114044153/http://www.al-sunnah.com/call_to_islam/quran/pickthall/ Web based Quran Search application] Based on the translation from Marmaduke Pickthall.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190606065901/http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/bmh/BMM-AHM-pickthall_bio.htm A biography of Marmaduke William Pickthall]
*{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114044153/http://www.al-sunnah.com/call_to_islam/quran/pickthall/ |date=14 November 2007 |title=The English translation of the Qur'an by Marmaduke William Pickthall }}
*{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114044153/http://www.al-sunnah.com/call_to_islam/quran/pickthall/ |date=14 November 2007 |title=The English translation of the Qur'an by Marmaduke William Pickthall }}
;Digital collections of other works
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/marmaduke-pickthall}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=7047 | name=Marmaduke William Pickthall}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=7047 | name=Marmaduke William Pickthall}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Marmaduke William Pickthall}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Marmaduke William Pickthall}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4560}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4560}}
;Biographic information
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071114044153/http://www.al-sunnah.com/call_to_islam/quran/pickthall/ Marmaduke Pickthall: a brief biography by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190606065901/http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/bmh/BMM-AHM-pickthall_bio.htm A biography of Marmaduke William Pickthall]
* [http://www.wokingmuslim.org/pers/pickthall/ Pickthall, the Woking Muslim Mission, and his views about Lahore Ahmadiyya leaders]
* [http://www.wokingmuslim.org/pers/pickthall/ Pickthall, the Woking Muslim Mission, and his views about Lahore Ahmadiyya leaders]
* {{Cite ODNB |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/60874 |title=Pickthall, Marmaduke William |last=Shaheen |first=Mohammed |date=2007 |orig-date=2004 }}
* {{Cite ODNB |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/60874 |title=Pickthall, Marmaduke William |last=Shaheen |first=Mohammed |date=2007 |orig-date=2004 }}
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[[Category:1936 deaths]]
[[Category:1936 deaths]]
[[Category:English Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam]]
[[Category:English Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam]]
[[Category:Converts to Islam from Protestantism]]
[[Category:Converts to Sunni Islam from Protestantism]]
[[Category:English former Christians]]
[[Category:English former Christians]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]

Latest revision as of 15:46, 15 November 2025

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Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (born Marmaduke William Pickthall; 7 April 1875Template:Spaced ndash19 May 1936) was an English Islamic scholar noted for his 1930 English translation of the Quran, called The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. His translation of the Quran (usually anglicized as "Koran" in Pickthall's era) is one of the most widely known and used in the English-speaking world. A convert from Christianity to Islam, Pickthall was a novelist, esteemed by D. H. Lawrence, H. G. Wells, and E. M. Forster, as well as journalists, political and religious leaders. He declared his conversion to Islam in dramatic fashion after delivering a talk on 'Islam and Progress' on 29 November 1917, to the Muslim Literary Society in Notting Hill, West London.[1]

Biography

Marmaduke William Pickthall was born in Cambridge Terrace, near Regent's Park in London, on 7 April 1875, the elder of the two sons of the Reverend Charles Grayson Pickthall (1822–1881) and his second wife, Mary Hale, née O'Brien (1836–1904).[2] Charles was an Anglican clergyman, the rector of Chillesford, a village near Woodbridge, Suffolk.[2][3] The Pickthalls traced their ancestry to a knight of William the Conqueror, Sir Roger de Poictu, from whom their surname derives.[3] Mary, of the Irish Inchiquin clan, was the widow of William Hale and the daughter of Admiral Donat Henchy O'Brien, who served in the Napoleonic Wars.[3][4] Pickthall spent the first few years of his life in the countryside, living with several older half-siblings and a younger brother in his father's rectory in rural Suffolk.[5] He was a sickly child. When about six months old, he fell very ill of measles complicated by bronchitis.[4] On the death of his father in 1881 the family moved to London. He attended Harrow School but left after six terms.[6] As a schoolboy at Harrow, Pickthall was a classmate and friend of Winston Churchill.[7]

File:Marmaduke Pickthall Grave Brookwood.jpg
Grave of Muhammad Pickthall in Brookwood Cemetery, inscribed with a quote from Verse 2:156 of the Quran (his translation): "Lo! we are Allah's and lo! unto Him we are returning."

Pickthall travelled across many Eastern countries, gaining a reputation as a Middle-Eastern scholar, at a time when the institution of the Caliphate had collapsed with the Muslim world failing to find consensus on appointing a successor.[8] Before declaring his faith as a Muslim, Pickthall was a strong ally of the Ottoman Empire. He studied the Orient, and published articles and novels on the subject. While in the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad, Pickthall published his English translation of the Quran with the title The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. The translation was authorized by the Al-Azhar University and the Times Literary Supplement praised his efforts by writing "noted translator of the glorious Quran into English language, a great literary achievement".[9] Pickthall was conscripted in the last months of World War I and became corporal in charge of an influenza isolation hospital.[9]

When news of the Armenian genocide reached Britain, Pickthall frequently wrote in defense of the Ottomans, writing in 1915 that the Turkish Government's decision to move the Armenian population to concentration camps was "as much with a view to their protection ... as with a view to prevent further treachery."Template:Sfn During the war, Pickthall developed a reputation as "a rabid Turkophile", consequently denying him a position with the Arab Bureau. The role was instead given to T. E. Lawrence.Template:Sfn

In June 1917, Pickthall gave a speech defending the rights of Palestinian Arabs, in the context of the debate over the Balfour Declaration. In November 1917, Pickthall publicly took shahada at the Woking Muslim Mission with the support of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din. He followed this with a speech contrasting the Christian and Muslim approaches to religious law, arguing that Islam was better equipped than Christianity to handle the post-World War world.[10]

Pickthall, who now identified himself as a "Sunni Muslim of the Hanafi school", was active as "a natural leader" within a number of Islamic organizations. He preached Friday sermons in both the Woking Mosque and in London. Some of his khutbas (sermons) were subsequently published. For a year he ran the Islamic Information Bureau in London,[11] which issued a weekly paper, The Muslim Outlook.[1] Pickthall and Quran translator Yusuf Ali were trustees of both the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking and the East London Mosque.[12][13]

In 1920 he went to India with his wife to serve as editor of the Bombay Chronicle. On the behest of Nizam of Hyderabad he was appointed Principal at Chadarghat High School in the State of Hyderabad in 1926. The Nizam’s Government proposed to establish a Publicity Bureau in the Hyderabad State as it appeared in the Mushir-i-Deccan on 14 June 1931, that Marmaduke Pickthall is to be appointed Publicity Officer in addition to his own duties as Principal of the Chadarghat High School.[14] Returning to England only in 1935, a year before his death at St Ives, Cornwall.

Pickthall was buried in the Muslim section at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, England,[7] where Abdullah Yusuf Ali was later buried.

Written works

As editor

  • Folklore of the Holy Land – Muslim, Christian, and Jewish (1907) (E H Hanauer)
  • Islamic Culture (1927) (Magazine)

See also

References

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

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  7. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ GRAND MEETING REGARDING THE COLLAPSE OF KHILAFAH translated by Meeraath
  9. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Khizar Humayun Ansari, ‘Ali, Abdullah Yusuf (1872–1953)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oct 2012; online edn, Jan 2013 accessed 6 February 2020
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".

Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

Further reading

  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  • Obituary in The Times, Wednesday 20 May 1936, Page 18, Issue 47379.

External links

Quran translations
Digital collections of other works
Biographic information

Template:Authority control

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