Marmaduke Pickthall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other persons named Pickthall, see Pickthall (disambiguation).
(Mohammed) Marmaduke William Pickthall, (1875–May 19, 1936), was a Western Islamic scholar, noted as a poetic translator of the Qur'an into English. 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 a journalist, headmaster, and political and religious leader.
Educated at Harrow, he was born into a comfortable middle class English family, whose roots trace back to a knight of William the Conqueror, Pickthall travelled across many Eastern countries, gaining reputation as Middle-Eastern scholar. A strong advocate of the Ottoman Empire, Pickthall studied the Orient, published articles and novels on the subject, e.g. The meaning of the Holy Qur'an. While under the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad, Pickthall published his translation of the Qur'an, becoming the first English translation done by a muslim and authorized by the Al-Azhar University, referred to by the Times Literary Supplement as "a great literary achievement."
Pickthall was buried in the Muslim cemetery at Brookwood. His legacy is of particular interest to Muslim converts.
