Marmaduke Pickthall

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(Mohammed) Marmaduke 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. He declared his Islam in dramatic fashion after delivering a talk on ‘Islam and Progress' on November 29, 1917, to the Muslim Literary Society in Notting Hill, West London.

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 a Middle-Eastern scholar. A strong advocate of the Ottoman Empire even prior to declaring his faith as a Muslim, Pickthall studied the Orient, and 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, authorized by the Al-Azhar University and referred to by the Times Literary Supplement as "a great literary achievement."

When a propaganda campaign was launched in the UK in 1915 over the massacres of Armenians, Pickthall rose to challenge it and argued that all the blame could not be placed on the Turkish government. At a time when many Indian Muslims in London had been co-opted by the Foreign Office to provide propaganda services in support of Britain's war against Turkey, Pickthall's stand was considered one of great integrity and courageous given the war climate. When British Muslims were asked to decide whether they were loyal to the Allies (Britain and France) or the Central Powers (Germany and Turkey), Pickthall said he was ready to be a combatant for his country so long as he did not have to fight the Turks. He was conscripted in the last months of the war and became corporal in charge of an influenza isolation hospital. The Foreign Office would have dearly liked to have used his talents as a linguist, but instead decided to regard him as a security risk.[1]

Pickthall was buried in the Muslim cemetery at Brookwood. His legacy is of particular interest to Muslim converts.