Editing Marmaduke Pickthall (section)

==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>
[[File:Marmaduke Pickthall Grave Brookwood.jpg|thumb|160px|right|Grave of Muhammad Pickthall in [[Brookwood Cemetery]]]]
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}}

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>

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.

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