Editing Marmaduke Pickthall

{{Short description|English Islamic scholar (1875–1936)}}
{{Redirect|Pickthall|other people with the name| Pickthall (surname)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall
| image              = File:Marmaduke Pickthall Portrait (cropped).jpg
| alt                = Marmaduke Pickthall Portrait
| image_upright      = 0.9
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = Marmaduke William Pickthall
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|df=yes|1875|04|07}}
| birth_place        = Cambridge Terrace, London, England
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1936|05|19|1875|04|07}}<ref name="British Muslim Heritage"/>
| death_place        = Porthminster Hotel, [[St Ives, Cornwall]], England
| resting_place      = [[Brookwood Cemetery]], [[Brookwood, Surrey]], England
| occupation         = [[Novelist]], [[Islamic scholar]]
| known for          = ''[[The Meaning of the Glorious Koran]]''
}}

'''Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall''' (born '''Marmaduke William Pickthall'''; 7 April 1875{{spaced ndash}}19 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 [[leadership|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.<ref name="British Muslim Heritage"/>

==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.

==Written works==

*''All Fools – being the Story of Some Very Young Men and a Girl'' (1900)
*[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100864353 ''Saïd the Fisherman''] (1903)
*''Enid'' (1904)
*''Brendle'' (1905)
*[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000161064 ''The House of Islam''] (1906)
*[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007708149 ''The Myopes''] (1907)<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''The Myopes'' by Marmaduke Pickthall|journal=The Athenaeum|issue=4178|date=November 23, 1907|page=649|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=__I_PcOFSw8C&pg=PA649}}</ref>
*''Children of the Nile'' (short story collection) (1908)
*[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100104327 ''The Valley of the Kings''] (1909)
*[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000161066 ''Pot au Feu''] (1911)<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review: ''Pot an Feu'' by Marmaduke Pickthall|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858029268293;view=1up;seq=298|journal=The Athenæum|date=11 March 1911|number=4350|pages=274}}</ref>
*''Larkmeadow'' (1912)
*''The House of War'' (1913) 
*[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000161069 ''Veiled Women''] (1913)
*''With the Turk in Wartime'' (1914)
*''Tales from Five Chimneys'' (1915)
*''Knights of Araby'' - the story of [[Yemen]] in the 5th Islamic Century (1917)
*''Oriental Encounters – Palestine and Syria'' (1918)
*''Sir Limpidus'' (1919)
*''[[The Early Hours]]'' (1921) : [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433106908209&view=1up&seq=9]
*''As others See us'' (1922)
*''The Cultural Side of Islam'' (1927)
*''[[The Meaning of the Glorious Koran]]: An Explanatory Translation'' (1930)

===As editor===
*''Folklore of the Holy Land – Muslim, Christian, and Jewish'' (1907) (E H Hanauer)
*''Islamic Culture'' (1927) (Magazine)

==See also ==
*[[Muhammad Asad]]
*[[A. Yusuf Ali]]
*[[Ali Ünal]]
*[[Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley]]
*[[Henry Stanley, 3rd Baron Stanley of Alderley]]
*[[Sir Charles Edward Archibald Watkin Hamilton, 5th Baronet]]
*[[William Abdullah Quilliam]]
*[[Robert Stanley (mayor)|Robert Stanley]]
*[[Timothy Winter]]
*[[Faris Glubb]]
*[[Islam in the United Kingdom]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Clark |first=Peter |date=1986 |title=Marmaduke Pickthall: British Muslim |publisher=Quartet Books |url=https://archive.org/details/marmadukepicktha0000clar |isbn=0-7043-2514-4}}
* Obituary in ''The Times'', Wednesday 20 May 1936, Page 18, Issue 47379.

==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]
*[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).
*[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/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 }}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=7047 | name=Marmaduke William Pickthall}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Marmaduke William Pickthall}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4560}}
* [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 }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickthall, Marmaduke}}
[[Category:1875 births]]
[[Category:1936 deaths]]
[[Category:English Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam]]
[[Category:Converts to Islam from Protestantism]]
[[Category:English former Christians]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:People educated at Harrow School]]
[[Category:People from Harrow, London]]
[[Category:Translators of the Quran into English]]
[[Category:Burials at Brookwood Cemetery]]
[[Category:20th-century Muslim scholars of Islam]]
[[Category:Converts from Anglicanism]]
[[Category:English orientalists]]
[[Category:Islamic scholars in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Deniers of the Armenian genocide]]