Marmaduke

Pickthall

Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (born Marmaduke William Pickthall; 7 April 1875 – 19 May
1936) was an English Islamic scholar not ed for his 1930 English t ranslat ion of t he Quran, called
The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. His t ranslat ion of t he Quran (usually anglicized as "Koran" in
Pickt hall's era) is one of t he most widely known and used in t he English-speaking world. A
convert from Christ ianit y t o Islam, Pickt hall was a novelist , est eemed by D. H. Lawrence, H. G.
Wells, and E. M. Forst er, as well as journalist s, polit ical and religious leaders. He declared his
conversion t o Islam in dramat ic fashion aft er delivering a t alk on 'Islam and Progress' on 29
November 1917, t o t he Muslim Lit erary Societ y in Not t ing Hill, West London.[1]

Biography
Marmaduke William Pickt hall was born in Cambridge Terrace, near Regent 's Park in London, on 7
April 1875, t he elder of t he t wo sons of t he Reverend Charles Grayson Pickt hall (1822–1881)
and his second wife, Mary Hale, née O'Brien (1836–1904).[2] Charles was an Anglican clergyman,
t he rect or of Chillesford, a village near Woodbridge, Suffolk.[2][3] The Pickt halls t raced t heir
ancest ry t o a knight of William t he Conqueror, Sir Roger de Poict u, from whom t heir surname
derives.[3] Mary, of t he Irish Inchiquin clan, was t he widow of William Hale and t he daught er of
Admiral Donat Henchy O'Brien, who served in
t he Napoleonic Wars.[3][4] Pickt hall spent t he
first few years of his life in t he count ryside, Muhammad
living wit h several older half-siblings and a
younger brot her in his fat her's rect ory in rural
Suffolk.[5] He was a sickly child. When about
Marmaduke
six mont hs old, he fell very ill of measles
complicat ed by bronchit is.[4] On t he deat h of Pickthall
his fat her in 1881 t he family moved t o London.
He at t ended Harrow School but left aft er six
t erms.[6] As a schoolboy at Harrow, Pickt hall Marmaduke
was a classmat e and friend of Winst on
Churchill.[7] Pickthall Portrait

Born Marmaduke
William
Pickthall
7 April 1875
Grave of Muhammad
Pickthall in Brookwood Cambridge
Cemetery

Terrace,
Pickt hall t ravelled across many East ern
count ries, gaining a reput at ion as a Middle-
London,
East ern scholar, at a t ime when t he inst it ut ion
of t he Caliphat e had collapsed wit h t he
Muslim world failing t o find consensus on
England
appoint ing a successor.[8] Before declaring his
fait h as a Muslim, Pickt hall was a st rong ally Died 19 May
of t he Ot t oman Empire. He st udied t he Orient ,
and published art icles and novels on t he 1936
subject . While in t he service of t he Nizam of
Hyderabad, Pickt hall published his English
 (aged 61)[1]
t ranslat ion of t he Quran wit h t he t it le The
Meaning of the Glorious Koran. The t ranslat ion
was aut horized by t he Al-Azhar Universit y and
t he Times Literary Supplement praised his Porthminster
effort s by writ ing "not ed t ranslat or of t he
glorious Quran int o English language, a great Hotel, St
lit erary achievement ."[9] Pickt hall was
conscript ed in t he last mont hs of World War I Ives,
and became corporal in charge of an influenza
isolat ion hospit al.[9] Cornwall,
When news of t he Armenian genocide reached England
Brit ain, Pickt hall frequent ly wrot e in defense
of t he Ot t omans by downplaying at rocit ies
commit t ed against Armenians, whom he also Resting Brookwood
made derogat ory remarks about .[10] During t he
war, Pickt hall developed a reput at ion as "a place Cemetery,
rabid Turkophile", consequent ly denying him a
posit ion wit h t he Arab Bureau. The role was Brookwood,
inst ead given t o T. E. Lawrence.[11]
Surrey,
In June 1917, Pickt hall gave a speech
defending t he right s of Palest inian Arabs, in
England
t he cont ext of t he debat e over t he Balfour
Declarat ion. In November 1917, Pickt hall
publicly t ook shahada at t he Woking Muslim Occupation(s) Novel
Mission wit h t he support of Khwaja Kamal-ud-
Din. He followed t his wit h a speech Islam
cont rast ing t he Christ ian and Muslim
approaches t o religious law, arguing t hat Islam schola
was bet t er equipped t han Christ ianit y t o
handle t he post -World War world.[12]
Known for The
Pickt hall, who now ident ified himself as a
"Sunni Muslim of t he Hanafi school", was Meaning
act ive as "a nat ural leader" wit hin a number of
Islamic organizat ions. He preached Friday of the
sermons in bot h t he Woking Mosque and in
London. Some of his khut bas (sermons) were Glorious
subsequent ly published. For a year he ran t he
Islamic Informat ion Bureau in London,[13] which Koran
issued a weekly paper, The Muslim Outlook.[1]
Pickt hall and Quran t ranslat or Yusuf Ali were
t rust ees of bot h t he Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking and t he East London Mosque.[14][15]

In 1920 he went t o India wit h his wife t o serve as edit or of t he Bombay Chronicle, On t he behest
of Nizam of Hyderabad he was appoint ed Principal at Chadarghat High School in t he Princely
St at e of Hyderabad in 1926. The Nizam’s Government proposed t o est ablish a Publicit y Bureau in
t he Hyderabad St at e as it appeared in t he Mushir-i-Deccan on 14 June 1931, t hat Marmaduke
Pickt hall is t o be appoint ed Publicit y Officer in addit ion t o his own dut ies as Principal of t he
Chadarghat High School.[16] Ret urning t o England only in 1935, a year before his deat h at St Ives,
Cornwall.

Pickt hall was buried in t he Muslim sect ion at Brookwood Cemet ery in Surrey, England,[7] where
Abdullah Yusuf Ali was lat er buried.

Written works

All Fools – being the Story of Some Very

Young Men and a Girl (1900)
Saïd the Fisherman (https://catalog.hathi
trust.org/Record/100864353) (1903)
Enid (1904)
Brendle (1905)
The House of Islam (https://catalog.hath
itrust.org/Record/000161064) (1906)
The Myopes (https://catalog.hathitrust.o
rg/Record/007708149) (1907)[17]
Children of the Nile (short story
collection) (1908)
The Valley of the Kings (https://catalog.h
athitrust.org/Record/100104327)
(1909)
Pot au Feu (https://catalog.hathitrust.or
g/Record/000161066) (1911)[18]
Larkmeadow (1912)
The House of War (1913)
Veiled Women (https://catalog.hathitrus
t.org/Record/000161069) (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) : [1] (https://babe
l.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433106
908209&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
Timothy Winter
Faris Glubb
Islam in the United Kingdom

References

1. "Marmaduke Pickthall - a brief biography"

(http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/bmh/BM
M-AHM-pickthall_bio.htm) . British Muslim
Heritage. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
2. Shaheen, Mohammad. "Pickthall,
Marmaduke William (1875–1936)". Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford
University Press.
3. Murad, Abdal Hakim. "Marmaduke
Pickthall: a brief biography" (http://www.ma
sud.co.uk/ISLAM/bmh/BMM-AHM-pickthall
_bio.htm) .
4. Fremantle, Anne (1938). Loyal Enemy (http
s://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.847
85) . London: Hutchinson & Co.
5. Pickthall, Muriel (1937). "A Great English
Muslim". Islamic Culture. XI (1): 138–142.
6. Rentfrow, Daphnée. "Pickthall, Marmaduke
William (1875–1936)" (https://web.archive.
org/web/20160306000044/http://www.mo
djourn.net/render.php?view=mjp_object&id
=mjp.2005.01.029) . The Modernist
Journals Project. Archived from the original
(http://www.modjourn.net/render.php?view
=mjp_object&id=mjp.2005.01.029) on 6
March 2016. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
7. "The Victorian Muslims of Britain" (http://w
ww.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/
05/victorian-muslims-britain-16051410071
1278.html) . www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved
18 June 2016.
 8. GRAND MEETING REGARDING THE
COLLAPSE OF KHILAFAH (https://meeraat
h.wordpress.com/2020/02/14/khilafah-isla
mic-state-revealed-law/#_ftn2) translated
by Meeraath
9. Hurst, Dennis G (2010). America on the
Cusp of God's Grace (https://books.google.
com/books?id=p0jndZXU-34C) . IUniverse.
pp. 155–156. ISBN 9781450269551.
Retrieved 7 September 2013.
10. Clark 1986, pp. 30–33.
11. Clark 1986, p. 31.
12. Jamie Gilham (2017). "Marmaduke
Pickthall and the British Muslim Convert
Community". Marmaduke Pickthall : Islam
and the modern world. Leiden.
ISBN 9789004327597.
13. Sherif, M A (2011). Brave Hearts: Pickthall
and Philby: Two English Muslims in a
Changing World (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=0bLvq9GDxvIC&q=london+%2
2Islamic+Information+Bureau%22+pickthal
l&pg=PA29) . The Other Press. p. 28.
ISBN 9789675062742. Retrieved
3 February 2020. {{cite book}}:
|work= ignored (help)
14. 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 (http://www.oxf
orddnb.com/view/article/95416,)
15. "East London Mosque - London Muslim
Centre" (https://www.eastlondonmosque.or
g.uk/history) . East London Mosque.
Retrieved 6 February 2020.
16. Sherif, M. A. (1 January 2017). "Pickthall's
Islamic Politics". Marmaduke Pickthall:
Islam and the Modern World (https://brill.c
om/display/book/edcoll/9789004327597/
B9789004327597_008.xml) . Brill.
pp. 106–136. ISBN 978-90-04-32759-7.
Retrieved 31 May 2023.
17. "Review of The Myopes by Marmaduke
Pickthall" (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=__I_PcOFSw8C&pg=PA649) . The
Athenaeum (4178): 649. 23 November
1907.
18. "Review: Pot an Feu by Marmaduke
Pickthall" (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/p
t?id=iau.31858029268293;view=1up;seq=2
98) . The Athenæum (4350): 274. 11 March
1911.

Further reading

Clark, Peter (1986). Marmaduke

Pickthall: British Muslim (https://archive.
org/details/marmadukepicktha0000cla
r) . ISBN 0-7043-2514-4.
Obituary in The Times, Wednesday 20
May 1936, Page 18, Issue 47379.
External links

Marmaduke Pickthall: a brief biography

by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad (https://w
eb.archive.org/web/20071114044153/ht
tp://www.al-sunnah.com/call_to_islam/
quran/pickthall/)
Quran Archive (https://quran-archive.or
g/explorer/marmaduke-pickthall) The
Meaning of The Glorious Koran; An
Explanatory Translation, Alfred A. Knopf,
New York, First Edition (1930).
Online Quran Project (http://al-quran.inf
o/?x=y#&&sura=24&aya=1&trans=en-m
armaduke_pickthall&show=both,quran-u
thmani&ver=2.00) includes the Qur'an
translation by Marmaduke Pickthall.
Web based Quran Search application (ht
tps://web.archive.org/web/2007111404
4153/http://www.al-sunnah.com/call_to
_islam/quran/pickthall/) Based on the
translation from Marmaduke Pickthall.
A biography of Marmaduke William
Pickthall (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0190606065901/http://www.masud.co.
uk/ISLAM/bmh/BMM-AHM-pickthall_bi
o.htm)
The English translation of the Qur'an by
Marmaduke William Pickthall (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20071114044153/htt
p://www.al-sunnah.com/call_to_islam/q
uran/pickthall/) at the Wayback
Machine (archived 14 November 2007)
Works by Marmaduke William Pickthall
(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/aut
hor/7047) at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Marmaduke Pickthall
(https://archive.org/search.php?query
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8%221875-1936%22%20AND%20Pickth
all%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:
software%29) at Internet Archive
Works by Marmaduke Pickthall (https://li
brivox.org/author/4560) at LibriVox
(public domain audiobooks)
 Pickthall, the Woking Muslim Mission,
and his views about Lahore Ahmadiyya
leaders (http://www.wokingmuslim.org/
pers/pickthall/)
Shaheen, Mohammed (2007) [2004].
"Pickthall, Marmaduke William". Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography
(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/60874 (https://doi.
org/10.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F6087
4) . (Subscription or UK public library
membership (https://www.oxforddnb.co
m/help/subscribe#public) required.)

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