Great English Muslim

The definitive biography of British Muslim Marmaduke Pickthall: famous for his English translation of the Qur’an and an ardent campaigner for the Ottoman cause.

Since his death in 1936, Marmaduke Pickthall’s reputation has rested on his popular English translation of the Qur’an. Drawing on a wide range of original sources, including unpublished letters and newly discovered archives, Jamie Gilham unpacks Pickthall’s eventful life and significant contributions as a British Muslim writer, scholar and campaigner.

A Great English Muslim traces Pickthall’s extraordinary journey to Islam and considers its profound impact on his life and work. Pickthall negotiated his British and Muslim identities to defend and explain Islam in the West and, later, globally. Gilham explores how Pickthall’s Anglo-Muslim worldview, and his complex attitudes about imperialism, race and ethnicity, fuelled his writing and campaigning—not least in his defence of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War; his denunciation of Western interference in the Middle East, including Palestine, after the Armistice; his alliance with Gandhi and support for Non-Cooperation and the Khilafat Movement in 1920s India; and his efforts to establish the Indian State of Hyderabad as the centre of Sunni Islam and seat of the Caliphate in the 1930s.

This is a fresh and comprehensive biography of an important Western convert to Islam, whose concerns, struggles and sacrifices resonate for Muslims and non-Muslims today.

Jamie Gilham is a historian of Western Islam, based in Taiwan and the UK. His books include Muslim Women in Britain, 1850–1950 (co-edited with Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor) and Loyal Enemies: British Converts to Islam, 1850–1950, both published by Hurst; and The British Muslim Convert Lord Headley, 1855–1935.