110 Sherif
He was clearly frustrated by the Bureau’s inability to remunerate him adequate-
ly, and it seems that the dozen or so novels he had published thus far were
not bringing in much income. His patience may also have been sorely tested
by Kidwai, someone described by Scotland Yard as “sane, but not sensible”. 12
Pickthall’s letters to Herbert convey the impression of a temperamental white
sahib, touchy about the ways of “Orientals”. He was anticipating problems
with Indians in The Bombay Chronicle that might end up with him “cursing
the whole crowd and throwing back their money in their teeth”. Pickthall’s fi-
nancial difficulties are surprising because Saïd The Fisherman was by 1913 in
its ninth edition and ought to have been providing royalties.13 He may have
had a rosy view of the Bureau’s financial standing when the venture started,
even though an appeal for funds was a regular feature in its publications. 14
Pickthall’s reference that in leaving England, “he was going far from the direc-
tion” that Aubrey Herbert, a Tory Member of Parliament, would have wished
for him is also enigmatic. Herbert was a champion of Albanian independence
and perhaps looked on Pickthall as an ally on Balkan issues.
Pickthall’s letter to the writer E.M. Forster a year later from Bombay was
more composed. He was now wholeheartedly with “the East” and resigned
himself to the expatriates’ boycott:
The Bombay Chronicle
Bombay
August 3rd 1921[...] There are one or two points in it [Forster’s Salute to the Orient] which
rather puzzle me, and I should like to debate them with the author if he is
ever in Bombay, and if he is not above association with one whose salute
to the East has been complete – i.e. who has become a social outcast from
the Anglo-Indian point of view. My wife and I are living at 60 Green’s
Mansions, over Green’s Hotel. With kind regards and real thanks for your
appreciation which is very cheering in these days,
I remain, Sincerely yours
marmaduke pickthall1512 ior, L/J & P (S)/416, 1916.
13 Peter Clark, Marmaduke Pickthall: British Muslim (London: Quartet, 1986), 78.
14 For example, see Islamic News, April 7 1921: “Nothing can be done without funds. The
honour of Islam must be defended”. It is likely that similarly worded appeals were pub-
lished during Pickthall’s tenure as editor a year earlier. The author is grateful to F. Dawji
for archival copies of the bulletin.
15 King’s College Archives, EMF/18/430.