Pickthall’s Islamic Politics 121
that it has been practised with success – the greater the success the more
complete the practice. Every Muslim believes that it must eventually be
adopted in its essentials by all nations whether as Muslims or non-
Muslims in the technical sense, because its laws are the natural (or divine)
laws which govern human progress, and men without the revelation of
them, must find their way to them in course of time and painfully, after
trying every other way and meeting failure. The system of Islam promises
peace and stability where now we see the strife of classes and of nations,
and nothing steadfast.51The conception of Islam as a “system” anticipated the formulation adopted by
the Islamic reformist movements two decades or so later.
Pickthall and Saïd Halim Pasha
Pickthall had arrived in Istanbul in 1913 with excellent letters of introduction
that gave him access to high-ranking officials, including Saïd Halim Pasha.52
Their first encounter was not particularly auspicious, judging from the gossipy
letter Pickthall wrote to Muriel, his wife:
The day before yesterday, in the morning, I was in Stamboul at the Sub-
lime Porte, and had my audience of the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Prince Saïd Halim, who is like the German painted Noah’s Ark people to
look at – very blue eyes, very brown cheeks, very white collar, very black
frock-coat, very red fez which looks like a part of his head, and a cigarette
in an amber holder stuck permanently in one cheek. Very neat, correct
and automatic in his movements – just like a toy. He was very amiable
and Rifaat tells me that he had described me as a charmant homme. That
seems to be his phrase for everybody. They say he is a very honest and
decent man, but not very brilliant.53Halim Pasha was also a man of letters, and the last of these remarks suggest
that Pickthall may not yet have come across some of his recent writings such
51 Pickthall, Cultural Side of Islam, 15 – 16.
52 Muhammad Haneef Shahid, Writings of Muhammad Marmaduke William Pickthall
( Lahore: Ashraf, 2003), ix. This is a compilation of various essays from The Islamic Review
Islamic Culture and other sources.
53 Ibid., 281.