134 Sherif
Pickthall’s sympathy with the “benevolent despotism” of British rule in Egypt
in the 1906–7 period.103
Pickthall’s early record does suggest an ambiguity that was shared with Mus-
lim contemporaries. His decision to put on a British army uniform in 1918 is an
example – he could have claimed exemption as a conscientious objector, but
did not. Other prominent Muslims active in the Woking Mosque and London
Prayer House took similar steps to Pickthall’s. For example, Abdullah Yusuf Ali,
obtaining early retirement from the Indian Civil Service, joined the West Kent
Fusiliers in 1914 and was a willing volunteer in the British propaganda effort
during the rest of the Great War; similarly Khalid Sheldrake, vice-president of
the Central Islamic Society was a sergeant in the Royal Defence Corps.104 The
circumstances and pressures of that period are difficult to envisage today, but
what remains odd is Pickthall’s justification. He claimed that he put on the
uniform in 1918 because of faith in the pledges made by the British government
relating to Ottoman territories.105 This was disingenuous, because by 1918 it
was clear that the British, in providing military backing to the Arab Revolt from
1917, had broken their pledge of non-interference in the Caliph’s authority in
the jaziratul Arab.106 The inner voice and good judgement can ebb and flow
depending on circumstances and one’s own volition. There is a natural incli-
nation for past deeds to be remembered in a sympathetic light. This is akin to
Yusuf Ali’s claim in 1925 to have played a part in the “inception of the Khilafat
movement”, for which there is no evidence.107
The term “loyal enemy” may apply to Pickthall during the Great War and
immediately afterwards, but his actions subsequently point to a rupture. His
journey from England to India was more than a geographical one. It was also
accompanied by an unequivocal allegiance to the interests of the “South”
rather than the “North”, be it Muslims, Indians, Asia, the East. He certainly did
not feel himself bound by the declaration the Raj required to sign in 1925 to
abstain from “politics” in Hyderabad. If Britain had not stood by its pledges to
Indian Muslims, why should he? Aubrey Herbert died in 1923, so in making his
103 Clark, Marmaduke Pickthall, 16.
104 For Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s war record see M.A. Sherif ’s Searching for Solace, A Biography of
Abdullah Yusuf Ali (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 1994); for Khalid Sheldrake’s role,
see tna, fo 371/3060/16759, letter dated 26 August 1917.
105 “Endurance and Sacrifice”, The Islamic Review, viii, 1 ( January 1920), 16; see also the extract
from Pickthall’s speech at the Parsi Assembly Hall in 1922 at the outset of this chapter.
106 The British press began reporting a British military presence in and around the Hejaz
from 1916 – see Daily Mail, 23 June 1916 and Times, 9 January 1917, 9 October 1917.
107 In his presidential address at the All-India Tanzim Conference, Aligarh in December 1925,
Yusuf Ali noted, “As you know, I took my part in the inception of the Khilafat movement
and its exposition in high places” (Amritsar: The Tanzim Committee 1925).