Zainab Cobbold

Zainab Cobbold (born Lady Evelyn Murray; 17 July 1867[1][2] – January 1963) was a Scottish diarist, traveller and noblewoman who was known for her conversion to Islam in 1915.[3]

Zainab Cobbold
Born
Lady Evelyn Murray

1867
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died1963 (aged 95–96)
Known forFirst Muslim woman born in Britain to perform the Hajj pilgrimage
Spouse
John Dupuis Cobbold
​
​
(m. 1891⁠–⁠1922)​
Children3
Parent(s)Charles Murray, 7th Earl of Dunmore
Lady Gertrude Coke

Biography

Born in Edinburgh in 1867,[4][5] she was the eldest daughter of Charles Adolphus Murray,[6] 7th Earl of Dunmore and Lady Gertrude Coke, daughter of the Second Earl of Leicester.[7] She married John Dupuis Cobbold in All Saints' Church Cairo, Egypt on 23 April 1891.[8] Following a party in May 1891, at the Cobbold family home Holywells, Ipswich, they settled there. Here the couple had three children between 1893 and 1900: Winifred Evelyn (1892–1965),[9] Ivan Cobbold (1897–1944),[10] and Pamela Cobbold (1900–1932).[11] However, in 1922[12] she separated from her husband. Subsequently she lived in London and on the Glencarron Estate.[13]

Childhood

Cobbold spent much of her childhood in Algiers and Cairo in the company of Muslim nannies.[5] She considered herself a Muslim from a young age despite not officially professing her faith until she met the Pope.[5] She became a Mayfair socialite. She spent her childhood winters in North Africa where her fascination with Islam developed.

Conversion to Islam

She embarked on a journey through the Libyan desert in 1911 with her American friend, Frances Gordon Alexander, in 1911. They published a joint account of the journey Wayfarers in the Libyan Desert in 1912. This led her to develop a greater interest in Islam.[14] She confirmed her conversion to Islam by 1915, taking the Arabic name Zainab. She remarked that she considered Islam the religion "most calculated to solve the world's many perplexing problems, and to bring to humanity peace and happiness".[15]

Pilgrimage to Mecca

Following the death of her former husband in 1929, she started to plan her pilgrimage, or Hajj to Mecca. She contacted Hafiz Wahba, ambassador for the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd to the United Kingdom, who in turn sent a letter to King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz.

Evelyn achieved celebrity status in 1933 at the age of 65, when she became the first Muslim woman born in the United Kingdom to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca.[7][16][5] In 1934, a personal account of her trip was published with the title Pilgrimage to Mecca.[5][17] There is an excerpt from her work in Michael Wolfe's book One Thousand Roads to Mecca.

She visited Italy with a friend and went to see the Pope who asked her if she was Catholic. Although she had never thought about Islam for years she replied by saying she was Muslim. After that she decided to read up more about Islam and eventually converted.[17]: xiv [5]

In 1933, she travelled to perform the Hajj for the first time, and because there were Europeans who visited Saudi Arabia before her and who were not Muslim penetrated into Mecca and when returning to Europe, they wrote about their daring adventure of performing the Hajj as a non-Muslim. Because of this there were restrictions in place for Europeans, but Lady Evelyn, who adopted the name Zainab, was granted permission to perform the Hajj.

Diary

This is her description in her diary of the first time she saw the Kabah and tawaf:

"We walk on the smooth marble towards the Holy of Holies, the House of Allah, the great black cube rising in simple majesty, the goal for which millions have forfeited their lives and yet more millions have found heaven in beholding it … the 'Tawaf' is a symbol, to use the words of the poet, of a lover making a circuit round the house of his beloved, completely surrendering himself and sacrificing all his interests for the sake of the Beloved. It is in that spirit of self-surrender that the pilgrim makes the 'Tawaf'".

Her book Pilgrimage to Mecca in 1934 is the first Hajj account by a Scottish Woman and her diary also is the oldest record of a trip during the Hajj, when she went by car from Mina to Arafat. She travelled widely all her life and also wrote another book, Kenya: Land of Illusion.

She spoke and wrote Arabic fluently.[18]

Writing

"Islam," Evelyn later wrote, "is the religion of common sense." Lady Evelyn's story about her life, her conversion and her pilgrimage to Mecca are all recorded in her diaries which have recently been republished.

"She was a very lively, eccentric Anglo-Scot Moslem, who loved doing things and loved people as well," Major Philip Hope-Cobbold, her great grandson said about her.

Death

Lady Evelyn died in 1963 and was buried, as she stipulated, on a remote hillside on her Glencarron estate in Wester Ross. There was no Muslim in Scotland to perform her janazah so they contacted Shah Jahan Mosque, Woking and the Imam drove up in the snow to perform her janazah. She had stipulated she wanted to be buried on a hill on her estate facing Mecca with the following words on her gravestone: "Allahu nur-us-samawati wal ard" ("Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth").[5]

In 2022 her grave was visited by a party of pilgrims from the Convert Islam Foundation, a British organisation for converts to Islam,[19] who walked the 20-kilometre (12 mi) round trip up Gleann Fhiodhaig from a car-park off the A 890 in Glen Carron.[20] The 2019 novel Bird Summons by Leila Aboulela (W&N, ISBN 978-1474600125) describes a pilgrimage by three Muslim women in search of Cobbold's grave.[21]

References
  1. "Cobbold [née Murray], Lady Evelyn". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/95642. Retrieved 14 December 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. "Sébastien SANCHEZ's family tree - Maud Evelyn Murray". Geneanet. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  3. "The British Victorians who became Muslims". BBC News. 18 May 2019.
  4. William Facey, Miranda Taylor, Introduction to 'Pilgrimage to Mecca', p 2. ISBN 9780955889431
  5. O'Shea, Josef (15 June 2016). "The Victorian Muslims of Britain". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  6. William Facey, Miranda Taylor, Introduction to 'Pilgrimage to Mecca', p 3. ISBN 9780955889431
  7. Facey, William (2008). "Mayfair to Makkah", Saudi Aramco World, Vol. 59, No. 5, pages 18–23.
  8. "Cobbold, John Dupuis". suffolkartists.co.uk. Suffolk Artists. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  9. "#450, Winifred Evelyn COBBOLD". Family Tree. The Cobbold Family History Trust. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  10. Cobbold, Anthony (2020). "#448, John Murray (Ivan) COBBOLD". Family Tree. The Cobbold Family History Trust.
  11. Dismore, Jane (December 2009). "#452, Pamela COBBOLD". Family Tree. The Cobbold Family History Trust – via The Dorset Magazine.
  12. Russell, Steven (8 May 2009). "Mayfair to Mecca: plucky Lady Evelyn". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  13. Cobbold, Anthony (2006). "#308, Evelyn MURRAY". Family Tree. The Cobbold Family History Trust.
  14. MacKenzie, Julian. "Western Women in the Islamic World | Shapero Rare Books Blog". shapero.com. Shapero Rare Books. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  15. Cobbold, Lady Evelyn Murray; Alexander, Frances Gordon (1 January 1912). Wayfarers in the Libyan Desert. London: Arthur L Humphreys. Book prepared jointly by Lady Evelyn Cobbold and Frances Gordon Alexander. The American edition is issued under Mrs. Alexander's name, the English under Lady Evely Cobbold's, the text differing slightly Link is to full text of US version.
  16. William Facey, Miranda Taylor, Introduction to 2009 edition of 'Pilgrimage to Mecca', p 32. ISBN 9780955889431
  17. Cobbold, Lady Evelyn (1934). Pilgrimage to Mecca. London W: John Murray, Albemarle Street. ISBN 978-0955889431. Republished 2009
  18. "ENGLISH WOMAN MAKES HISTORY". Western Gazette. 14 April 1933. Retrieved 14 April 2023. She knows by heart many passages of the Koran and speaks fluent Arabic, which she can both read and write
  19. "Home page". Convert Muslim Foundation. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  20. Cox, Auryn (15 June 2022). "Lady Evelyn Cobbold - why are Muslim pilgrims visiting her Scottish grave?". BBC News. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  21. Cosslett, Rhiannon Lucy (12 April 2019). "Bird Summons by Leila Aboulela review – lyrical examination of identity". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 June 2022.

Further reading

Clive Hodges: Cobbold & Kin: Life Stories from an East Anglian Family (Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2014) ISBN 9781843839545

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