[vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text css_animation="fadeInDown"]<span style="color: #0f1940; font-family: lora; font-style: regular; font-size: 50px;">Who is Lady Evelyn?</span>[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css_animation="fadeInDown"]<span style="font-size: 20px;">Lady Evelyn Cobbold (d. 1963) was the first British Muslim woman to make the pilgrimage to Mecca known as the Hajj, in 1933. Born in 1867 Lady Evelyn was a Scottish noblewoman and a convert to Islam. She spent the winters of her childhood in Algiers, often escaping the Moorish Villa to visit Mosques. She also learned to speak Arabic. She took the name Zaynab and ‘came out’ as a Muslim in front of the Pope when he asked if she was a Catholic.</span>

<span style="font-size: 20px;">Her conversion to Islam may not seem extraordinary to many, but it was often difficult for members of the aristocracy, as it meant they had to forego drinking alcohol, something that would have been socially alienating, to say the least.</span>

<span style="font-size: 20px;">She was buried in accordance with the principles of Islam on a distant hillside on her estate at Glencarron, Wester Ross, in the Highlands of Scotland, on a bitter day in January 1963.</span>

<span style="font-size: 20px;">One should not underestimate the importance of Lady Evelyn doing the journey – being the first British-born woman to perform Hajj – and of course the book she wrote about her journey.</span>
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