Scottish Orientalist and colonial administrator (1819?1905)
Bust of William Muir by
Charles McBride
Sir William Muir
KCSI
(27 April 1819 ? 11 July 1905) was a Scottish
Orientalist
, and colonial administrator, Principal of the
University of Edinburgh
and Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Provinces of
British India
.
Life
[
edit
]
William Muir's grave, Dean Cemetery
He was born at
Glasgow
the son of William Muir (1783?1820), a merchant, and Helen Macfie (1784?1866). His older brother was
John Muir
, the
Indologist
and
Sanskrit
scholar.
[1]
He was educated at
Kilmarnock Academy
, the universities of
Glasgow
and
Edinburgh
, and
Haileybury College
.
[2]
In 1837 he entered the
Bengal
civil service. Muir served as secretary to the governor of the North-West Provinces, and as a member of the
Agra
revenue board, and during the
Mutiny
he was in charge of the intelligence department there. In 1865 he was made foreign secretary to the Indian Government. In 1867 Muir was
knighted
(
K.C.S.I.
), and in 1868 he became lieutenant-governor of the
North Western Provinces
.
[3]
Having been criticised for the poor relief effort during the
Orissa famine of 1866
, the British began to discuss famine policy, and in 1868 Muir issued an order stating that:
... every District officer would be held personally responsible that no deaths occurred from starvation which could have been avoided by any exertion or arrangement on his part or that of his subordinates.
[4]
In 1874 Muir was appointed financial member of the
Viceroy's Council
, and retired in 1876, when he became a member of the
Council of India
in London.
[2]
James Thomason
served as Muir's mentor with respect to Imperial administration; Muir later wrote an influential biography of Thomason.
[3]
Muir had always taken an interest in educational matters, and it was chiefly through his exertions that the central college at
Allahabad
, known as
Muir Central College
, was built and endowed. Muir College later became a part of the
University of Allahabad
.
[2]
In 1884 Muir was elected president of the
Royal Asiatic Society
.
[5]
In 1885 he was elected principal of the
University of Edinburgh
in succession to
Sir Alexander Grant
, and held the post till 1903, when he retired.
[2]
On 7 February 1840, he married Elizabeth Huntly (1822?1897), daughter of James Wemyss, collector of
Cawnpore
, and together they had 15 children.
[1]
He died in
Edinburgh
, and is buried in
Dean Cemetery
. The grave lies in the concealed lower southern terrace.
Works, reception, and legacy
[
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]
Muir was a
scholar of Islam
. His chief area of expertise was the
history
of the time of
Muhammad
and the
early caliphate
. His chief books are
A Life of Mahomet and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira
;
Annals of the Early Caliphate
;
The Caliphate: Its rise, decline and fall
, an abridgment and continuation of the Annals, which brings the record down to the fall of the caliphate on the onset of the Mongols;
The Koran: its Composition and Teaching
; and
The Mohammedan Controversy
, a reprint of five essays published at intervals between 1885 and 1887. In 1888 he delivered the
Rede lecture
at
Cambridge
on
The Early Caliphate and Rise of Islam
.
[2]
Life of Mahomet
[
edit
]
William Muir during the
Second Anglo-Afghan War
His original book
A Life of Mahomet and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira
was initially published 1861 in four volumes. The book received attention in both literary and missionary circles, and provoked responses ranging from appreciation to criticism.
[6]
It would eventually evoke a rebuttal from
Sayyid Ahmad Khan
.
[6]
Contemporary reviewers of Muir's
Life of Mahomet
uniformly praised him for his knowledge of Arabic.
[6]
The only competing work in Britain at the time was a book by
Harrow
schoolmaster
Reginald Bosworth Smith
, who had no Arabic language skills.
[7]
The work was also praised by Christian missionaries who welcomed it as an aid to convert Muslims.
[6]
Contemporary historian
E. A. Freeman
praised the book as a "great work", yet questioned its conjectural methodology, particularly Muir's suggestion that Muhammad was inspired by
Satan
.
[8]
Contemporary
Aloys Sprenger
also criticized Muir for ascribing Islam's origins to "the Devil".
[9]
The
British Quarterly Review
of 1872 criticized his approach as "he is treading ground whither the historian of events and creeds must refuse to follow him".
[9]
A significant rebuttal to Muir's book was written
Syed Ahmed Khan
in 1870 called
A Series of Essays on the Life of Mohammed, and Subjects Subsidiary Thereto
.
[9]
Khan praised Muir's writing talent and familiarity with Oriental literature, but criticized Muir's reliance on weak sources like
al-Waqidi
. He accused Muir of misrepresenting the facts and writing with animus.
[9]
Written objections to this aspect of
Life
could be found in the writings of Muslims living inside
British India
only after the
Indian Rebellion of 1857
, an unsuccessful uprising against the
East India Company
.
[6]
Later reviews of the work have also been mixed, with many scholars describing Muir's work as polemical.
[10]
[11]
W. M. Watt
(1961) described Muir's
Life
as following "in detail the standard Muslim accounts, though not uncritically".
[12]
Mohammed Hussein Heikal
regarded Muir's work as an
argumentum ad hominem
fallacy.
[13]
Albert Hourani
(1980) said Muir's writing, while "still not quite superseded", regarded Muhammad as "the Devil's instrument" and Muslim society as "barren and bound to remain so".
[14]
Aaron W. Hughes (2012) writes that Muir's work was part of a European Orientalist tradition that sought to show that Islam was "a corruption, a garbled version of existing monotheisms".
[10]
Bennett (1998) praises it as "a detailed life of Muhammad more complete than almost any other previous book, at least in English," noting however that besides "placing the facts of Muhammad's life before both Muslim and Christian readers, Muir wanted to convince Muslims that Muhammad was not worth their allegiance. He thus combined scholarly and evangelical or missionary purposes."
[15]
Commenting on Muir's conjecture that Muhammad may have been affected by a Satanic influence,
Clinton Bennett
says that Muir "chose to resurrect another old Christian theory", and quotes the following passage from Muir's 1858
Life
, vol. 2:
[16]
It is incumbent upon us to consider this question from a Christian point of view, and to ask whether the supernatural influence, which ... acted upon the soul of the Arabian prophet may not have proceeded from the Evil One ... Our belief in the power of the Evil One must lead us to consider this as at least one of the possible causes of the fall of Mahomet... into the meshes of deception ... May we conceive that a diabolical influence and inspiration was permitted to enslave the heart of him who had deliberately yielded to the compromise with evil.
In the final chapters of
Life
, Muir concluded that the main legacy of Islam was a negative one, and he subdivided it in "three radical evils":
[17]
First: Polygamy, Divorce, and Slavery strike at the root of public morals, poison domestic life, and disorganise society; while the Veil removes the female sex from its just position and influence in the world. Second: freedom of thought and private judgment are crushed and annihilated. Toleration is unknown, and the possibility of free and liberal institutions foreclosed. Third: a barrier has been interposed against the reception of Christianity.
According to
Edward Said
, although Muir's
Life of Mahomet
and
The Caliphate
"are still considered reliable monuments of scholarship", his work was characterized by an "impressive antipathy to the Orient, Islam and the Arabs", and "his attitude towards his subject matter was fairly put by him when he said that 'the sword of Muhammed, and the Kor'an, are the most stubborn enemies of Civilisation, Liberty, and the Truth which the world has yet known'".
[18]
Daniel Martin Varisco
rejects Said's assessment that Muir's
Life
was considered reliable by the 1970s. He writes "Serious historians had long since relegated Muir's work to the rare-books sections of their libraries."
[19]
Other works
[
edit
]
Muir's later
Annals
was received with fewer reservations by the
Times
reviewer and other newspapers of the day. It was the
Annals
that established Muir's reputation as a leading scholar on Islam in Britain. Nevertheless, his earlier hypercritical
Life of Mahomet
was used as a poster child by contemporary Muslim commentators?especially by Indian ones connected to the movement of
Syed Ahmed Khan
?to dismiss all criticism of their society emanating from Western scholars.
[7]
Syed Ameer Ali
went as far as to declare Muir "Islam's avowed enemy".
[20]
An illustrative aspect in the evolution of Muir's positions is his stance on the
Crusades
. In his writings of the 1840s, he goaded Christian scholars to verbal warfare against Muslims using aggressive crusader imagery. Fifty year later, Muir redirected the invective hitherto reserved for the Muslims to the crusading leaders and armies, and while still finding some faults with the former, he praised
Saladin
for knightly values. (Muir's anti-Catholic animus may have played a role in this too.
[
citation needed
]
) Despite his later writings, Muir's reputation as an unfair critic of Islam remained strong in Muslim circles. Powell finds that William Muir deserves much of the criticism laid by
Edward Said
and his followers against 19th century Western scholarship on Islam.
[21]
Muir was a committed
Evangelical Christian
and was invited to preface many missionary biographies and memoirs, speak at conferences and to publicise
Zenana missions
. He wrote "If Christianity is anything, it must be everything. It cannot brook a rival, nor cease to wage war against all other faiths, without losing its strength and virtue."
[22]
In his official capacity as principal of Edinburgh University, Muir chaired many meetings of Evangelists at the university, organised to support overseas missionary efforts, and addressed by speakers such as
Henry Drummond
.
[23]
In India, William Muir founded the
Indian Christian
village
Muirabad
, near
Allahabad
. Muir was impressed with the discovery of the
Apology of al-Kindy
; he lectured on it at the Royal Asiatic Society, presenting it as an important link in what he saw as a chain of notable conversions to Christianity, and later he published the translated sources. A proselytising text,
Bakoorah shahiya
(
Sweet First Fruits
) was published under his name as well, but this work had actually been written by a convert to Protestantism from
Eastern Orthodox Christianity
.
[22]
In
The Mohammedan Controversy
, he wrote:
[24]
Britain must not faint until her millions in the East abandon both the false prophet and the idol shrines and rally around that eternal truth which has been brought to light in the Gospel.
Daniel Pipes
investigated the origin of the phrase "
Satanic Verses
", and concluded that despite
Salman Rushdie
's claim that he had borrowed the phrase from
Tabari
, the earliest traceable occurrence is in Muir's
Life of Mohamet
(1858) in a passage discussing "two Satanic verses".
[25]
[26]
[27]
The phrase does not appear in the revised edition of 1912 though.
[28]
Statuary
[
edit
]
A marble statue by
George Blackall Simmonds
was erected in his honour and unveiled by the then
Viceroy of India
at the opening of
Muir College
on 8 April 1886,
[29]
[30]
and was still there in 2012.
[31]
Another was proposed for the Muslim college, but due to opposition the scheme was dropped.
Arms of Sir William Muir
Family
[
edit
]
He was the brother of the indologist
John Muir
. He married Elizabeth Huntly Wemyss in 1840 (died 1897), and had five sons and six daughters; four of his sons served in India, and one of them, Colonel A. M. Muir (died 1899), was Political Officer for South Baluchistan, and was acting British Resident in
Nepal
when he died.
[2]
One daughter, Jane, married Colonel
Andrew Wauchope
and lived at Edinburgh Castle.
[32]
One of his son-in-laws was the civil servant
William Henry Lowe
.
[33]
Publications
[
edit
]
- The Life of Mahomet [Muhammad] and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira
- Vols. 1?2 (published in 1858) by Smith, Elder, & Co.
- Vols. 3?4 (published in 1861) by Smith, Elder, & Co. together with a reprinting of the first two volumes; title shortened to
The Life of Muhammad
.
- The Life of Mahomet [Mohammad] from original sources
- 2nd abridged one-volume ed. of the above (published in 1878), xi+errata slip, xxviii, 624 pp. London: Smith, Elder, & Co.
- 3rd abridged ed. (published in 1894) by Smith, Elder, & Co., ciii, 536 p.
- posthumously revised ed. by Thomas Hunter Weir published in (1912) as
The life of Mohammad from original sources
, cxix, 556 pp.
- The Opium Revenue
(1875)
- The Coran: Its Composition and Teaching
(1878)
- The
Apology of al-Kindy
(1882)
- Annals of the Early Caliphate
(1883)
- The Rise and Decline of Islam
(1883)
- Mahomet [Muhammad] and Islam: A Sketch of the Prophet's Life
(1887)
- The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline and Fall
(1891; revised ed. 1915)
- Sweet First-Fruits. A tale of the Nineteenth Century, on the truth and virtue of the Christian Religion
(trans. 1893)
- The Beacon of Truth; or, Testimony of the Coran to the Truth of the Christian Religion
(1894)
- The Mameluke or Slave Dynasty of Egypt, 1260?1517 AD, end of the Caliphate
(1896)
- Agra in the Mutiny: And the Family Life of W. & E. H. Muir in the Fort, 1857 : a Sketch for Their Children
(1896). 59 pp. Privately published.
- James Thomason, lieutenant-governor N.-W. P., India
(1897)
- The Mohammedan Controversy
(1897)
- The Sources of Islam, A Persian Treatise
, by the
Rev. W. St. Clair-Tisdall
, translated and abridged by W. M. (1901). Edinburgh, T & T Clark.
- Two Old Faiths: Essays on the Religions of the Hindus and the Mohammedans
.
J. Murray Mitchell
and Sir William Muir. (1901). New York: Chautauqua Press.
- Records of the Intelligence Department of the Government of the North-West Provinces of India during the Mutiny of 1857 including correspondence with the supreme government, Delhi, Cawnpore, and other places
. (1902). 2 vols, Edinburgh, T & T Clark.
- The Lord's Supper: an abiding witness to the death of Christ
(nd)
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (23 September 2004).
"The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography"
.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(online ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. ref:odnb/35144.
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/35144
. Retrieved
30 December
2019
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Chisholm 1911
- ^
a
b
Powell 2010
, p. 3
- ^
Imperial Gazetteer of India
, vol. III (1907), p. 478
- ^
Powell 2010
, p. 249
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Powell 2010
, p. 168
- ^
a
b
Powell 2010
, p. 256
- ^
Powell 2010
, p. 168 citing E. A. Freeman,
British Quarterly Review
, 55 (January 1872), pp. 106?119
- ^
a
b
c
d
Matthew Dimmock (2013).
Mythologies of the Prophet Muhammad in Early Modern English Culture
.
Cambridge University Press
. pp. 214?215.
- ^
a
b
Aaron W. Hughes (12 October 2012).
Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History
.
Oxford University Press
. pp. 46?47.
- ^
Jamal Malik
(6 April 2020).
Islam in South Asia Revised, Enlarged and Updated Second Edition
.
Brill
.
- ^
Watt, William Montgomery (1961)
Muhammad ? Prophet and Statesman
, Oxford University Press, p. 244
- ^
Daniel Martin Varisco (2017).
Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid
.
University of Washington Press
. p. 151.
- ^
Hourani, Albert (1980)
Europe and the Middle East
, Macmillan, p. 34
- ^
Bennett 1998
, p. 111
- ^
Bennett 1998
, p. 113 citing Muir's 1858
Life
, vol. 2, p. 90f; Bennett traces the Satanic influence theory
- ^
Bennett 1998
, p. 113 paraphrases Muir's 1894 edition of
Life
, p. 505, but the passage quoted here is in Muir's own words
- ^
Edward W. Said (2006).
Orientalism
. Penguin Books India. p. 151.
ISBN
9780143027980
.
- ^
Varisco, Daniel Martin (1 July 2011).
Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid
. University of Washington Press. p. 107.
ISBN
978-0-295-80262-6
.
- ^
Bennett 1998
, p. 117 citing Ali, Sayyid Ameer (1922)
The Spirit of Islam
, London: Chatto & Windus. Originally published in 1891, p. 211
- ^
Powell 2010
, p. 257
- ^
a
b
Powell 2010
, p. 261
- ^
Powell 2010
, p. 262
- ^
Bennett, Clinton (1992).
Victorian Images of Islam
. Grey Seal Books. p. 111.
- ^
Pipes 2003
, p. 115
- ^
Esposito 2003
, p. 563
- ^
Muir 1858
, p. 152
- ^
Kuortti 1997
, p. 116
- ^
Harriot Georgina Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava (1889).
Our viceregal life in India: selections from my journal, 1884-1888
. Vol. II. London: J. Murray. p. 22.
- ^
"Appendix"
(PDF)
.
wbpublibnet.gov
. Retrieved
30 January
2024
.
- ^
"Restoring past glory of AU's Vizianagram Hall"
.
indiatimes.com
. 10 April 2012
. Retrieved
30 January
2024
.
- ^
The Woman at Home
. Warwick Magazine Company. 1895. p. 273.
- ^
Growse, F. S. (1884).
Bulandshahr: Or, Sketches of an Indian District: Social, Historical and Architectural
. Benares: Medical Hall Press. p. 78.
Notes
[
edit
]
- Ali, Kecia (2014).
The Lives of Muhammad
. Harvard University Press. p. 48ff.
ISBN
9780674744486
.
- Ansari, K. Humayun. "The Muslim World in British Historical Imaginations: 'Re-thinking Orientalism'?"
British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
(2011) 38#1 pp: 73-93
- Bennett, Clinton (1998).
In search of Muhammad
. Continuum International Publishing Group.
ISBN
978-0-304-70401-9
.
- Esposito, John L. (2003).
The Oxford dictionary of Islam
. Oxford University Press. p. 563.
ISBN
978-0-19-512558-0
.
- Kuortti, Joel (1997).
Place of the sacred: the rhetoric of the Satanic verses affair
. Peter Lang. p. 116.
ISBN
978-0-8204-3294-6
.
- Muir, William (1858).
The life of Mahomet and history of Islam, to the era of the Hegira: with introductory chapters on the original sources for the biography of Mahomet, and on the pre-Islamite history of Arabia, Volume 2
. Smith, Elder & Co. p. 152.
- Pipes, Daniel (2003) [first edition: 1990].
The Rushdie affair: the novel, the Ayatollah, and the West
(2 ed.). Transaction Publishers. p. 115.
ISBN
978-0-7658-0996-4
.
- Powell, Avril A. (2010).
Scottish orientalists and India: the Muir brothers, religion, education and empire
. Boydell & Brewer.
ISBN
978-1-84383-579-0
.
Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain
:
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911). "
Muir, Sir William
".
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 958.
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