Biography
Jameelah was born Margaret Marcus in New Rochelle, New York, to parents of German Jewish descent, and spent her early years in Westchester. As a child, Marcus was psychologically and socially ill at ease with her surroundings, and her mother described her as bright, exceptionally bright, but also “very nervous, sensitive, high-strung, and demanding”. Even while in school she was attracted to Asian and particularly Arab culture and history, and counter to the support for Israel among people around her, she generally sympathised with the plight of Arabs and Palestinians. Another source describes her interests as moving from Holocaust photographs, to “Palestinian suffering, then a Zionist youth group and, ultimately, fundamentalist Islam.”
She entered the University of Rochester after high-school, but had to withdraw before classes began because of psychiatric problemsIn Spring, 1953, she entered New York University. There she explored Reform Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, Ethical Culture and theBahai Faith, but found them unsatisfactory, especially in their support for Zionism. In the summer of 1953, she suffered another nervous breakdown and fell into despair and exhaustion. It was during this period that she returned to her study of Islam and read the Quran. She was also inspired by Muhammad Asad’s “The Road to Makkah” which recounted his journey and eventual conversion from Judaism to Islam. At NYU she took a course on Judaism’s influence on Islam which was taught by Rabbi and scholar Abraham katch, which ironically strengthened her attraction to Islam. However Marcus’s health grew worse and she dropped out of the university in 1956 before graduation; from 1957-59 she was hospitalized for schizophrenia.
Returning home to White Plains in 1959, Marcus involved herself with various Islamic organizations, and began corresponding with Muslim leaders outside America, particularly Maulana Abul Ala Maududi, a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan. Finally, on May 24, 1961, she converted to Islam and adopted the name Maryam Jameelah. After accepting Maulana Maududi’s invitation she emigrated to Pakistan in 1962, where she initially resided with him and his family. In 1963, she got married to Muhammad Yusuf Khan on Maulana’s instructions, a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami, becoming his second wife. She had five children: two boys and three girls (the first of whom died in infancy). Jameelah regards these years (1962-64) to be the formative period of her life during which she matured and began her life’s work as a Muslim defender of conservative Islam. She never returned to USA and lived a pure Muslimah life in Pakistan. Two of her sons now live in US and on her last night she talked to them about hurricane Sandy. On the morning of 31st October she had a severe heart attack was taken to hospital but could not survive.
Her marriage to Muhammad yousaf khan was quite unique. Later on he quoted that he was standing with other two companions outside Maulana’s house when he came out and showed his anxiety about Maryam’s wedding . The two other told him that Maulana wanted him to marry the lady. He went home and talked to his wife Shafiqa. Shafiqa was quite concerned about her and she gladly accepted it. She came and proposed her as a second wife for her husband. After consulting Maulana Maudoodi she accepted this proposal and nikah was done. The family lived a happy life. Both the wives were quite coordinated with each other. Shafiqa was called Ammi by their kids while Maryam was called Aapa. She wanted to be buried close to Maulana but in her final days she decided to be buried near Shafiqa’s grave.
The other day I read in Newspaper Jasarat that Amir Jamaat Islami Pakistan Syed Munawar Hassan went for condolence to her her husband Yusaf Khan Sahib. It seems that he is alive.Her biography is called “The Convert” written by Deborah Baker is worth reading. Author of some 25 books and still a resident of Lahore, Maryam Jameelah wrote extremely powerful diatribes against the West & her home country America and how she had experienced in her life in there.Here is a brief review of the book in Dec, 2011″The Convert- A Tale of Exile and Extremism” written by Deborah Baker ( wife of Amitav ghosh ) is an expertly written book that chronicles the life of Margaret (Peggy) Marcus born to a liberal Jewish couple – Herbert & Myra of New York. She was an unusual child– a loner, socially maladjusted and initially shy but later a voluble inquisitive and annoyingly talkative girl. At school she was ceaselessly teased by bullying classmates in the 1940s and was reportedly molested. She was a college dropout and became an autodidact– reading all the time at the fabled New York Public Library. After several trips to the Psychiatrist’s couch and two mental institutions (where she was committed by her parents), she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She read voraciously about Islam, became enamored with Pakistani Islamic Thinker and author Abul Ala Mawdudi’s whose books and philosophy she adored and ended up corresponding with him. She uprooted herself in the early 1960s from America to permanently move to Lahore under the initial guardianship of Maulana Maududi, living at his house in Icchra, Lahore. She stayed a worker of the Jamaat Islami and till her last breath, lived in Sant Nagar in Lahore. She wrote over 25 books—- essentially very forceful diatribes against the West in general and her home country America in particular pitting Islam against the Western civilization. She has not swerved from the path of pure unadulterated disdain for the West in the past 50 years although her literary output went into decline in the 1980s. Deborah Baker has written a riveting account of her life and has travelled to Lahore staying at Najam Sethi’s house, received moral support and help from Asma Jahangir and interviewed Haider Farooq Maududi and eventually interviewed Maryam Jameela herself .
Jameelah ‘s books:
Jameelah started writing her first novel, Ahmad Khalil: The Story of a Palestinian Refugee and His Family at the age of twelve; she illustrated her book with pencil sketches and color drawings. She also studied drawing in Fall 1952 at Art Students League of New York, and exhibited her work at Baha’i Center’s Caravan of East and West art gallery. On her emigration to Pakistan she was told that drawing pictures was un-Islamic by Maulana Maududi, and abandoned it in favor of writing. Her writings are supplemented by a number of audio and video tapes
Jameelah was a prolific author, believing in basic , fundamental, traditional Islamic values and culture. She was deeply critical of secularism, materialism and modernization, both in Western society, as well as in Islam. She regards traditions such as veiling,polygamy, and gender segregation (purdah) to be ordained by the Quran and by the words of Prophet Muhammad, and considers movements to change these customs to be a betrayal of Islamic teachings.Jameelah’s books and articles have been translated into several languages including Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Bengali and Bahasa Indonesia. Her correspondence, manuscripts, bibliographies, chronologies, speeches, questionnaires, published articles, photographs, videocassettes, and artwork are included in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library collection of the New York Public Library.
Maryam Jameelah passes away
By Reader Correspondent
Published: Fri, 02 November 2012 10:15 PM
Srinagar: Renowned Islamic scholar and writer Maryam Jameelah died in Lahore, reports said Thursday.
She was 78 and died after prolonged illness on Wednesday night. Jameelah was born Margaret Marcus to a Jewish family in New York on May 23, 1934. She grew up in a secular environment, but at the age of 19, while a student at New York University, she developed a keen interest in religion.
Her search brought her into contact with an array of spiritual orders, religious cults, and world religions; she became acquainted with Islam around 1954. She was then greatly impressed by Marmaduke Pickthall’s ‘The Meaning of the Glorious Qur’an’ and by the works of Muhammad Asad, himself a convert from Judaism to Islam.
Jameelah cites Asad’s ‘The Road to Mecca’ and ‘Islam at Crossroads’ as critical influences on her decision to become a Muslim. She converted to Islam after meeting with Abul Ala Maududi, a Pakistani Islamic scholar and the founder of Jama’at-e-Islami.
Through her readings in Islam she developed a bond with the religion and became a vocal spokesperson for the faith, defending Muslim beliefs against Western criticism and championing such Muslim causes as that of the Palestinians. Her views created much tension in her personal life, but she continued to pursue her cause.
Jameelah wrote over 70 booklets.
Jameelah was impressed by Maududi’s views and began to correspond with him. Their letters between 1960 and 1962, later published in a volume entitled ‘Correspondences between Maulana Maududi and Maryam Jameelah’, discussed a variety of issues from the discourse between Islam and the West, to Jameelah’s personal spiritual concerns.
Jameelah travelled to Pakistan in 1962 on Maududi’s advice and joined his household in Lahore. She soon married Muhammad Yusuf Khan, as his second wife.
She wrote about 70 books.
Articles and Books Of Maryam Jameelah
1. ISLAM VERSUS THE WEST
2. ISLAM AND MODERNISM
3. ISLAM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
4. ISLAM VERSUS AHL AL KITAB PAST AND PRESENT
5. AHMAD KHALIL
6. ISLAM AND ORIENTALISM
7. WESTERN CIVILIZATION CONDEMNED BY ITSELF
8. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MAULANA MAUDOODI AND MARYUM JAMEELAH
9. ISLAM AND WESTERN SOCIETY
10. A MANIFESTO OF THE ISLAMIC MOVEMENT
11. IS WESTERN CIVILIZATION UNIVERSAL
12 WHO IS MAUDOODI ?
13 WHY I EMBRACED ISLAM
14 ISLAM AND THE MUSLIM WOMAN TODAY
15 ISLAM AND SOCIAL HABITS
16 ISLAMIC CULTURE IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
17 THREE GREAT ISLAMIC MOVEMENTS IN THE ARAB WORLD OF THE RECENT PAST
18 SHAIKH HASAN AL BANNA AND IKHWAN AL MUSLIMUN
19 A GREAT ISLAMIC MOVEMENT IN TURKEY
20 TWO MUJAHIDIN OF THE RECENT PAST AND THEIR STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM AGAINST FOREIGN RULE
21 THE GENERATION GAP ITS CA– — USES AND CONSEQUENCES
22 WESTERNIZATION VERSUS MUSLIMS
23 WESTERNIZATION AND HUMAN WELFARE
24 MODERN TECHNOLOGY AND THE DEHUMANIZATION OF MAN
25 ISLAM AND MODERN MAN
Additional Reading
Deborah Baker is an acclaimed biographer whose second book, In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1994.
In 2008-09 she was a Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis C. Cullman Center forWriters and Scholars at the New York Public Library where she wrote The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism, which was one of the finalists for the 2011 National Book AwardN an isolated section of the library, one day Baker found a casebook while looking for something interesting. `Inside this casebook, like a small pulsating heart,lay a warmknot of baby mice nesting in a hollow of shredded legal citations.` Another day, in the Manuscripts and Archives Division she found something similar, crying for her attention: Maryam Jameelah Papers, 2.5 linear feet (9 boxes). Baker happily responded.
Maryam Jameelah was Margaret Marcus, a Jewish-American woman who embraced Islam and exiled herself to begin a new life in Lahore in 1962. She was invited to Lahore by Maulana Maududi, the founder of Jamat-iIslami. The Convert is the story of her life from being Margaret to becoming Maryam, between Islam and the West a story that tries to untangle the warm knot of a small pulsating heart.
Margaret converted at the age of 27 in suburban New York. But for her, it was not about forsaking Judaism. Rather,it was about finding a place for herself in a society where she was a misfit. Maududi`s invitation to Pakistan provided an exit for her stagnant and isolated life. She could finally belong somewhere.
Before being invited to Lahore, Margaret had exchanged letters with both Maududi and Sayyid Qutb, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Both of them had talked about the moral decadence of the West and its imperial ambitions based on its Capitalist agenda and its general disdain toward Islam. While views of Maududi and Qutb were shaped by limited encounters with the West, Margaret`s beliefs arose out of her intimate experience of the worst of what her society had to offer: a world rooted in individual materialism unchecked by a moral and religious code.
She used her experience to write scathing condemnations of her society. Now, here was an insider who could criticise the West in a more convincing manner to supplement the Jamat`s own narrative. From being an outcast to becoming a celebrity, Maryam began to find her ground. She even thought she was finally happy.
But life in Pakistan brought its own sets of challenges and setbacks. In one of her own books, At Home in Pakistan, Maryam acknowledged that her impression of Maududi from his letters turned out to be `very dif ferent` from the Maududi she met after her arrival in Lahore. He was `equally surprised and dismayed` upon meeting her. Maryam had imagined living in Lahore would be living in a traditional and orthodox Muslim society. But to her, it seemed to be far off from the goals and ideals of Maududi and his Jamat. What had begun as a quest for the truth had turned into a place of disillusionment.
There are several surprises in the book which come at precise moments when one is just getting comfortable with the predictability of the story. The tale works more like a detective novel. One of the most fascinating parts is where Maududi distances himself from Maryam and she is ultimately sent to a mental institution -in an ironic replay of her past. Maryam`s release and her marriage to an already married Jamat worker are further dramas that keep the reader engaged in Maryam`s fascinating journey as a convert.
The structure of the book reflects Baker`s own progression of learning about Maryam and her own quest of finding answers to difficult questions about Maryam`s life.
Baker appears as vulnerable to sudden shifts as she discovers the story along with the reader.
H ER reconstruction of Maryam`s life is primarily based on Maryam`s letters.
She has also reviewed some of her books to gain a better understanding of Maryam`s personality and worldview. But working with letters posed some problems.
Baker edited some of these letters for voice and brevity. She also took some liberty in mixing the contents of different letters into one to highlight some of Maryam`s experiences. In all honesty she discloses this in `A Note on Methodology` aftertelling the story. This raises an important question: Did she mislead her readers through the book? No. She has been extremely careful in presenting Maryam`s thoughts and feelings to her readers. I looked at some of the letters published many years ago in two separate books in Lahore, and found something interesting.
There were variations between letters which appeared in Lahore publications and those in The Convert. But these were insignificant variations. Baker took great care in keeping the original voice and message as far as I could find.
Interestingly, this exercise led me to another discovery. In a letter dated early August 1963, Baker quotes Maryam:`Well, from that moment on I realised that Maududi family unity and solidarity were valued above the teachings of the Prophet and that no criticism from an outsider would be tolerated.
This line is missing from the letter dated August 3, 1963, published in Lahore by her husband. Clearly, the Jamat could not allow this to go public. Maryam`s letters were edited for publication in Lahore and some material which seemed damaging was removed.
There was one more problem with the letters. Maryam revealed at a later time that she had not been entirely truthful in some of her earlier letters to her parents about life in Pakistan. On closer examination Baker found that many of the letters seemed to have been re-typed. This raised a serious question: How much could she rely on these letters to re-construct Maryam`s life as it happened? After telling the story from these letters she tries to find explanations to understand some parts of Maryam`s life which do not make sense to her.
This takes her and the reader to an exciting conclusion of the book.
I N the book, Maryam`s letters are followed by Baker`s reflections, which are often critical of Maryam`s views and those of her mentors. Baker raises pertinent questions to get rid of the simplistic view of the relationship between the so-called Islam and the West: `Was the enmity between Islam and the West metaphysical or historical?`; `By what mechanism did America and the world`s Muslims suddenly become each other`s evil caricatures? Metaphor? Narrative? Racist propaganda?` She is both empathetic to aswell as critical of Maryam`s positions, and her empathy is always lined with a certain hint of wariness. While she wants us to like her she also wants us to be cautious. It is a hard balance to maintain. And she does it well.
Baker treats other characters with similar balance, including Maududi and his opposites, the secular and Westernised elite of Lahore. When she questions Maududi`s ideology she seems to side with his opposition. But she also seems to understand and almost agree with him when she critically observes a section of these elite:`Cigarettes, illicit alcohol, and dancing girls? No wonder the ranks of civil society were so thin and in need of hired guns. Such a limited notion of individual freedom would mean little to those who had difficulty putting food on the table. I recalled Maududi`s warning to the students at Lahore Law School almost exactly 60 years before: Pakistan`s secular and Westernised elite would hijack Pakistan for their own ends.
This is simply brilliant. She forces the reader to consider each side of the arguments in its own perspective. Her empathy with each side makes one re-think the whole secular-religious divide and the role of this dichotomous relationship in the development of Pakistan, its identity and its future.
Baker has been fairly thoughtful and balanced in her treatment of characters and their views. And she has constructed a fascinating story. But I must also share my observation about her treatment or lack thereof of two concepts: extremism and radicalisation. She does not explain either of these very loaded terms and ends up using them loosely. Is Maududi an extremist in her view? What does it mean to be radical· ised? Is writing against Western capitalism an act of extremism and radicalism? How, why, and in what context may these writings incite violence? In an almost desperate attempt to find answers to some questions in the end, it seems that she oversimplifies the realities of post-colonial Muslim experience. As a consequence, in a simplistic manner she attempts to draw a causal relationship between `radi· calisation` and the events of September 11: `How could Maryam be sure her writings hadn`t played a role in the radicalisation of Muslim youth?` She asks Maryam again: `And 9/11? Was it justified?` In an earlierreflective moment Baker teases the thought that perhaps these attacks were a response to American intervention in the Muslim world: `Did we take after them or did they take after us?` Somehow she misses to connect this thought in her final analysis.
It is indeed true that a certain hateful caricature of the West has made inroads into the modern Jihadi literature adding fuel to the fire. But for actual violence to take place against the West, the Jihadis have always needed a justification based on Western acts of direct interference, aggression and oppression in Muslim societies. This bit is quite clear from their literature.
I agree with Baker that ideas of Maududi, Qutb, and Maryam have certainly played a role. But these cannot be understood to be the sole influence. There is more to the whole picture of Jihad than she has been able to present in the concluding parts of the book.
I AM baffled but also amused with Baker`s treatment of the book in the final sections. Maryam`s last location and its role in the overall story leap again as a surprise which threatens to shatter the carefully constructed narrative. Baker says: `Only then did it occur to me that I had made the same mistake [Maududi] had made. From a series of letters, I had conjured an entire being. I imagined I knew Maryam Jameelah.` And following Baker, so had I, until I started reading the last sections of the book. But, unlike a detective novel, not everything comes together in the end. Baker`s frustration and anger are almost palpable when she fails to get answers from Maryam for some of the questions which are crucial to completing the story. Perhaps they remain a mystery to Maryam as well.
The only way it can make sense is that Margaret`s journey to find meaning, truth, and belonging in a foreign land took unexpected turns marked with challenges, disappointments, and delusions for Maryam. And the end was a reflection of this unfinished, yet fascinating quest, which was told wonderfully by Deborah Baker.
Perhaps, one day it will all be clear. Or, perhaps, I will go and see Maryam Jameelah myself. E The reviewer is a facult p member at LUMS
