Charles Fraser Beckingham, (

Houghton, Huntingdonshire Houghton is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, approximately east of Huntingdon on the A1123 road, and south of RAF Wyton. It lies on the north bank of the River Great Ouse, by Houghton Mill. Houghton is in the civil parishes in England, ...

, 18 February 1914 –

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

, 30 September 1998) was a professor of

Islamic studies Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

(1958–65) and

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...

(1965–81).Obituary
Independent

Early life

Beckingham was born in

. His father was artist Arthur Beckingham. Beckingham read English at

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

, where he was a friend of

Cyril Bibby Cyril Bibby (''b.'' Liverpool, 1 May 1914 as Harold Cyril Bibby; ''d''. Edinburgh 20 June 1987) was a biologist and educator. He was also one of the first sexologists. Early life, family, etc. Bibby was the third of eight children and lived in ...

. He worked for the Department of Printed Books in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

from 1936 until 1946, interrupted by military and naval Intelligence service during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

from 1942 until 1946. During that time he added to the ''Admiralty Handbook of Western Arabia''.

Academic career

He joined Manchester University as lecturer in

Islamic history The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic, military, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE. Muslims r ...

in 1951, becoming a professor of Islamic studies in 1958. In

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

he studied the history of the Turkish community. In 1965, Beckingham became a professor of Islamic studies at the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...

(Soas), at

and was head of the Department of the Near and Middle East from 1969 until 1972. He retired in 1981 and was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...

in 1983.

Other publications

He wrote ''Between Islam and Christendom'' (1983) from his lectures and articles, and collaborated with

Edward Ullendorff Edward Ullendorff (1920–2011) was a British scholar and historian. He was a prominent figure in Ethiopian Studies and also contributed work on the Semitic languages. Biography Born on 25 January 1920 in Zurich, Switzerland, Ullendorff was e ...

on ''Hebrew letters of

Prester John Prester John ( la, Presbyter Ioannes) was a legendary Christian patriarch, presbyter, and king. Stories popular in Europe in the 12th to the 17th centuries told of a Nestorian patriarch and king who was said to rule over a Christian nation lost ...

'' and in 1996 with Bernard Hamilton on ''Prester John, the Mongols and the Ten Lost Tribes''. He finished Professor Sir Hamilton Gibb's translation and annotation of ''The Travels of

Ibn Battuta Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah (, ; 24 February 13041368/1369),; fully: ; Arabic: commonly known as Ibn Battuta, was a Berbers, Berber Maghrebi people, Maghrebi scholar and explorer who travelled extensively in the lands of Afro-Eurasia, ...

'' – a project which had taken, as Beckingham noted, longer than the travels of Ibn Battuta himself.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beckingham, Charles 1914 births 1998 deaths Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester People from Huntingdonshire Fellows of the British Academy Academics of SOAS University of London British orientalists Presidents of the Royal Asiatic Society Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Middle Eastern studies scholars