Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley

Infobox Celebrity
name = Rowland Allanson-Winn


caption =
birth_date = January 19, 1855
birth_place = London
death_date = June 22, 1935
death_place = Wiltshire, England
occupation = Muslim scholar

Rowland George Allanson Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley (London, January 19, 1855 – June 22, 1935, London), also known as Shaikh Rahmatullah al-Farooq, was an Irish peer and a prominent convert to Islam, becoming president of the British Muslim Society.

Lord Headley was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge . [The New International Yearbook, 1936] He was a civil engineer by profession, a builder of roads in India, and an authority on the protection of foreshores.

He was an enthusiastic practitioner of boxing as well as other arts of self defence, and in 1890 co-authored, with C. Phillips-Wolley, the classic "Broad-sword and Singlestick". He was solo author of "Boxing" (introduced by the boxer Bat Mullins) which was reprinted in 2006. [http://www.amazon.com/Boxing-Prefatory-Note-Bat-Mullins/dp/054397023X for the reprinted version of the book ]

Lord Headley embraced Islam on 16 November 1913 and adopted the Muslim name of Shaikh Rahmatullah al-Farooq. In 1914 he established the British Muslim Society. He was the author of several books on Islam, including "A Western Awakening to Islam" (1914) and "Three Great Prophets of the World". [ [http://wokingmuslim.org/pers/headley/west-awake.htm Lord Headley's book: A Western Awakening to Islam ] at wokingmuslim.org] He was a widely travelled man and twice made the Haj.

He inherited his peerage from his cousin in 1913. In 1921 he married the Australian author Barbara Baynton. [Australian Dictionary of Biography] He became bankrupt in 1922. [ [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070221b.htm Baynton, Barbara Jane (1857 - 1929) Biographical Entry - Australian Dictionary of Biography Online ] at www.adb.online.anu.edu.au] He was offered the throne of Albania in 1925, along with $500,000 and $50,000 per year [Time magazine, "London's Mosque" 28 June 1937] but refused it - at which point Lady Barbara Headley returned to Melbourne, where she died in 1929. [Australian Dictionary of Biography] From 1929 Lord Headley owned and lived at Ashton Gifford House near the village of Codford in Wiltshire. His widow Lady Catherine Headley continued to live at the property until 1940. [Dod's Peerage, 1942]

External links

* [http://wokingmuslim.org/pers/headley/ Full details of the life, activities and writings of Lord Headley]

See also

*Sir Charles Edward Archibald Watkin Hamilton, 5th Baronet
*Henry Stanley, 3rd Baron Stanley of Alderley
*William Abdullah Quilliam
*Marmaduke Pickthall
*Faris Glubb
*Ahmad Thomson
*Timothy Winter

References

*Rayment