Language:
English
Year of publication:
2019
Titel der Quelle:
Jewish Quarterly Review
Angaben zur Quelle:
109,4 (2019) 598-630
Keywords:
Marcus, Hugo,
;
Muslim converts from Judaism
;
Ahmadiyya
;
Jewish philosophy 20th century
Abstract:
ON MAY 16, 1925, the front page of The Light, Lahore's bimonthly magazine of the Ahmadiyya Society for the Propagation of Islam, proclaimed in bold uppercase letters: "GREAT GERMAN SCHOLAR WON." The ensuing article reported the conversion to Islam of Hugo Marcus (1880–1966), a "scion of a high German family, a Ph.D. of Berlin University, a scholar of distinction and author of good many books," whose articles revealed a "remarkable grasp of the inner beauty of the Message of Islam." There were several inaccuracies in the article's description of Marcus. He had, indeed, published prolifically in the fields of moral philosophy and aesthetics, and his writings on Islam had also been well received, garnering him the praise of Muhammad Iqbal, the spiritual father of the future Pakistani state. The "great scholar" touted in the headline, however, had received his Ph.D. not from Berlin but from the University of Bern. If the mistaken alma mater could be written off as a journalistic slipup, the aristocratic pedigree attributed to Marcus seemed somewhat more consciously contrived. The celebrated "scion of a high German family" was in fact the son of Jewish industrialists who had lost their fortunes in the wake of the First World War. Passing Jewishness off for aristocracy was a far stretch, even for a period as socially transformative as the Weimar era. At the time when his conversion was so proudly announced, Marcus was a forty-five-year-old bachelor living with his aged mother and supporting himself as a private tutor.
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