Faris Glubb


Faris Glubb was a British writer, journalist, translator and publisher.

Family and childhood conversion to Islam

Born in Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine as Godfrey Peter Manley Glubb, he was the son of the noted British officer Sir John Bagot Glubb KCB CMG DSO OBE MC, who, as the chief military advisor to the Jordanian military, became known as Glubb Pasha, and his wife, Muriel Rosemary Forbes. Sir John was commander of the Arab Legion. Godfrey accordingly grew up in Transjordan amongst Bedouin soldiers and declared himself a Muslim as soon as he was old enough to be permitted to do so by Muslim customs. Afterwards, he was known outside his family as Faris Glubb. Faris also had a sister called Naomi, a Bedouin girl adopted in 1944 when she was three months old, and a sister and brother, Palestinian children adopted in 1948, called Mary and John.

Education

Glubb was sent to Wellington College very much a "cane & bible" institution in those days where, deeply unhappy, he ran away, to the Jordanian Embassy and the military attaché. He spent two years at Aiglon College in Switzerland, and then went to the School of Oriental and African Studies to study Arabic. He became an activist, with the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman, working with the Omani opposition at the United Nations in New York City.

Career

Glubb reported from Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, first for CBS and later for the Daily Mail as Michael O'Sullivan. He also reported for Arab news agencies. When the Israeli Government expelled the Palestinian leadership from Lebanon, Glubb followed. His fluency in Arabic and close relationship with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, with the writer Ghassan Kanafani. He also published several books Zionism: Is It Racist?, The Palestine Question and International Law and Zionist Relations with Nazism. When he died, he was seeking his doctorate in Arabic at the School of Oriental and African studies about relationships between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin from Vatican documents.

Death

He died in Kuwait on 3 April 2004 as the result of a hit-and-run road accident. He is survived by his second wife, Salwa and their two daughters Sarah and Darina, and his son Mark by his first marriage. His mother Lady Rosemary Glubb survived him, but died in September 2005.