By Auryn Cox
BBC Scotland Data
Portray caption, A neighborhood of about 20 Muslims took phase in the slip to Lady Evelyn’s grave
It be mid-morning in the north-west highlands of Scotland and autos are beginning to trickle staunch into a forest vehicle park off the A890 in Glen Carron.
The day promises to be wet, but there may per chance be a speedy moment of sunshine as a neighborhood of 20 walkers put collectively for a 10km (6.2 mile) slip up Gleann Fhiodhaig in Wester Ross.
It be a scene played out in a complete bunch of vehicle parks across Scotland every weekend, but this neighborhood of walkers are moreover pilgrims – Muslim converts who opinion to say about with the grave of a Victorian aristocrat.
They’ve travelled from Edinburgh, Liverpool, Leicester and beyond to honour Lady Evelyn Cobbold – regarded as the first British-born Muslim lady to create the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
The non secular celebration became once organised by The Convert Muslim Foundation, a UK-basically based entirely charity which provides enhance networks for of us original to Islam.
Founder Batool Al-Toma, herself a convert from Eire, beckons the neighborhood to originate up their hasten into the mountains.
“Ever since I heard about Lady Evelyn, I have been drawn to her yarn. She became once rather a heroic lady who by no scheme let herself be sidelined appropriate because she became once a lady,” Ms Al-Toma says.
Portray caption, This home of Scotland has a queer connection to Mecca by strategy of Lady Evelyn
No longer long into the slip, the rain starts. Hats and waterproof hoods duvet heads and hijabs.
Because the wind and rain batters them, many of the neighborhood ponder Lady Evelyn’s final hasten up the glen to her chosen burial predicament.
She died in January 1963 for the period of an especially frosty frosty weather and became once buried on an isolated hillside on her Glencarron property.
A lone bagpiper, “shaking from frosty”, played MacCrimmon’s Lament and an Imam from Woking, Surrey, performed the burial rites, in accordance with an yarn published on the Inverness Mosque web predicament.
The link to Woking quiet exists, with a marketing consultant from the city’s mosque joining this slip to her grave nearly 60 years later.
Portray source, PHILIP HOPE-COBBOLD
Portray caption, Lady Evelyn married John Cobbold in 1891 after she met him whereas travelling in Cairo
Born in Edinburgh in the late 1800s, Lady Evelyn spent her childhood split between Scotland and North Africa.
It became once for the period of her time there that she became once first uncovered to Islam, visiting mosques with her Algerian company.
“Unconsciously I became once a puny Muslim at coronary heart,” she later wrote.
It is now not known precisely when she reworked to Islam but a likelihood stumble upon with the Pope whereas she became once visiting Rome looked to verify her beliefs.
“When His Holiness addressed me by asking if I became once a Catholic I became once bowled over for a moment then answered that I became once a Muslim,” she acknowledged.
“What possessed me I don’t fake to understand as I had now not given a idea to Islam for about a years.”
Media caption, The neighborhood of reworked Muslims walked 20km to say about with the grave of Lady Evelyn Cobbold
Lady Evelyn took the Arabic name Zainab and would in the end create the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca feeble 65.
One of the most Muslim converts paying tribute to Lady Zainab is Yvonne Ridley, who lives in the Scottish Borders.
It became once her skills of working as a journalist in Afghanistan and being captured by the Taliban in 2001 which led to her embracing Islam.
“My conversion became once caused in many strategies by my arrest and detention by the hands of the Taliban. Which have dwelling me on a route which started off as an academic exercise but took me on a non secular hasten,” she says.
In her guide, In the Hands of the Taliban, Ms Ridley acknowledged she became once amazed by the honor and courtesy the men of the Taliban had shown her.
For the period of her captivity she promised to see the Quran and did so after she became once released.
Ms Ridley realized about Lady Evelyn from Ms Al-Toma whereas they were in Turkey.
“I started reading more about this excellent Scottish lady, so Batool and I made up my mind we would salvage a neighborhood of converts to Islam and will be found out and create a pilgrimage to her graveside,” she says.
Portray caption, The neighborhood gathered at the graveside for prayers
After three hours of frosty, wet hiking, the pilgrims relaxation for a moment as their recordsdata Ismail Hewitt, clad in his kilt, goes extra on ahead to focal point on for Lady Evelyn’s resting predicament.
Spirits are lifted as he waves encourage from the gap, signalling that it is in seek for, a speedy formulation up the hill.
The neighborhood slip up to it earlier than gathering spherical the tombstone on their knees.
They every pay their respects earlier than joining every other in prayer. It is a moving moment and about a of the neighborhood are dropped at tears.
Ms Al-Toma finishes off the ceremony by reading an excerpt from Lady Evelyn’s guide, reflecting on her pilgrimage to Mecca.
“What have the past days held out but never-ending hobby, wonder and style? To me an wonderful original world has been published.”
Portray caption, The pilgrims made a 20km (12.4 mile) spherical outing to say about with the grave
After the mosey encourage to the facet highway, the travellers were invited to the mosque in Inverness for meals and a likelihood to judge on the hasten they’d made.
Ms Ridley says she became once exhausted by the slip, but felt the prayers by the grave had been “spiritually moving”.
“There became once a stag which looked on the hill above her graveside which became once rather symbolic and moving,” she says.
“This became once a lady whose coronary heart became once in the Highlands, but became once moreover very immersed in Islam.”
Ms Al-Toma has the same opinion that Lady Evelyn became once a model of how original converts may per chance presumably quiet defend onto their very absorb identity and tradition.
“She is fundamental to converts right here,” she adds.
“I’m pleased to have be taught her guide and made this slip as I treasure her braveness, bravery and sense of adventure. She became once an precise trailblazer.”
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