Lady Evelyn Cobbold (d. 1963) was the first British Muslim woman to make the pilgrimage to Mecca known as the Hajj, in 1933. Born in 1867 Lady Evelyn was a Scottish noblewoman and a convert to Islam; she spent the winters of her childhood in Algiers, often escaping the Moorish Villa to visit Mosques; she also learned to speak Arabic. She took the name Zaynab and ‘came out’ as a Muslim before the Pope when he asked if she was a […]