George Bethune English
George Bethune English (March 7, 1787 – September 20, 1828) was an American adventurer, diplomat, soldier, and convert to Islam.
The oldest of four children, English was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was baptized at Trinity Church on April 1, 1787. His father was Thomas English (1759-1839), a prominent merchant, agent and shipbuilder in Boston, and his mother was Penelope Bethune (1763-1819), daughter of George Bethune (1720-1785) and his wife Mary Faneuil (1732-1797), niece of Peter Faneuil.
He later attended
George English subsequently went "out west" (then Ohio and Indiana Territory) where he briefly edited a frontier newspaper, and settled as a member of the puritanical Harmonie Sect.[1] During this time he may have learned the Cherokee language.
English was among the Marine Officers nominated by President
After his work for Muhammad Ali Pasha, English worked in the Diplomatic Corps of the United States in the Levant, where he worked to secure a trade agreement between the United States and the Ottoman Empire, which had trade valued at nearly $800,000 in 1822. In 1827, he returned to the United States and died in Washington the next year.
There is no record of him marrying or having children.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b Michael Oren, Power, Faith and Fantasy, p101–113
- ^ Edward Everett,A Defence of Christianity Against the Works of George B. English
- ^ "Five Smooth Stones out of the Brook."
- ^ US Senate Executive Journal, February 27, 1815
- ^ Officers of the War of 1812, Marine Corps Officers
- ^ Islam and ‘Scientific Religion’ in the United States before 1935, by Patrick D. Bowen, " In the 1820s, George Bethune English, a Harvard-educated critic of Christianity, not only wrote respectfully about Islam, but also participated with Muslims in prayer and quoted from a Qur'an translation, though he denied that he had converted"
- ^ Americans in Egypt, 1770-1915, by Cassandra Vivian
- ^ Americans in Egypt, 1770-1915, by Cassandra Vivian, page 76
- ^ Alan Moorehead, The Blue Nile, revised edition (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), p. 203
- Disputing Christianity, by Richard H. Popkin, with Jeremy D. Popkin; Prometheus books ISBN 1-59102-384-X
- Americans in Egypt, 1770-1915, by Cassandra Vivian, 2012, ISBN 9780786463046
- The Déjà Vu of American secret diplomacy, by Edward F. Sayle, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, Volume 2, Issue 3, 1988
- The historical underpinnings of the U.S. intelligence community, by Edward F. Sayle, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1986
- Islam and ‘Scientific Religion’ in the United States before 1935, by Patrick D. Bowen, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, Volume 22, Issue 3, 2011