Lady Aveline Cobbled was the British orientalist from which Zainab was named; The first British Muslim woman to visit the holy places on her journey to Hajj, which I later documented in a book called “Hajj to Mecca”.
Childhood and beginnings:
Lady Cobold was born in the Scottish city of Edinburgh in 1871 CE, a British aristocratic family, and is the eldest daughter of the ruler of Danmore. She spent much of her childhood in Algeria. On that, she says: “I remember my childhood, and how I spent the winter with my parents in an Arab palace in Algeria. My parents walked to him seeking sun, comfort and reassurance.”
After that, she learned the Arabic language that is her childhood and attracted to Islam. She says: “I remember how I was very willing – and I am still a child – to go to the mosque with some comrades, enjoy the wonderful wonderful spiritual life that I have in his life. ”
This is how the Scottish girl Evelyn Kobold lived in Algeria, accompanied by the Algerian children, affected by the Arab and Islamic environment, without realizing or realizing that she is on the way to becoming “Zainab”.
“How and when did I convert to Islam?”
Cobeld says about herself: Many ask me how and when I converted to Islam? My answer is: “It is difficult for me to determine the time when the truth of Islam shone in front of me, and I accepted Islam as a religion. I can almost certainly say that I am a Muslim since I was first born. Islam is the natural religion that one would accept if he left himself, and his parents did not impose on him the religion he embraces.
After a long period of time and on a visit to Rome, her host asked her if she would like to meet the Pope and she was glad for that. She met the Pope at the Vatican and asked her if she was a Catholic English. She answered, without previous thinking: “I am a Muslim.”
The trip to Mecca:
Avlin met in Cairo with her husband Sharif Saflouk, and when she turned sixty-six years old, she decided to take a journey of faith; Hajj trip to Mecca.
She contacted the Saudi ambassador to Britain at the time, Sheikh Hafez Wahba, and asked him to ask her permission from His Majesty King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud to come to the Kingdom to perform the rituals of Hajj and visit the Holy Prophet’s Mosque, and His Majesty agreed to that. And so the journey began.
To the Holy Land:
Evelyn Kobold left London for Cairo in 1933 and from there she went to Suez and then to Port Said, where she boarded an Italian steamship for Jeddah on the 23rd of February of the same year. Her room was reserved for her on board. From Port Said, the ship sailed to “Al Quseir”, where it docked for several hours, enabling passengers to visit that town. After four days at sea, the ship docked in Jeddah on February 26, 1933.
Mr. Philby’s wife was waiting for her in a boat whose word was inscribed on his banner: “There is no god but God Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” She said: I felt then that I was really in the Arab countries and that I was under the banner of Ibn Saud and Kobold – may God have mercy on her – spoke about the mountains that surround Jeddah, and about the voiced voices The rosary and the magnifying glass, and the appearance of joy on the faces of the pilgrims, as they reached the “cleanest spot and the holiest shrine”.
Mrs. Kobold spent several days in Jeddah and talked about some of what she had seen on her trip outside Jeddah, saying: “Today I got out by car outside the city, and I was watching a lot of pilgrims strike on the ground towards Mecca.”
Some of them told me: “There are people who came walking to the Holy Land, and that there are others who prefer to walk on foot towards the Sacred House, overwhelmed by reverence, and vilified by repentance, and drives them to these hardships of their love for God and His Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace.”
Evelyn Kobold described life in Jeddah after spending (17) days as she saw it, saying: “I found life in Jeddah different from the same in other eastern countries, because it is pure Arab life.”
Story details:
There is a book in the English language, in which Lady Copold documented her journey to the Holy Land in 1933 AD, recorded in her journey that journey, and the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Sheikh Hafiz Wahba – may God have mercy on him – wrote his introduction, and Sheikh Omar Abu Al-Nasr Al-Yafi – may God have mercy on him – investigated and translated To the Arabic language in 1934 AD.
Her death:
Hajja Zainab, may God have mercy on her, died in a nursing home in 1963 at the age of 95, and at her burial ceremonies she requested that the verse of light be engraved on her grave.
An extract from the Book, My Pilgrimage to Makkah
