The story of Lady Evelyn Cobbold: First British Woman to go to Hajj

The ‘Bird Summons’ by Leila Aboulela is about three Muslim women in Scotland who embark on a quest to visit the remote grave of a Scottish aristocrat, Lady Evelyn Cobbold, who converted to Islam in the nineteenth century.

Lady Evelyn was born in 1867. She adopted the Muslim name ‘Zainab’ and is known as the first British woman to perform the hajj pilgrimage in 1933. She wrote a book about her experience, ‘Pilgrimage to Mecca’. 

The story of Lady Evelyn is one of many, which remind us that Islam was not alien to the western world. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Muslim empires were dominant on the world scene since the seventh century, and there was a great deal of trade, rivalries and interaction with Muslims. 

The plot of the Bird Summons revolves around Lady Evelyn’s story.

The three friends’ physical quest to reach Lady Evelyn’s grave is also a spiritual quest for each of them. They have their own internal struggles, and this trip is much more than a cultural mini-break.

The ladies meet a talking hoopoe in the story. The hoopoe is a bird mentioned in the Quran, and symbolises wisdom. 

The hoopoe guides these women in their ultimate adventure through stories and metaphors, becoming their guide and teacher.

In the epilogue, Aboulela mentions that her favourite verse in the Qu’ran is the story of Queen Bilquis ‘Sheba’ and Prophet Suleiman/Solomon. The Prophet can understand the language of the birds, and he sends the hoopoe with a message to the Queen, asking her to follow the path of God.

Aboulela’s other inspiration for this novel is the classic twelfth century Persian Sufi poem by Farid-ud-Din Attar, ‘The Conference of the Birds’. This epic poem is inspired by the Qu’ranic verses as well. It tells the story of the birds of the world, led by the wise hoopoe in search of their king - the legendary Simurgh (a mythical bird in Persian literature and a metaphor for God in Sufism). They embark on a perilous quest, and are distracted by ego, but they eventually find that the legend is within all of them.

The story in the Bird Summons draws on these similar learnings from the Quran and the ‘The Conference of the Birds’. What seems like an adventure is actually an internal journey in the quest to find our own purpose in this world. In the same way that Lady Evelyn fulfilled her purpose on this earth, the three friends are about to realise their own inner journey.