Leslie McLoughlin is as Arab as an Englishman can afford to get. He looks at his watch, and taps it — a subtle indication of keeping time. I embarrassingly glance at my own watch. Two minutes squandered waiting for the right corner table to clear up at the hotel café. He looks a little agitated as we shuffle to settle into our seats.
“They tell me ‘You can’t be English, you must have an Arab mother or something,’” he chuckles softly.
At the age of 78 years today, he can still vividly recall the allure and mysticism of Arabic words he first heard at the age of seven. Words like “shufti” (see), and “bint” (daughter), spoken with random precision by his father who had come back from the Libyan Desert after the World War II.
Prior to the familial initiation in Arabic by his father, McLoughlin had been no stranger to the language of the desert; Abdul Mutalib, Mokhtar and Abdul Rahman- names of Indian cricketers who would frequently come to England to play (prior to the Indo-Pak partition), rang the introduction to far-flung wonders of Arabia.
“When I started learning Arabic grammar, I remembered that I had heard these words and names. I was introduced to Arabic in all kinds of strange ways before I actually studied the language,” he recalls.
A student of European history, six measly lectures in Islamic and Arab history by an enthusiastic lecturer, changed the impending course of his life.
“The lectures were so brilliant that I decided I must study the Arab world and Islam. When I first started studying Arabic at university, the teaching was so bad that it was very difficult to get to grips with it. But I really began to be involved in the language when I came to the Arab world.”
McLoughlin went on to become the interpreter for Queen Elizabeth and the British Government, facilitating cross-translations in Arab diplomatic relations.
It was in the 60s when he became director of Studies at the Middle East Center for Arab Studies in Lebanon, later taking up teaching positions in the Arabic language and Islamic studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Edinburgh University, Georgetown University and most recently in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Criss-crossing exotic lands, deserts and borderlines between Europe and the Arab world for the past 53 years, he begins to recall to mind childhood memories, when he was brought up on staple black and white Arab cinema — entertaining indulgences that still continue today through contemporary Arabic literature and dubbed Turkish soap-operas.
“I’m deeply involved in the Arabic language. I read a lot of Arabic, I watch a lot of Arabic television, films…I used to watch these famous actors and actresses like Faten Hamama…there were so many of them, the great comedians, they were all Egyptians. Television only came in about 64, 65, so I was listening mostly on (sic) the radio.”
Armed with a background in world history, McLoughlin started work on a book series called “Makers of the 20th century,” expounding on the geniuses and contributions of stalwart political personalities in the likes of Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt. The socio-political restructuring of Saudi Arabia at the turn of the century by the country’s first monarch, King Abdul Aziz, and the 30 long turbulent years of armed struggle and political trysts spent for the establishment of a sovereign state by the royal leader provided McLoughlin the impetus to give him a full biographical rendering in the book “Ibn Saud: Founder of a Kingdom”.
This also allowed him the opportunity to visit Saudi Arabia in the 70s and 80s to meet Saudis who had outlived the tribulations in the creation of a new state and were living evidence of the history of Saudi Arabia; public soldiers who had fought in the battles of the state and survived them.
Ibn Saud established the Kingdom. And then of course the great triumph for Saudi Arabia was the discovery of oil. But the World War II started in 1933, and Saudi Arabia was in great poverty and deprivation. The war raged on and the King died in 1953, and since then, the Kingdom has seen great changes.”
“I wanted to give foreigners a clear picture of one individual who changed the course of history. Of course he worked with other people and had support, but it was also his determination, vision and the courage of a fighter engaged in combat. He was a really remarkable character,” McLoughlin puts it quite emphatically.
In a world where eastern countries are aping to become more Anglicized, I ask whether the future of regional languages holds meaningful promise. “Well, the position of Arabic is guaranteed, it is the language of Islam, so I think there’s no fear for the future of Arabic at least. While many countries have suffered from this problem, Saudi Arabia is a special case, because it is the home of the Two Holy Mosques and the home of the Arabic language. If you watch Saudi television, they almost never use English. There’s a different kind of approach to the Arabic language in order to make sure that the rising generation really has a grip of the language.”
“Confessions of an Arabic Interpreter: Odyssey of an Arabist,” is McLoughlin’s most recent literary exposition on the years spent as a diplomatic interpreter. “My book is full of examples where interpretation has gone wrong. I’ve managed to avoid the worst of those.”
Just as I initiate my careful attempts at coaxing him to spill some untold beans, he taps his watch again. That’s his indication — it’s time to go.
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