Wikipedia 26 Oct. 2012 (J. Spencer Trimingham: John Spencer Trimingham (17 November 1904-6 March 1987) was a noted 20th century scholar on Islam in Africa.[1] Trimingham was born in Thorne, S. Yorkshire; he studied social sciences at Birmingham University, Arabic and Persian at Oxford University, and trained for the ministry of the Church of England at Wells Theological College. He served with the Church Missionary Society in the Sudan, Egypt, and West Africa (1937-53); then lectured at Glasgow University (1953-64) and was a visiting professor in the department of history at the American University of Beirut (1964-70). He then moved to the faculty of the Near East School of Theology in Beirut; he died in 1987 in Lingfield, Surrey)