L. F. Rushbrook Williams
# L. F. Rushbrook Williams

Laurence Frederic Rushbrook Williams, CBE, FRSA (1890–1978) was a British historian and civil servant who spent part of his working life in India, and had an abiding interest in Eastern culture.

## Life and work

Williams was a Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford. He built up a school of Mughal studies at the University of Allahabad, where he was professor of Modern Indian History. He was briefly Eastern Services Director of the B.B.C., and also worked on the editorial staff of The Times (London). He acted as a government advisor on Middle East and Asian affairs, and contributed to publications like the Royal Central Asian Society Journal and the Encyclopædia Britannica.

He became interested in Sufism through his contact with Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah and later edited an anthology of contributions to a symposium in honor of the work of the noted Sufi author, Idries Shah.

## Works

Williams wrote several works on India, Asia and the Middle East, among them the following:

* Pakistan Under Challenge
* What About India?
* The State of Israel
* India in 1921-22: A report prepared for presentation to Parliament in accordance with the requirements of the 26th Section of the Government of India Act
* An Empire Builder of the Sixteenth Century: A Summary Account of the Political Career of Zahir-Ud-Din Muhammad, Surnamed Babur
* Ethnic diversity in India
* The black hills: Kutch in history and legend: a study in Indian local loyalties
* Handbook for Travellers in India, Pakistan and Nepal
* The East Pakistan tragedy
* The State of Pakistan
* Great Men of India
