Noor Inayat Khan: Sufi Princess, Children’s Author & British Spy

noor_inayat_khan_madrs_courier
Noor-Inayat Khan, Tipu Sultan's Great-great-great grand daughter was a Sufi princess, author, and celebrated British spy.

In 1939, a Sufi princess living in France released a small book of children’s stories based on the Jataka Tales. Noor Inayat Khan was a dreamy and thoughtful writer, from a family of noble lineage – her great-great-great grandfather was Tipu Sultan.

Her mother was a poet and her brother, a trained classical musician. Both her father and her other brother were prominent figures in the international Sufi order. But it’s Tipu who has the most in common with Inayat; where he fought the British invaders, she fought the Nazis in Occupied France.

Until 1940, Inayat was just a dreamy girl who had studied harp at the Paris Conservatoire, and children’s psychology at Sorbonne University. The invasion and occupation of France by the Nazis changed everything. Inayat searched her skills for weapons and found that speaking fluent French made her a valuable asset for the underground war effort.

Inayat became a Special Operations Executive (SOE) for the Allies. In other words, a spy, tasked with coordinating covert radio signals – as part of a womens-only wing of the Allied Forces. For a brief period, Inayat was the best spy in France. But betrayal cut short her fascinating journey.



To continue reading, please subscribe to the Madras Courier.

Subscribe Now

Or Login


 

Copyright©Madras Courier, All Rights Reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from madrascourier.com and redistribute by email, post to the web, mobile phone or social media.
Please send in your feed back and comments to editor@madrascourier.com

0 replies on “Noor Inayat Khan: Sufi Princess, Children’s Author & British Spy”