Nur Luke (Uyghur: نۇر لۇك) was a Uyghur scholar from Khotan who converted to Christianity and translated the Bible to his native Uyghur language.[1][2] A devout Protestant and believer in the Protestant work ethic, Luke vehemently opposed traditional marriage customs, arranged marriages, and child marriages, believing them to be the primary cause of gender inequality and high divorce rates amongst the local populace.[3]

Nur Luke
نۇر لۇك
Luke in 1953
Born
Years active1930s to 1950s
Notable workTranslating the Bible to the Uyghur language

Luke left Xinjiang for India sometime in the 1930s to work on a Uyghur translation of the Bible, together with the Swedish missionaries Gustaf Ahlbert and Oskar Hermannson. They settled in Bombay, where Luke earned doctorates in medicine and Islamic law. It was also there that he converted to Christianity.[4] The first Uyghur-language Bible, authored by the trio, was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1946.[5][page needed]

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  • Bellér-Hann, Ildikó (2008). Community Matters in Xinjiang, 1880–1949: Towards a Historical Anthropology of the Uyghur. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-16675-2.
  • Cryer, Neville Barker (1979). Bibles Across the World. Mowbrays. ISBN 978-0-264-66417-0.
  • Nicklasson, Gösta (1953). Sett och hört i Indien [Seen and heard in India] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Missionsförbundets förlag. OCLC 186131091.
  • Zwemer, Samuel Marinus (1951). The Moslem World. Nile Mission Press.