Broad-sword and Single-Stick

In Broad-sword and Single-Stick, authors Winn and Wolley state: “One of the prettiest little compliments you can pay a man is to call him a ‘good old sportsman’.” This may be true, particularly in 1918, when the book was initially published. In it, the authors aim to educate those “good old sportsmen” on techniques of fighting and defense with the broadsword (a medieval throwback) and the single-stick, a wooden weapon with a basket hilt vaguely reminiscent of a fencing foil. Dripping with English machismo, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley was also a boxing enthusiast and wrote a book on that subject as well. What may come as a surprise, however, is that in 1913 the Baron converted to Islam, and authored several books on Islam under the name Shaikh Rahmatullah al-Farooq.