Nur Luke

Nur Luke (نۇر لۇك) was a Uyghur scholar from Khotan who converted to Christianity and translated the Bible to his native Uyghur language. 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.

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. The first Uyghur-language Bible, authored by the trio, was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1946.