Charles Fraser Beckingham, FBA (Houghton, Huntingdonshire, 18 February 1914 – Lewes, East Sussex, 30 September 1998) was a professor of Islamic studies at Manchester University (1958–65) and London University (1965–81).
[1] Beckingham read English at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he was a friend of Cyril Bibby.
He worked for the Department of Printed Books in the British Museum from 1936 until 1946, interrupted by military and naval Intelligence service during World War II from 1942 until 1946.
[1] He wrote Between Islam and Christendom (1983) from his lectures and articles, and collaborated with Edward Ullendorff on Hebrew letters of Prester John and in 1996 with Bernard Hamilton on Prester John, the Mongols and the Ten Lost Tribes.
He finished Professor Sir Hamilton Gibb's translation and annotation of The Travels of Ibn Battuta – a project which had taken, as Beckingham noted, longer than the travels of Ibn Battuta himself.