| Honorific Prefix: | Sir |
| Thomas Walker Arnold | |
| Honorific Suffix: | CIE |
| Birth Date: | 19 April 1864 |
| Birth Place: | Devonport, Devon, England |
| Death Place: | London, England |
Sir Thomas Walker Arnold (19 April 1864 - 9 June 1930) was a British orientalist and historian of Islamic art. He taught at Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College,[1] later Aligarh Muslim University, and Government College University, Lahore.[2]
Arnold was a friend of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, who influenced him to write the famous book The Preaching of Islam,[2] and of Shibli Nomani, with whom he taught at Aligarh. He taught Syed Sulaiman Nadvi and the poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal.[3] He was the first English editor for the first edition of The Encyclopaedia of Islam.[2]
Thomas Walker Arnold was born in Devonport, Plymouth on 19 April 1864, and educated at the City of London School. From 1888 he worked as a teacher at the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, Aligarh. In 1892 he married Celia Mary Hickson,[2] a niece of Theodore Beck.
In 1898, he accepted a post as Professor of Philosophy at the Government College, Lahore and later became Dean of the Oriental Faculty at Punjab University.[2]
From 1904 to 1909, he was on the staff of the India Office as Assistant Librarian. In 1909 he was appointed Educational Adviser to Indian students in Britain.[4] From 1917 to 1920 he acted as Adviser to the Secretary of State for India.[5] He was Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, from 1921 to 1930.[2]
Arnold was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1912, and in 1921 was invested as a knight. He died on 9 June 1930.[6]