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THE MOHAMMEDAN CONTROVERSY

to the historical evidences of their faith, and are comparing. them with those of Christianity.

These stirrings, however, of the native mind bear but indirectly upon Christianity. Let us inquire what has been done of late directly towards the MOHAMMEDAN CONTROVERSY. And first it may be stated, that large reprints of Dr. Pfander's treatises, both in Urdoo and Persian, have been published during the last few years. This has been effected by the contributions of the public (to whom an appeal was, not in vain, made in a former number of this Review), and by the ever liberal aid of the noble London Tract Society.

The long threatened work of Pfander's opponent, Syud Ali Hassan,1 made its appearance in A.H. 1261 (A.D. 1845). It contains 806 large octavo pages; and is denominated KITÂB I ISTIFSÂR," or the "BOOK of QUESTIONS." It is written in an easy but desultory style, rambling from one subject to another, with little logical precision or arrangement. The first four "Questions" (46 pp.) are devoted to the refutation of the doctrine of the Trinity. The next ten (137 pp.) attack the genuineness and authority of the Bible. The main argument here is deduced from variations in the different Oriental versions, each variety in the translations being triumphantly adduced as evidence of variety and corruption in the Original! The word of man thus is mingled with the word of God, throughout our Scriptures; and, unlike the Coran, there is no proof that every writer was inspired. There is further no proof of the continued existence of the several

1 See a former Article (No. VIII.), where it is noticed that Ali Hassan "is now printing a work at Lucknow in refutation of Christianity, and in defence of the Coran, at which he has been labouring for fifteen years, and which is, by the way, to contain a full reply to the Mizân as well as the Dîn, Haqq." It was stated in the same article, that this author, as well as Ghulâm Imâm, was an officer in the Sudder Court at Agra. After publishing his book, and holding his controversy with Pfander, he was promoted to the independent post of Moonsif, or native Judge ; a fact which must have satisfactorily proved to his countrymen that, under the Company's government, every man is free to hold, and publicly to maintain, his own religious views, without prejudice to his worldly prosperity or official standing.