CHAPTER X

IN PERSIA--CONTROVERSIES WITH MOHAMMEDANS, SOOFIS, AND JEWS

Henry Martyn's first week in Persia was enough to lead him to use such

language as this: 'If God rained down fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah,

how is it that this nation is not blotted out from under heaven? I do

not remember to have heard such things of the Hindus, except the

Sikhs; they seem to rival the Mohammedans.' The experienced Bengal

civilian, Mr. E. Scott Waring, had thus summed up his impressions:

'The generality of Persians are sunk in the lowest state of profligacy

and infamy, and they seldom hesitate alluding to crimes which are

abhorred and detested in every civilised country in the universe.

Their virtues consist in being most excellent companions, and in

saying this we say everything which can be advanced in their favour.

The same argument cannot be advanced for them which has been urged in

favour of the Greeks, for they have laws which stigmatise the crimes

they commit.' Every generation seems to have departed farther and

farther from the character of the hero-king, Cyrus. At the present

time, after two visits to Europe by their Shah, the governing class,

the priestly order of Moojtahids, and the people seem to be more

hopelessly corrupt than ever.[54]

So early as the twelfth century the astronomer-poet of Persia, Omar

Khayyam, of Naishapur, in his few hundred tetrastichs of exquisite

verse which have ever since won the admiration of the world, struck

the note of dreary scepticism and epicurean sensuality, as the Roman

Lucretius had done. His age was one of spiritual darkness, when men

felt their misery, and all the more that they saw no means of

relieving it. The purer creed of Zoroaster had been stamped down but

not rooted out by the illiterate Arab hordes of Mohammed. A cultured

Aryan race could not accept submissively the ignorant fanaticism of

the Semitic sons of the desert. The Arabs destroyed or drove out

ultimately to India the fire-worshippers who had courage to prefer

their faith to the Koran; the mass of the people and their leaders

worked out the superficial Mohammedanism identified with the name and

the sufferings of Ali. The new national religion became more and more

a falsehood, alike misrepresenting the moral facts and the character

and claims of God, and not really believed in by the general

conscience. The few who from time to time arose endowed with spiritual

fervour or poetic fire, found no vent through the popular religion,

and no satisfaction for the aching void of the heart. The loftier

natures ran by an inevitable law of the human mind either into such

self-indulgent despairing scepticism as Omar Khayyam's, or into the

sensual mysticism of Sadi, Jami, and Hafiz, of the whole tribe of

ascetic enthusiasts and impostors, the Soofis, fakeers, and durweshes,

who fill the world of Islam, from the mosques on the Bosporus to the

secret chambers of Persia and Oudh. To all such we may use one of the

few rare tetrastichs which Omar Khayyam was compelled by his higher

nature to write:[55]

O heart! wert thou pure from the body's dust,

Thou shouldest soar naked spirit above the sky;

Highest heaven is thy native seat--for shame, for shame,

That thou shouldest stoop to dwell in a city of clay!

We must remember all this when we come to the disputations of Henry

Martyn with the doctors of Shiraz and Persia. They, and some fifteen

millions out of the hundred and eighty millions of Islam in the world,

are Shi'ahs, or 'followers' of Ali, whom, as Mohammed's first cousin

and son-in-law, they accept as his first legitimate imam, kaliph, or

successor; while they treat the _de facto_ kaliphs of the Soonni

Muslims--Abu Bakr, Omar, and Othman--as usurpers. The Persians are in

reality more tolerant of the Christians, the Jews, and even the Majusi

(Magi), or fire-worshippers, all of whom are people of the Book who have

received an inspired revelation, than of their Soonni co-religionists.

The people--though not of course their ruler, who is of Turkish

origin--are more tolerant of new sects, such as that of Babism, and even

their spiritual guides or the more respectable among these are in

expectation of a new leader, the twelfth, the Imam-al-Mahdi, who has

once before been manifested, and has long been waiting secretly for the

final consummation.

We must also realise the extent to which Soofi-ism had saturated the

upper classes and the Moojtahid order, who sought out Henry Martyn,

and even recognised in him the Divine drunkenness, so that they

always treated him and spoke of him as a _merdi khodai_, a man of God.

The first Soofi--a name taken either from the word for the woollen

dress of the Asiatic or from that for purity--was Ali, according to

the Shi'ahs; but this form of philosophical mysticism, often attended

by carnal excesses through which its devotees express themselves, is

rather Hindu in its origin. The deepest thought of the Asiatic,

without the revelation of Jesus Christ, is for Brahman and Buddhist,

Sikh and Soofi, Hindu and Mohammedan, this absorption into the Divine

Essence, so as to lose all personality and individual consciousness.

That Essence may be the sum total of all things--the materialistic

side; or the spirit underlying matter, the idealistic side, but the

loss of individuality is the ultimate aim. But such absorption can be

finally reached only by works--asceticism, pilgrimage, almsgiving,

meditation--and by cycles of trans-migrations to sublimate the soul

for unconsciousness of all that is objective, and of self itself.

Hafiz is as full of wine and women in his poems as Anacreon or the

worst of the Latin erotic poets; but the Soofis, who revel in his

verses, maintain that they 'profess eager desire with no carnal

affection, and circulate the cup, but no material goblet, since all

things are spiritual in their sect; all is mystery within mystery.'

What Henry Martyn learned to find, in even his brief experience of the

Aryan Shi'ahs, to whom he offered the love of Christ and through the

Son a personal union with the Father, is best expressed in this

description by the most recent skilled writer on the people, before

referred to:

Persia is the one purely Mohammedan country which, in the

process of a national revolt against the rigid hide-bound

orthodoxy of Islam, has only succeeded in wrapping more closely

round its national and political life the encircling folds of

that 'manteau commode, sous lequel s'abrite, en se cachant à

peine, tout le passé.' Under the extravagances and fanaticism of

the Shi'ah heresy, the old Zoroastrian faith lives on,

transformed into an outward conformity to the forms of the

Moslem creed, and the product is that grotesque confusion of

faith and fanaticism, mysticism and immorality, rationalism and

superstition, which is the despair and astonishment of all who

have looked beneath the surface of ordinary everyday life in

Persia. Soofi-ism, with its profound mysticism and godless

doctrine, has found a congenial home in Persia, often, indeed,

blossoming into beautiful literary form such as is found in the

_Rubaiyāt_ of Omar Khayyam, or in the delightful pages of the

_Gulistan_ of Sheikh Sadi, or in the poems of Hafiz.

Soofi-ism is the illegitimate offspring of scepticism and fanaticism.

It is tersely described by one Persian writer as 'a sensual plunging

into the abyss of darkness'; by another as 'a deadly abomination'; and

by a third as 'the part of one who goes raving mad with unlawful

lusts.' Nevertheless, as Professor Kuenen has well observed, the true

Soofi is a Moslem no more.

All Martyn's experience among the Wahabees of Patna and the Shi'ahs of

Lucknow had fitted him for the discussions which were almost forced

upon him in Persia, for he went there to translate the New Testament

afresh. But he had, in his reading, sought to prepare himself for the

Mohammedan controversy. When coasting round India, he made this entry

in his _Journal_: '_1811, January 28._--Making extracts from Maracci's

_Refutation of Koran_. Felt much false shame at being obliged to

confess my ignorance of many things which I ought to have known.'

Soofi-ism met him the day after he reached Shiraz, on the first visit

of Seyd Ali, brother-in-law of his host, Jaffir Ali Khan. Thus:

_June 10._--He spoke so indistinctly, and with such volubility,

that I did not well comprehend him, but gathered from his

discourse that we are all parts of the Deity. I observed that we

had not these opinions in Europe, but understood that they were

parts of the Brahmanic system. On my asking him for the

foundation of his opinions, he said the first argument he was

prepared to bring forward was this: God exists, man also exists,

but existence is not twofold, therefore God and man are of the

same nature. The minor I disputed: he defended it with many

words. I replied by objecting the consequences, Is there no

difference between right and wrong? There appeared a difference,

he said, to us, but before God it was nothing. The waves of the

sea are so many aspects and forms, but it is still but one and

the same water. In the outset he spoke with great contempt of

all revelation. 'You know,' said he, 'that in the law and Koran,

etc., it is said, God _created heaven_ and the _earth_,' etc.

Reverting to this, I asked whether these opinions were agreeable

to what the prophets had spoken. Perceiving me to be not quite

philosophical enough for him, he pretended some little reverence

for them, spoke of them as good men, etc., but added that there

was no evidence for their truth but what was traditionary. I

asked whether there was anything unreasonable in God's making a

revelation of His will. He said, No. Whether a miracle for that

purpose was not necessary, at least useful, and therefore

credible? He granted it. Was not evidence from testimony

rational evidence? Yes. Have you then rational evidence for the

religion of Mohammed? He said the division of the moon was

generally brought forward, but he saw no sufficient evidence for

believing it; he mentioned the Koran with some hesitation, as

if conscious that it would not stand as a miracle. I said

eloquence depended upon opinion; it was no miracle for any but

Arabs, and that some one may yet rise up and write better. He

allowed the force of the objection, and said the Persians were

very far from thinking the eloquence of the Koran miraculous,

however the Arabs might think so. The last observation he made

was, that it was impossible not to think well of one by whose

example and instructions others had become great and good;

though therefore little was known of Mohammed, he must have been

something to have formed such men as Ali. Here the conversation

ceased. I told them in the course of our conversation that,

according to our histories, the law and Gospel had been

translated into Persian before the time of Mohammed. He said

they were not to be found, because Omar in his ignorant zeal had

probably destroyed them. He spoke with great contempt of the

'Arab asses.'

_June 13._--Seyd Ali breakfasted with us. Looking at one of the

plates in Hutton's _Mathematical Dictionary_, where there was a

figure of a fountain produced by the rarefaction of the air, he

inquired into the principle of it, which I explained; he

disputed the principle, and argued for the exploded idea that

nature abhors a vacuum. We soon got upon religion again. I

showed him some verses in the Koran in which Mohammed disclaims

the power of working miracles. He could not reply. We talked

again on the evidence of testimony. The oldest book written by a

Mohammedan was the sermons of Ali. Allowing these sermons to be

really his, I objected to his testimony for Mohammed, because he

was interested in the support of that religion. I asked him the

meaning of a contested passage; he gave the usual explanation;

but as soon as the servants were gone he turned round and said,

'It is only to make a rhyme.' This conversation seemed to be

attended with good. Our amiable host, Jaffir Ali, Mirza Jan, and

Seyd Ali seemed to be delighted with my arguments against

Mohammedanism, and did not at last evince a wish to defend it.

In the evening Jaffir Ali came and talked most agreeably on

religious subjects, respecting the obvious tendency of piety and

impiety, and the end to which they would lead in a future world.

One of his remarks was, 'If I am in love with any one, I shall

dream of her at night; her image will meet me in my sleep. Now

death is but a sleep; if therefore I love God, or Christ, when I

fall asleep in death I shall meet Him, so also if I love Satan

or his works.' He could wish, he said, if he had not a wife and

children, to go and live on the top of a mountain, so disgusted

was he with the world and its concerns. I told him this was the

first suggestion in the minds of devotees in all religions, but

that in reality it was not the way to escape the pollution of

the world, because a man's wicked heart will go with him to the

top of a mountain. It is the grace of God changing the heart

which will alone raise us above the world. Christ commands His

people to 'abide in Him'; this is the secret source of

fruitfulness, without which they are as branches cut off from

the tree. He asked whether there was no mention of a prophet's

coming after Christ. I said, No. 'Why then,' said he, 'was any

mention made of Ahmed in the Koran?' He said, 'One day an

English gentleman said to me, "I believe that Christ was no

better than myself." "Why then," said I, "you are worse than a

Mohammedan."'

_June 24._--Went early this morning to the Jewish synagogue with

Jaffir Ali Khan. At the sight of a Mohammedan of such rank, the

chief person stopped the service and came to the door to bring

us in. He then showed us the little room where the copies of the

law were kept. He said there were no old ones but at Baghdad and

Jerusalem; he had a printed copy with the Targum, printed at

Leghorn. The only European letters in it were the words 'con

approbazione,' of which he was anxious to know the meaning. The

congregation consisted chiefly of little boys, most of whom had

the Psalter. I felt much distressed that the worship of the God

of Israel was not there, and therefore I did not ask many

questions. When he found I could read Hebrew, he was very

curious to know who I might be, and asked my name. I told him

Abdool Museeh, in hopes that he would ask more, but he did not,

setting me down, I suppose, as a Mohammedan.

_June 25._--Every day I hear stories of these bloody Tartars.

They allow no Christian, not even a Soonni, to enter their

country, except in very particular cases, such as merchants with

a pass; but never allow one to return to Persia if they catch

him. They argue, 'If we suffer this creature to go back, he will

become the father of other infidels, and thus infidelity will

spread: so, for the sake of God and His prophet, let us kill

him.' About 150 years ago the men of Bokhara made an insidious

attempt to obtain a confession from the people of Mushed that

they were Shi'ahs. Their moulvies begged to know what evidence

they had for the Khaliphat of Ali. But the men of Mushed, aware

of their purpose, said, 'We Shi'ahs! no, we acknowledge thee for

friends.' But the moollahs of Bokhara were not satisfied with

this confession, and three of them deliberated together on what

ought to be done. One said: 'It is all hypocrisy; they must be

killed.' The other said: 'No, if all be killed we shall kill

some Soonnis.' The third said: 'If any can prove that their

ancestors have ever been Soonnis they shall be saved, but not

else.' Another rejoined that, from being so long with Shi'ahs,

their faith could not be pure, and so it was better to kill

them. To this another agreed, observing that though it was no

sin before men to let them live, he who spared them must be

answerable for it to God. When the three bloody inquisitors had

determined on the destruction of the Shi'ah city, they gave the

signal, and 150,000 Tartars marched down and put all to the

sword.

_June 26._--We were to-day, according to our expectation, just

about setting off for Ispahan, when, Mirza Ibrahim returning,

gave us information that the Tartars and Koords had made an

irruption into Persia, and that the whole Persian army was on

its march to Kermanshah to meet them. Thus our road is

impassable. I wrote instantly to the ambassador, to know what he

would advise, and the minister sent off an express with it.

Mirza Ibrahim, after reading my answer, had nothing to reply,

but made such a remark as I did not expect from a man of his

character, namely, that _he_ was sufficiently satisfied the

Koran was a miracle, though he had failed to convince me. Thus

my labour is lost, except it be with the Lord. I have now lost

all hope of ever convincing Mohammedans by argument. The most

rational, learned, unprejudiced, charitable men confessedly in

the whole town cannot escape from the delusion. I know not what

to do but to pray for them. I had some warm conversation with

Seyd Ali on his infidelity. I asked him what he wanted. Was

there any one thing on earth, of the same antiquity, as well

attested as the miracles, etc., of Christianity? He confessed

not, but he did not know the reason he could not believe:

perhaps it was levity and the love of the world, or the power of

Satan, but he had no faith at all. He could not believe even in

a future state. He asked at the end, 'Why all this earnestness?'

I said, 'For fear you should remain in hell for ever.' He was

affected, and said no more.

_June 27._--The Prime Minister sent me, as a present, four

mules-load of melons from Kaziroon. Seyd Ali reading the 2nd

chapter of St. Matthew, where the star is said to go before the

wise men, asked: 'Then what do you say to that, after what you

were proving yesterday about the stars?' I said: 'It was not

necessary to suppose it was one of those heavenly bodies; any

meteor that had the appearance of a star was sufficient for the

purpose, and equally miraculous.' 'Then why call it a star?'

'Because the magi called it so, for this account was undoubtedly

received from them. Philosophers still talk of a falling star,

though every one knows that it is not a star.'

_September 2_ to _6_.--At Mirza Ibrahim's request we are

employed in making out a proof of the Divine mission of Moses

and Jesus. He fancies that my arguments against Mohammedanism

are equally applicable against these two, and that as I

triumphed when acting on the offensive, I shall be as weak as he

when I act on the defensive.

_September 7_ to _11_.--Employed much the same; daily disputes

with Jaffir Ali Khan about the Trinity; if they may be called

disputes in which I bring forward no arguments, but calmly refer

them to the Holy Scriptures. They distress and perplex

themselves without measure, and I enjoy a peace, as respects

these matters, which passeth understanding. There is no passage

that so frequently occurs to me now as this: 'They shall be all

taught of God, and great shall be the peace of thy children.' I

have this testimony that I have been taught of God.

_1812, January 19._--Aga Baba coming in while we were

translating, Mirza Seyd Ali told him he had been all the day

decrying the law. It is a favourite tenet of the Soofis, that we

should be subject to no law. Aga Baba said that if Christ, while

He removed the old law, had also forborne to bring in His new

way, He would have done still better. I was surprised as well as

shocked at such a remark from him, but said nothing. The poor

man, not knowing how to exist without amusement, then turned to

a game at chess. How pitiable is the state of fallen man!

Wretched, and yet he will not listen to any proposals of relief:

stupidly ignorant, yet too wise to submit to learn anything from

God. I have often wondered to see how the merest dunce thinks

himself qualified to condemn and ridicule revealed religion.

These Soofis pretend too to be latitudinarians, assigning

idolaters the same rank as others in nearness to God, yet they

have all in their turn spoken contemptuously of the Gospel.

Perhaps because it is so decisively exclusive. I begin now to

have some notion of Soofi-ism. The principle is this:

Notwithstanding the good and evil, pleasure and pain that is in

the world, God is not affected by it. He is perfectly happy with

it all; if therefore we can become like God we shall also be

perfectly happy in every possible condition. This, therefore, is

salvation.

_January 21._--Aga Boozong, the most magisterial of the Soofis,

stayed most of the day with Mirza Seyd Ali and Jaffir Ali Khan

in my room. His speech as usual--all things are only so many

forms of God; paint as many figures as you will on a wall, it is

still but the same wall. Tired of constantly hearing this same

vapid truism, I asked him, 'What then? With the reality of

things we have nothing to do, as we know nothing about them.'

These forms, if he will have it that they are but forms, affect

us with pleasure and pain, just as if they were more real. He

said we were at present in a dream; in a dream we think

visionary things real--when we wake we discover the delusion. I

asked him how did he know but that this dream might continue for

ever. But he was not at all disposed to answer objections, and

was rather vexed at my proposing them. So I let him alone to

dissent as he pleased. Mirza Seyd Ali read him some verses of

St. Paul, which he condescended to praise, but in such a way as

to be more offensive to me than if he had treated it with

contempt. He repeated again how much he was pleased with the

sentiments of Paul, as if his being pleased with them would be a

matter of exultation to me. He said they were excellent precepts

for the people of the world. The parts Mirza Seyd Ali read were

Titus iii. and Hebrews viii. On the latter Mirza Seyd Ali

observed that he (Paul) had not written ill, but something like

a good reasoner. Thus they sit in judgment on God's Word, never

dreaming that they are to be judged by it. On the contrary, they

regard the best parts, as they call them, as approaching only

towards the heights of Soofi-ism. Aga Boozong finally observed

that as for the Gospels he had not seen much in them, but the

Epistles he was persuaded would make the book soon well known.

There is another circumstance that gained Paul importance in the

eyes of Mirza Seyd Ali, which is, that he speaks of Mark and

Luke as his servants.

_January 24._--Found Seyd Ali rather serious this evening. He

said he did not know what to do to have his mind made up about

religion. Of all the religions Christ's was the best, but

whether to prefer this to Soofi-ism he could not tell. In these

doubts he was tossed to and fro, and is often kept awake the

whole night in tears. He and his brother talk together on these

things till they are almost crazed. Before he was engaged in

this work of translation, he says, he used to read about two or

three hours a day; now he can do nothing else; has no

inclination for anything else, and feels unhappy if he does not

correct his daily portion. His late employment has given a new

turn to his thoughts as well as to those of his friends; they

had not the most distant conception of the contents of the New

Testament. He says his Soofi friends are exceedingly anxious to

see the Epistles, from the accounts he gives of them, and also

he is sure that almost the whole of Shiraz are so sensible of

the load of unmeaning ceremonies in which their religion

consists, that they will rejoice to see or hear of anything like

freedom, and that they would be more willing to embrace Christ

than the Soofis, who, after taking so much pains to be

independent of all law, would think it degrading to submit

themselves to any law again, however light.

_February 4._--Mirza Seyd Ali, who has been enjoying himself in

idleness and dissipation these two days instead of translating,

returned full of evil and opposition to the Gospel. While

translating 2 Peter iii., 'Scoffers ... saying, Where is the

promise of his coming?' he began to ask 'Well, they are in the

right; where are any of His promises fulfilled?' I said the

heathen nations have been given to Christ for an inheritance.

He said No; it might be more truly said that they are given to

Mohammed, for what are the Christian nations compared with

Arabia, Persia, India, Tartary, etc.? I set in opposition all

Europe, Russia, Armenia, and the Christians in the Mohammedan

countries. He added, at one time when the Abbasides carried

their arms to Spain, the Christian name was almost extinct. I

rejoined, however, that he was not yet come to the end of

things, that Mohammedanism was in itself rather a species of

heretical Christianity, for many professing Christians denied

the Divinity of our Lord, and treated the Atonement as a fable.

'They do right,' said he; 'it is contrary to reason that one

person should be an atonement for all the rest. How do you prove

it? it is nowhere said in the Gospels. Christ said He was sent

only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' I urged the

authority of the Apostles, founded upon His word, 'Whatsoever ye

shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye

shall loose on earth,' etc. 'Why, what are we to think of them,'

said he, 'when we see Paul and Barnabas quarrelling; Peter

acting the hypocrite, sometimes eating with the Gentiles, and

then withdrawing from fear; and again, all the Apostles, not

knowing what to do about the circumcision of the Gentiles, and

disputing among themselves about it?' I answered, 'The

infirmities of the Apostles have nothing to do with their

authority. It is not everything they do that we are commanded to

imitate, nor everything they might say in private, if we knew

it, that we are obliged to attend to, but the commands they

leave for the Church; and here there is no difference among

them. As for the discussions about circumcision, it does not at

all appear that the Apostles themselves were divided in their

opinions about it; the difficulty seems to have been started by

those believers who had been Pharisees.' 'Can you give me a

proof,' said he, 'of Christianity, that I may either believe, or

be left without excuse if I do not believe--a proof like that of

one of the theorems of Euclid?' I said it is not to be

expected, but enough may be shown to leave every man

inexcusable. 'Well,' said he, 'though this is only probability,

I shall be glad of that.' 'As soon as our Testament is

finished,' I replied, 'we will, if you please, set about our

third treatise, in which, if I fail to convince you, I can at

least state the reasons why I believed.' 'You had better,' said

he, 'begin with Soofi-ism, and show that that is

absurd'--meaning, I suppose, that I should premise something

about the _necessity_ of revelation. After a little pause, 'I

suppose,' said he, 'you think it sinful to sport with the

characters of those holy men?' I said I had no objection to hear

all their objections and sentiments, but I could not bear

anything spoken disrespectfully of the Lord Jesus; 'and yet

there is not one of your Soofis,' I added, 'but has said

something against Him. Even your master, Mirza Abul Kasim,

though he knows nothing of the Gospel or law, and has not even

seen them, presumed to say that Moses, Christ, Mohammed, etc.,

were all alike. I did not act in this way. In India I made every

inquiry, both about Hinduism and Mohammedanism. I read the Koran

through twice. On my first arrival here I made it my business to

ask for your proofs, so that if I condemned and rejected it, it

was not without consideration. Your master, therefore, spoke

rather precipitately.' He did not attempt to defend him, but

said, 'You never heard _me_ speak lightly of Jesus.' 'No; there

is something so awfully pure about Him that nothing is to be

said.'

_March 18._--Sat a good part of the day with Abul Kasim, the

Soofi sage, Mirza Seyd Ali, and Aga Mohammed Hasan, who begins

to be a disciple of the old man's. On my expressing a wish to

see the Indian book, it was proposed to send for it, which they

did, and then read it aloud. The stoicism of it I controverted,

and said that the entire annihilation of the passions, which the

stupid Brahman described as perfection, was absurd. On my

continuing to treat other parts of the book with contempt, the

old man was a little roused, and said that this was the way that

pleased them, and my way pleased me. That thus God provided

something for the tastes of all, and as the master of a feast

provides a great variety, some eat _pilao_, others prefer

_kubab_, etc. On my again remarking afterwards how useless all

these descriptions of perfection were, since no rules were given

for attaining it, the old man asked what in my opinion was the

way. I said we all agreed in one point, namely, that union with

God was perfection; that in order to that we must receive the

Spirit of God, which Spirit was promised on condition of

believing in Jesus. There was a good deal of disputing about

Jesus, His being exclusively the visible God. Nothing came of it

apparently, but that Mirza Seyd Ali afterwards said, 'There is

no getting at anything like truth or certainty. We know nothing

at all; you are in the right, who simply believe because Jesus

had said so.'

_March 22._--These two days I have been thinking from morning to

night about the Incarnation; considering if I could represent it

in such a way as to obviate in any degree the prejudices of the

Mohammedans; not that I wished to make it appear altogether

agreeable to reason, but I wanted to give a consistent account

of the nature and uses of this doctrine, as they are found in

the different parts of the Holy Scriptures. One thing implied

another to such an extent that I thought necessarily of the

nature of life, death, spirit, soul, animal nature, state of

separate spirits, personality, the person of Christ, etc., that

I was quite worn out with fruitless thought. Towards evening

Carapiet with another Armenian came and conversed on several

points of theology, such as whether the fire of hell were

literally fire or only remorse, whether the Spirit proceeded

from the Father and the Son, or from the Father only, and how we

are to reconcile those two texts, that 'for every idle word that

men shall speak,' etc., with the promises of salvation through

faith? Happening to speak in praise of some person who practised

needless austerities, I tried to make him understand that this

was not the way of the Gospel. He urged these texts--'Blessed

are they that mourn,' 'Blessed are ye that weep now,' etc. While

we were discussing this point, Mohammed Jaffir, who on a former

occasion had conversed with me a good deal about the Gospel,

came in. I told him the question before us was an important one,

namely, how the love of sin was to be got out of the heart. The

Armenian proceeded, 'If I wish to go to a dancing or drinking, I

must deny myself.' Whether he meant to say that this was

sufficient I do not know, but the Mohammedan understanding him

so, replied that he had read yesterday in the Gospel, 'that

whosoever looketh upon a woman,' etc., from which he inferred

that obedience of the heart was requisite. This he expressed

with such propriety and gracefulness, that, added to the

circumstance of his having been reading the Gospel, I was quite

delighted, and thought with pleasure of the day when the Gospel

should be preached by Persians. After the Armenians were gone we

considered the doctrines of the Soofis a little. Finding me not

much averse to what he thought some of their most exceptionable

tenets, such as union with God, he brought this argument: 'You

will allow that God cannot bind, compel, command Himself.' 'No,

He cannot.' 'Well, if we are one with God, we cannot be subject

to any of His laws.' I replied: 'Our union with God is such an

union as exists between the members of a body. Notwithstanding

the union of the hand with the heart and head, it is still

subject to the influence and control of the ruling power in the

person.' We had a great deal of conversation afterwards on the

Incarnation. All his Mohammedan prejudices revolted. 'Sir, what

do you talk of? the self-existent become contained in space, and

suffer need!' I told him that it was the manhood of Christ that

suffered need, and as for the essence of the Deity, if he would

tell me anything about it, where or how it was, I would tell

him how the Godhead was in Christ. After an effort or two he

found that every term he used implied our frightful doctrine,

namely, personality, locality, etc. This is a thought that is

now much in my mind--that it is so ordered that, since men never

can speak of God but through the medium of language, which is

all material, nor think of God but through the medium of

material objects, they do unwillingly come to God through the

Word, and think of God by means of an Incarnation.

_March 28._--The same person came again, and we talked

incessantly for four hours upon the evidences of the two

religions, the Trinity, Incarnation, etc., until I was quite

exhausted, and felt the pain in my breast which I used to have

in India.

_April 7._--Observing a party of ten or a dozen poor Jews with

their priest in the garden, I attacked them, and disputed a

little with the Levite on Psalms ii., xvi. and xxiv. They were

utterly unacquainted with Jesus, and were surprised at what I

told them of His Resurrection and Ascension. The priest abruptly

broke off the conversation, told me he would call and talk with

me in my room, and carried away his flock. Reading afterwards

the story of Joseph and his brethren, I was much struck with the

exact correspondence between the type and antitype. Jesus will

at last make Himself known to His brethren, and then they will

find that they have been unknowingly worshipping Him while

worshipping the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel.

_April 8._--The Prince dining to-day at a house on the side of a

hill, which commands a view of the town, issued an order for all

the inhabitants to exhibit fireworks for his amusement, or at

least to make bonfires on the roofs of their houses, under

penalty of five tomans in case of neglect. Accordingly fire was

flaming in all directions, enough to have laid any city in

Europe in ashes. One man fell off a roof and was killed, and two

others in the same way were so hurt that their lives were

despaired of, and a woman lost an eye by the stick of a

sky-rocket.

_July 9._--Made an extraordinary effort, and as a Tartar was

going off instantly to Constantinople, wrote letters to Mr.

Grant for permission to come to England, and to Mr. Simeon and

Lydia, informing them of it; but I have scarcely the remotest

expectation of seeing it, except by looking at the Almighty

power of God.

Dined at night at the ambassador's, who said he was determined

to give every possible _éclat_ to my book, by presenting it

himself to the King. My fever never ceased to rage till the

21st, during all which time every effort was made to subdue it,

till I had lost all my strength and almost all my reason. They

now administer bark, and it may please God to bless the tonics;

but I seem too far gone, and can only say, 'Having a desire to

depart and be with Christ, which is far better.'

TO REV. D. CORRIE

Shiraz: September 12, 1811.

Dearest Brother,--I can hardly conceive, or at least am not

willing to believe, that you would forget me six successive

months; I conclude, therefore, that you must have written,

though I have not seen your handwriting since I left Calcutta.

The Persian translation goes on but slowly. I and my translator

have been engaged in a controversy with his uncle, which has

left us little leisure for anything else. As there is nothing at

all in this dull place to take the attention of the people, no

trade, manufactures, or news, every event at all novel is

interesting to them. You may conceive, therefore, what a strong

sensation was produced by the stab I aimed at the vitals of

Mohammed. Before five people had seen what I wrote, defences of

Islam swarmed into ephemeral being from all the moulvi maggots

of the place, but the more judicious men were ashamed to let me

see them. One moollah, called Aga Akbar, was determined to

distinguish himself. He wrote with great acrimony on the margin

of my pamphlet, but passion had blinded his reason, so that he

smote the wind. One day I was on a visit of ceremony to the

Prime Minister, and sitting in great state by his side, fifty

visitors in the same hall, and five hundred clients without,

when who should make his appearance but my tetric adversary, the

said Aga Akbar, who came for the express purpose of presenting

the Minister with a piece he had composed in defence of the

prophet, and then sitting down told me he should present me with

a copy that day. 'There are four answers,' said he, 'to your

objection against his using the sword.' 'Very well,' said I, 'I

shall be glad to see them, though I made no such objection.'

Eager to display his attainments in all branches of science, he

proceeded to call in question the truth of our European

philosophy, and commanded me to show that the earth moved, and

not the sun. I told him that in matters of religion, where the

salvation of men was concerned, I would give up nothing to them,

but as for points in philosophy they might have it all their own

way. This was not what he wanted; so after looking at the

Minister, to know if it was not a breach of good manners to

dispute at such a time, and finding that there was nothing

contrary to custom, but that, on the contrary, he rather

expected an answer, I began, but soon found that he could

comprehend nothing without diagrams. A moonshi in waiting was

ordered to produce his implements, so there was I, drawing

figures, while hundreds of men were looking on in silence.

But all my trouble was in vain--the moollah knew nothing

whatever of mathematics, and therefore could not understand my

proofs. The Persians are far more curious and clever than the

Indians. Wherever I go they ask me questions in philosophy, and

are astonished that I do not know everything. One asked me the

reason of the properties of the magnet. I told him I knew

nothing about it. 'But what do your learned men say?' '_They_

know nothing about it.' This he did not at all credit.

I do not find myself improving in Persian; indeed, I take no

pains to speak it well, not perceiving it to be of much

consequence. India is the land where we can act at present with

most effect. It is true that the Persians are more susceptible,

but the terrors of an inquisition are always hanging over them.

I can now conceive no greater happiness than to be settled for

life in India, superintending native schools, as we did at Patna

and Chunar. To preach so as to be readily understood by the poor

is a difficulty that appears to me almost insuperable, besides

that grown-up people are seldom converted. However, why should

we despair? If I live to see India again, I shall set to and

learn Hindi in order to preach. The day may come when even our

word may be with the Holy Ghost and with power. It is now almost

a year since I left Cawnpore, and my journey is but beginning:

when shall I ever get back again? I am often tempted to get away

from this prison, but again I recollect that some years hence I

shall say: 'When I was at Shiraz why did not I get the New

Testament done? What difference would a few months have made?'

In August I passed some days at a vineyard, about a parasang

from the city, where my host pitched a tent for me, but it was

so cold at night that I was glad to get back to the city again.

Though I occupy a room in his house, I provide for myself.

Victuals are cheap enough, especially fruit; the grapes, pears,

and water-melons are delicious; indeed, such a country for fruit

I had no conception of. I have a fine horse which I bought for

less than a hundred rupees, on which I ride every morning round

the walls. My vain servant, Zechariah, anxious that his master

should appear like an ameer, furnished him (_i.e._ the horse)

with a saddle, or rather a pillion, which fairly covers his

whole back; it has all the colours of the rainbow, but yellow is

predominant, and from it hang down four large tassels, also

yellow. But all my finery does not defend me from the boys. Some

cry out, 'Ho, Russ!' others cry out, 'Feringhi!' One day a

brickbat was flung at me, and hit me in the hip with such force

that I felt it quite a providential escape. Most of the day I am

about the translation, sometimes, at a leisure hour, trying at

Isaiah, in order to get help from the Persian Jews. My Hebrew

reveries have quite disappeared, merely for want of leisure. I

forgot to say that I have been to visit the ruins of Persepolis,

but this, with many other things, must be reserved for a hot

afternoon at Cawnpore.

What would I give for a few lines from you, to say how the men

come on, and whether their numbers are increasing, whether you

meet the Sherwoods at the evening repast, as when I was there!

My kindest love to them, your sister, and all that love us in

the truth. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your

spirit, and with your faithful and affectionate brother,

H. MARTYN.

The Secretary to the British Embassy to Persia, and afterwards himself

Minister Plenipotentiary to its Court, Mr. James Morier, has given us

a notable sketch of Henry Martyn as a controversialist for Christ, and

of the impression that he made on the officials, priests, and people

of all classes. As the author of the _Adventures of Hajji Baba of

Ispahan_ and other life-like tales of the East, and as an accomplished

traveller, the father of the present Ambassador to St. Petersburg is

the first authority on such a subject. In his _Second Journey through

Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor to Constantinople_[56] he thus writes:

The Persians, who were struck with his humility, his patience

and resignation, called him a _merdi khodai_, a man of God, and

indeed every action of his life seemed to be bent towards the

one object of advancing the interest of the Christian religion.

When he was living at Shiraz, employed in his translation, he

neither sought nor shunned the society of the natives, many of

whom constantly drew him into arguments about religion, with the

intention of persuading him of the truth and excellence of

theirs. His answers were such as to stimulate them to further

arguments, and in spite of their pride the principal moollahs,

who had heard of his reputation, paid him the first visit, and

endeavoured in every way to entangle him in his talk. At length

he thought that the best mode of silencing them was by writing a

reply to the arguments which they brought against our belief and

in favour of their own. His tract was circulated through

different parts of Persia, and was sent from hand to hand to be

answered. At length it made its way to the King's court, and a

moollah of high consideration, who resided at Hamadan, and who

was esteemed one of the best controversialists in the country,

was ordered to answer it. After the lapse of more than a year he

did answer it, but such were the strong positions taken by Mr.

Martyn that the Persians themselves were ashamed of the futility

of their own attempts to break them down: for, after they had

sent their answer to the ambassador, they requested that it

might be returned to them again, as another answer was preparing

to be given. Such answer has never yet been given; and we may

infer from this circumstance that if, in addition to the

Scriptures, some plain treatises of the evidences of

Christianity, accompanied by strictures upon the falseness of

the doctrines of Mohammed, were translated into Persian and

disseminated throughout that country, very favourable effects

would be produced. Mr. Martyn caused a copy of his translation

to be beautifully written, and to be presented by the ambassador

to the King, who was pleased to receive it very graciously. A

copy of it was made by Mirza Baba, a Persian who gave us lessons

in the Persian language, and he said that many of his countrymen

asked his permission to take Mr. Martyn's translation to their

homes, where they kept it for several days, and expressed

themselves much edified by its contents. But whilst he was

employed in copying it, moollahs (the Persian scribes) used

frequently to sit with him and revile him for undertaking such a

work. On reading the passage where our Saviour is called 'the

Lamb of God,' they scorned and ridiculed the simile, as if

exulting in the superior designation of Ali, who is called

_Sheer_ Khodai, the Lion of God. Mirza Baba observed to them:

'The lion is an unclean beast; it preys upon carcases, and you

are not allowed to wear its skin because it is impure; it is

destructive, fierce, and man's enemy. The lamb, on the contrary,

is in every way _halal_ or lawful. You eat its flesh, you wear

its skin on your head, it does no harm, and is an animal

beloved. Whether is it best, then, to say the Lamb of God, or

the Lion of God?'

Henry Martyn had not been two months in Shiraz when, as his attendant

expressed it, he became the town-talk. The populace believed that he

had come to declare himself a Mussulman, and would then bring five

thousand men to the city and take possession of it. Dissatisfied with

their own government, many Mohammedans began to desire English rule,

such as was making India peaceful and prosperous, and as was supposed

to enrich all who enjoyed it. Jewish perverts to Islam crowded to the

garden, where at all times, even on Sunday, the saintly visitor was

accessible. Armenians spoke to him with a freedom they dared not show

in conversation with others. From Baghdad to Busrah, and from Bushire

to Ispahan and even Etchmiatzin, visitors crowded to talk with the

wonderful scholar and holy man. Thus on July 6 he was presented by Sir

Gore Ouseley to the Governor, Prince Abbas Mirza.

Early this morning I went with the ambassador and his suite to

court, wearing, agreeably to custom, a pair of red cloth

stockings, with green high-heeled shoes. When we entered the

great court of the palace a hundred fountains began to play. The

prince appeared at the opposite side, in his talar, or hall of

audience, seated on the ground. Here our first bow was made.

When we came in sight of him we bowed a second time, and entered

the room. He did not rise, nor take notice of any but the

ambassador, with whom he conversed at the distance of the

breadth of the room. Two of his ministers stood in front of the

hall outside; the ambassador's mihmander, and the master of the

ceremonies, within at the door. We sat down in order, in a line

with the ambassador, with our hats on. I never saw a more sweet

and engaging countenance than the prince's; there was such an

appearance of good nature and humility in all his demeanour,

that I could scarcely bring myself to believe that he would be

guilty of anything cruel or tyrannical.

Mahommed Shareef Khan, one of the most renowned of the Persian

generals, having served the present royal family for four

generations, called to see me, out of respect to General

Malcolm. An Armenian priest also, on his way from Busrah to

Ispahan; he was as ignorant as the rest of his brethren. To my

surprise I found that he was of the Latin Church, and read the

service in Latin, though he confessed he knew nothing about the

language.

The first of Henry Martyn's public controversies with the Shi'ah

doctors, as distinguished from the almost daily discussions already

described in his _Journal_, took place in the house of the Moojtahid

of Shiraz on July 15, 1811. The doctrine of Jesus, represented by

such a follower, was beginning so to tell on Shi'ahs and Soofis, ever

eager for something new, that the interference of the first authority

of Islam in all Persia became necessary. Higher than all other

Mohammedan divines, especially among the Shi'ahs, are the three or

four Moojtahids.[57] They must be saintly, learned, and aloof from

worldly ambition. In Persia each acts as an informal and final court

of appeal; he alone dares to temper the tyranny of the Shah by his

influence; his house is a sanctuary for the oppressed; the city of his

habitation is often saved from violence by his presence. This was the

position and the pretension of the man who, having first ascertained

that the English man of God did not want demonstration, but admitted

that the prophets had been sent, invited him to dinner, preliminary to

a conflict. Martyn has left this description of the scene:

About eight o'clock at night we went, and after passing along

many an avenue we entered a fine court, where was a pond, and,

by the side of it, a platform eight feet high, covered with

carpets. Here sat the Moojtahid in state, with a considerable

number of his learned friends--among the rest, I perceived the

Jew. One was at his prayers. I was never more disgusted at the

mockery of this kind of prayer. He went through the evolutions

with great exactness, and pretended to be unmoved at the noise

and chit-chat of persons on each side of him. The Professor

seated Seyd Ali on his right hand, and me on his left.

Everything around bore the appearance of opulence and ease, and

the swarthy obesity of the little personage himself led me to

suppose that he had paid more attention to cooking than to

science. But when he began to speak, I saw reason enough for his

being so much admired. The substance of his speech was flimsy

enough; but he spoke with uncommon fluency and clearness, and

with a manner confident and imposing. He talked for a full hour

about the soul; its being distinct from the body; superior to

the brutes, etc.; about God; His unity, invisibility, and other

obvious and acknowledged truths. After this followed another

discourse. At length, after clearing his way for miles around,

he said that philosophers had proved that a single being could

produce but a single being; that the first thing God had created

was _Wisdom_, a being perfectly one with Him; after that, the

souls of men, and the seventh heaven; and so on till He produced

matter, which is merely passive. He illustrated the theory by

comparing all being to a circle; at one extremity of the

diameter is God, at the opposite extremity of the diameter is

matter, than which nothing in the world is meaner. Rising from

thence, the highest stage of matter is connected with the lowest

stage of vegetation; the highest of the vegetable world with the

lowest of the animal; and so on, till we approach the point from

which all proceeded. 'But,' said he, 'you will observe that,

next to God, something ought to be which is equal to God; for

since it is equally near, it possesses equal dignity. What this

is philosophers are not agreed upon. You,' said he, 'say it is

Christ; but we, that it is the Spirit of the Prophets. All this

is what the philosophers have proved, independently of any

particular religion.' I rather imagined that it was the

invention of some ancient Oriental Christian, to make the

doctrine of the Trinity appear more reasonable. There were a

hundred things in the Professor's harangue that might have been

excepted against, as mere dreams, supported by no evidence; but

I had no inclination to call in question dogmas on the truth or

falsehood of which nothing in religion depended.

He was speaking at one time about the angels, and asserted that

man was superior to them, and that no being greater than man

could be created. Here the Jew reminded me of a passage in the

Bible, quoting something in Hebrew. I was a little surprised,

and was just about to ask where he found anything in the Bible

to support such a doctrine, when the Moojtahid, not thinking it

worth while to pay any attention to what the Jew said, continued

his discourse. At last the Jew grew impatient, and finding an

opportunity of speaking, said to me, 'Why do not you speak? Why

do not you bring forward your objections?' The Professor, at the

close of one of his long speeches, said to me, 'You see how much

there is to be said on these subjects; several visits will be

necessary; we must come to the point by degrees.' Perceiving how

much he dreaded a close discussion, I did not mean to hurry him,

but let him talk on, not expecting we should have anything about

Muhammadanism the first night. But, at the instigation of the

Jew, I said, 'Sir, you see that Abdoolghunee is anxious that you

should say something about Islam.' He was much displeased at

being brought so prematurely to the weak point, but could not

decline accepting so direct a challenge. 'Well,' said he to me,

'I must ask you a few questions. Why do you believe in Christ?'

I replied, 'That is not the question. I am at liberty to say

that I do not believe in any religion; that I am a plain man

seeking the way of salvation; that it was, moreover, quite

unnecessary to prove the truth of Christ to Muhammadans, because

they allowed it.' 'No such thing,' said he; 'the Jesus we

acknowledge is He who was a prophet, a mere servant of God, and

one who bore testimony to Muhammad; not your Jesus, whom you

call God,' said he, with a contemptuous smile. He then

enumerated the persons who had spoken of the miracles of

Muhammad, and told a long story about Salmon the Persian, who

had come to Muhammad. I asked whether this Salmon had written an

account of the miracles he had seen. He confessed that he had

not. 'Nor,' said I, 'have you a single witness to the miracles

of Muhammad.' He then tried to show that, though they had not,

there was still sufficient evidence. 'For,' said he, 'suppose

five hundred persons should say that they heard some particular

thing of a hundred persons who were with Muhammad, would that be

sufficient evidence or not?' 'Whether it be or not,' said I,

'you have no such evidence as that, nor anything like it; but if

you have, as they are something like witnesses, we must proceed

to examine them and see whether their testimony deserves

credit.'

After this the Koran was mentioned; but as the company began to

thin, and the great man had not a sufficient audience before

whom to display his eloquence, the dispute was not so brisk. He

did not indeed seem to think it worth while to notice my

objections. He mentioned a well-known sentence in the Koran as

being inimitable. I produced another sentence, and begged to

know why it was inferior to the Koranic one. He declined saying

why, under pretence that it required such a knowledge of

rhetoric in order to understand his proofs as I probably did not

possess. A scholar afterwards came to Seyd Ali, with twenty

reasons for preferring Muhammad's sentence to mine.

It was midnight when dinner, or rather supper, was brought in:

it was a sullen meal. The great man was silent, and I was

sleepy. Seyd Ali, however, had not had enough. While burying his

hand in the dish of the Professor, he softly mentioned some more

of my objections. He was so vexed that he scarcely answered

anything; but after supper told a very long story, all

reflecting upon me. He described a grand assembly of Christians,

Jews, Guebres, and Sabeans (for they generally do us the honour

of stringing us with the other three), before Imam Ruza. The

Christians were of course defeated and silenced. It was a remark

of the Imam's, in which the Professor acquiesced, that 'it is

quite useless for Muhammadans and Christians to argue together,

as they had different languages and different histories.' To the

last I said nothing; but to the former replied by relating the

fable of the lion and man, which amused Seyd Ali so much that he

laughed out before the great man, and all the way home.

The intervention of the Moojtahid only added to the sensation excited

among all classes by the saintly Feringhi. The Shi'ah doctors had

their second corrective almost ready. They resolved to check the

spirit of inquiry by issuing, eleven days after the Moojtahid's

attempt, a defence of Muhammadanism by Mirza Ibrahim, described as

'the preceptor of all the moollas.'[58] The event has an interest of

its own, apart from Henry Martyn, in the light of a famous controversy

which preceded it, and of spiritually fruitful discussions which

followed it, all in India. Before Henry Martyn in this field of

Christian apologetic was the Portuguese Jesuit, Hieronymo Xavier, and

after him were the Scots missionary, John Wilson of Bombay, and the

German agent of the Church Missionary Society, C.G. Pfander.

Among the representatives of all religions whom the tolerant Akbar

invited to his court at Agra, that out of their teaching he might form

an eclectic cult of his own, was Jerome, the nephew of the famous

Francis Xavier, then at Goa. For Akbar P. Hieronymo Xavier wrote in

Persian two histories, _Christi_ and _S. Petri_. To his successor, the

Emperor Jahangir, in whose suite he was the first European who visited

Kashmir, H. Xavier in the year 1609 dedicated his third Persian book,

entitled _A Mirror showing the Truth_, in which the doctrines of the

Christian religion are discussed, the mysteries of the Gospel

explained, and the vanity of (all) other religions is to be seen. He

has been pronounced by a good authority[59] a man of considerable

ability and energy, but one who trusted more to his own ingenuity than

to the plain and unsophisticated declarations of the Holy Scriptures.

Ludovicus de Dieu, the Dutch scholar, who translated his two first

works into Latin, most fairly describes each on the title-page as

'multis modis contaminata.' Twelve years after, to the third or

controversial treatise of P.H. Xavier an answer was published by 'the

most mean of those who stand in need of the mercy of a bounteous God,

Ahmed ibn Zaín Elábidín Elálooi,' under a title thus translated, _The

Divine Rays in refutation of Christian Error_. To this a rejoinder in

Latin appeared at Rome in 1631, from the pen of Philip Guadagnoli,

Arabic Professor in the Propaganda College there. He calls it _Apologia

pro Christiana Religione_. If we except Raimund Lull's two spiritual

treatises and _Ars Major_, and Pocock's Arabic translation of the _De

Veritate Religionis Christianæ_, which Grotius wrote as a text-book for

the Dutch missionaries in the East Indies, Henry Martyn's was the first

attempt of Reformed Christendom to carry the pure doctrine of Jesus

Christ to the Asiatic races whom the corruptions of Judaism and the

Eastern Churches had blinded into accepting the Koran and all its

consequences.

Mirza Ibrahim's Arabic challenge to the Christian scholar is

pronounced by so competent and fair an authority as Sir William

Muir[60] as made by a man of talent and acuteness, and remarkable for

its freedom from violent and virulent remarks.

This argument chiefly concerns the subject of miracles, which he

accommodates to the Koran. He defines a miracle as an effect

exceeding common experience, accompanied by a prophetic claim

and a challenge to produce the like; and he holds that it may be

produced by particular experience--that is, it may be confined

to any single art, but must be attested by the evidence and

confession of those best skilled in that art. Thus he assumes

the miracles of Moses and Jesus to belong respectively to the

arts of magic and physic, which had severally reached perfection

in the times of these prophets; the evidence of the magicians is

hence deemed sufficient for the miracles of Moses, and that of

the physicians for those of Jesus; but had these miracles

occurred in any other age than that in which those arts

flourished, their proof would have been imperfect, and the

miracles consequently not binding. This extraordinary

doctrine--which Henry Martyn shows to be founded upon an

inadequate knowledge of history--he proceeds to apply to the

Koran, and proves entirely to his own satisfaction that it

fulfils all the required conditions. This miracle belonged to

the science of eloquence, and in that science the Arabs were

perfect adepts. The Koran was accompanied by a challenge, and

when they accordingly professed their inability to produce an

equal, their evidence, like that of the magicians' and

physicians', became universally binding. He likewise dilates

upon the superior and perpetual nature of the Koran as an

intellectual and a _lasting_ miracle, which will remain

unaltered when all others are forgotten. He touches slightly on

Mohammed's other miracles, and asserts the insufficiency of

proof (except through the Koran) for those of all former

prophets.

To this, which was accompanied by a treatise on the miracles of

Mohammed by Aga Akbar, Henry Martyn wrote a reply in three parts. In

what spirit he conducted the controversy, and what influence through

him the Spirit of Christ had on some of the Shi'ahs and Soofis, this

extract from his _Journal_ unconsciously testifies:

_1811, September 12_ to _15_. (Sunday.)--Finished what I had to

say on the evidences of religion, and translated it into

Persian. Aga Akbar sent me his treatise by one of his disciples.

Aga Baba, his brother, but a very different person from him,

called; he spoke without disguise of his dislike to

Mohammedanism and good-will to Christianity. For his attachment

to Mirza Abel, Kasim, his brother, sets him down as an infidel.

Mirza Ibrahim is still in doubt, and thinks that he may be a

Christian, and be saved without renouncing Mohammedanism; asks

his nephew what is requisite to observe; he said, Baptism and

the Lord's Supper. 'Well,' said he, 'what harm is there in doing

that?' At another time Seyd Ali asked me, after a dispute,

whether I would baptize any one who did not believe in the

Divinity of Christ? I said, No. While translating Acts ii. and

iii., especially where it is said all who believed had one heart

and one mind, and had all things in common, he was much

affected, and contrasted the beginning of Christianity with that

of Mohammedanism, where they began their career with murdering

men and robbing caravans; and oh, said he, 'that I were sure the

Holy Spirit would be given to me! I would become a Christian at

once.' Alas! both his faith and mine are very weak. Even if he

were to desire baptism I should tremble to give it. He spake in

a very pleasing way on other parts of the Gospel, and seems to

have been particularly taken with the idea of a new birth. The

state of a new-born child gives him the most striking view of

that simplicity which he considers as the height of wisdom.

Simplicity is that to which he aspires, he says, above all

things. He was once proud of his knowledge, and vain of his

superiority to others, but he found that fancied knowledge set

him at a greater distance from happiness than anything else.

Martyn's first reply in Persian to Mirza Ibrahim thus begins: 'The

Christian Minister thanks the celebrated Professor of Islamism for the

favour he has done him in writing an answer to his inquiries, but

confesses that, after reading it, a few doubts occurred to him, on

account of which, and not for the mere purpose of dispute, he has

taken upon himself to write the following pages.' The reply is signed,

'The Christian Minister, Henry Martyn.' One Mirza Mahommed Ruza

published in 1813, the year after Martyn's death, a very prolix

rejoinder. It is unworthy of lengthened notice, according to Sir

William Muir, who thus summarises and comments on the defence made by

the Christian scholar:

Henry Martyn's first tract refers chiefly to the subject of

miracles: he asserts that, to be conclusive, a miracle must

exceed _universal_ experience; that the testimony and opinion of

the Arabs is therefore insufficient, besides being that of a

party concerned; that, were the Koran allowed to be inimitable,

that would not prove it to be a miracle; and that its being an

_intellectual_ miracle is not a virtue, but, by making it

generally inappreciable, a defect. He concludes by denying the

proof of Mohammed's other miracles, in which two requisites are

wanting: viz., their being recorded at or near the time of their

occurrence, and the narrators being under no constraint.

The second tract directly attacks Mohammed's mission, by

alleging the debasing nature of some of the contents and

precepts of the Koran, holds good works and repentance to be

insufficient for salvation, and opens the subject of the true

atonement as prefigured in types, fulfilled in Christ, and made

public by the spread of Christianity which is mentioned as

itself a convincing miracle.

The last tract commences with an attack on the absurdities of

Soofi-ism, and proceeds to show that the love of God and union

with Him cannot be obtained by contemplation, but only by a

practical manifestation of His goodness towards us, accompanied

by an assurance of our safety; and that this is fulfilled in

Christianity not by the amalgamation of the soul with the Deity,

but by the pouring out of God's Spirit upon His children, and by

the obedience and atonement of Christ. Vicarious suffering is

then defended by analogy, the truth of the Mosaic and Christian

miracles is upheld, and the whole argument closes with proving

the authenticity of the Christian annals by their coincidence

with profane history.

Sir William Muir agrees in the opinion of Professor Lee that, situated

as Mr. Martyn was in Persia, with a short tract on the Mohammedan

religion before him, and his health precarious, the course which he took

was perhaps the only one practicable. Sir William adds: 'In pursuing his

argument Henry Martyn has displayed great wisdom and skill, and his

reasoning appears to be in general perfectly conclusive; in a few

instances, however, he has perhaps not taken up the most advantageous

ground.'

The appeal of the Christian defender of the faith, at the close of his

second part, on the incarnation and atonement, is marked by a loving

courtesy:[61]

It is now the prayer of the humble Henry Martyn that these

things may be considered with impartiality. If they become the

means of procuring conviction, let not the fear of death or

punishment operate for a moment to the contrary, but let this

conviction have its legitimate effect; for the world, we know,

passes away like the wind of the desert. But if what has here

been stated do not produce conviction, my prayer is that God

Himself may instruct you; that as hitherto ye have held what you

believed to be the truth, ye may now become teachers of that

which is really so; and that He may grant you to be the means of

bringing others to the knowledge of the same, through Jesus

Christ, who has loved us and washed us in His own blood, to whom

be the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

_1811, July 26._--Mirza Ibrahim declared publicly before all his

disciples, 'that if I really confuted his arguments, he should

be bound in conscience to become a Christian.' Alas! from such a

declaration I have little hope. His general good character for

uprightness and unbounded kindness to the poor would be a much

stronger reason with me for believing that he may perhaps be a

Cornelius.

_August 2._--Much against his will Mirza Ibrahim was obliged to

go to his brother, who is governor of some town thirty-eight

parasangs off. To the last moment he continued talking with his

nephew on the subject of his book, and begged that, in case of

his detention, my reply might be sent to him.

_August 7._--My friends talked, as usual, much about what they

call Divine love; but I do not very well comprehend what they

mean. They love not the holy God, but the god of their own

imagination--a god who will let them do as they please. I often

remind Seyd Ali of one defect in his system, which is, that

there is no one to stand between his sins and God. Knowing what

I allude to, he says, 'Well, if the death of Christ intervene,

no harm; Soofi-ism can admit this too.'

_August 14._--Returned to the city in a fever, which continued

all the next day until the evening!

_August 15._--Jani Khan, in rank corresponding to one of our

Scottish dukes, as he is the head of all the military tribes of

Persia, and chief of his own tribe, which consists of twenty

thousand families, called on Jaffir Ali Khan with a message from

the king. He asked me a great number of questions, and disputed

a little. 'I suppose,' said he, 'you consider us all as

infidels!' 'Yes,' replied I, 'the whole of you.' He was mightily

pleased with my frankness, and mentioned it when he was going

away.

_August 22._--The copyist having shown my answer to Moodurris,

called Moolla Akbar, he wrote on the margin with great acrimony

but little sense. Seyd Ali having shown his remarks in some

companies, they begged him not to show them to me, for fear I

should disgrace them all through the folly of one man.

_August 23._--Ruza Kooli Mirza, the great-grandson of Nadir Shah

and Aga Mahommed Hasan, called. The prince's nephew, hearing of

my attack on Muhammad, observed that the proper answer to it was

the sword; but the prince confessed that he began to have his

doubts. On his inquiring what were the laws of

Christianity--meaning the number of times of prayer, the

different washings, &c.--I said that we had two commandments:

'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all

thy soul, and all thy strength; and thy neighbour as thyself.'

He asked, 'What could be better?' and continued praising them.

The Moolla Aga Mahommed Hasan, himself a Moodurris, and a very

sensible, candid man, asked a good deal about the European

philosophy, particularly what we did in metaphysics; for

instance, 'how, or in what sense, the body of Christ ascended

into heaven?' He talked of free-will and fate, and reasoned

high, and at last reconciled them according to the doctrines of

the Soofis by saying, that 'as all being is an emanation of the

Deity, the will of every being is only the will of the Deity, so

that therefore, in fact, free-will and fate are the same.' He

has nothing to find fault with in Christianity, except the

Divinity of Christ. It is this doctrine that exposes me to the

contempt of the learned Mahometans, in whom it is difficult to

say whether pride or ignorance predominates. Their sneers are

more difficult to bear than the brick-bats which the boys

sometimes throw at me; however, both are an honour of which I am

not worthy. How many times in the day have I occasion to repeat

the words:

If on my face, for Thy dear name,

Shame and reproaches be,

All hail, reproach, and welcome, shame,

If Thou remember me.

The more they wish me to give up this one point--the Divinity of

Christ--the more I seem to feel the necessity of it, and rejoice

and glory in it. Indeed, I trust I would sooner give up my life

than surrender it.

In the evening we went to pay a long-promised visit to Mirza

Abulkasim, one of the most renowned Soofis in all Persia. We

found several persons sitting in an open court, in which a few

greens and flowers were placed; the master was in a corner. He

was a very fresh-looking old man with a silver beard. I was

surprised to observe the downcast and sorrowful looks of the

assembly, and still more at the silence which reigned. After

sitting some time in expectation, and being not at all disposed

to waste my time in sitting there, I said softly to Seyd Ali,

'What is this?' He said, 'It is the custom here to think much

and speak little.' 'May I ask the master a question?' said I.

With some hesitation he consented to let me; so I begged Jaffir

Ali to inquire, 'Which is the way to be happy?'

This he did in his own manner; he began by observing that 'there

was a great deal of misery in the world, and that the learned

shared as largely in it as the rest; that I wished therefore to

know what we must do to escape it.' The master replied that 'for

his part he did not know, but that it was usually said that the

subjugation of the passions was the shortest way to happiness.'

After a considerable pause I ventured to ask, 'What were his

feelings at the prospect of death--hope, or fear, or neither?'

'Neither,' said he, and that 'pleasure and pain were both

alike.' I then perceived that the Stoics were Greek Soofis. I

asked 'whether he had attained this apathy.' He said, 'No.' 'Why

do you think it attainable?' He could not tell. 'Why do you

think that pleasure and pain are not the same?' said Seyd Ali,

taking his master's part. 'Because,' said I, 'I have the

evidence of my senses for it. And you also act as if there was a

difference. Why do you eat, but that you fear pain?' These

silent sages sat unmoved.

One of the disciples is the son of the Moojtahid who, greatly to

the vexation of his father, is entirely devoted to the Soofi

doctor. He attended his kalean (pipe) with the utmost humility.

On observing the pensive countenance of the young man, and

knowing something of his history from Seyd Ali, how he had left

all to find happiness in the contemplation of God, I longed to

make known the glad tidings of a Saviour, and thanked God on

coming away, that I was not left ignorant of the Gospel. I could

not help being a little pleasant on Seyd Ali afterwards, for his

admiration of this silent instructor. 'There you sit,' said I,

'immersed in thought, full of anxiety and care, and will not

take the trouble to ask whether God has said anything or not.

No: that is too easy and direct a way of coming at the truth. I

compare you to spiders, who weave their house of defence out of

their own bowels; or to a set of people who are groping for a

light in broad day.'

_August 26._--Waited this morning on Mahommed Nubbee Khan, late

ambassador at Calcutta, and now prime minister of Fars. There

were a vast number of clients in his court, with whom he

transacted business while chatting with us. Amongst the others

who came and sat with us, was my tetric adversary--Aga Akbar,

who came for the very purpose of presenting the minister with a

little book he had written in answer to mine. After presenting

it in due form, he sat down, and told me he meant to bring me a

copy that day--a promise which he did not perform, through Seyd

Ali's persuasion, who told him it was a performance that would

do him no credit.

_August 29._--Mirza Ibrahim begins to inquire about the Gospel.

The objections he made were such as these: How sins could be

atoned for before they were committed? Whether, as Jesus died

for all men, all would necessarily be saved? If faith be the

condition of salvation, would wicked Christians be saved,

provided they believe? I was pleased to see from the nature of

the objections that he was considering the subject. To this last

objection, I remarked that to those who felt themselves sinners,

and came to God for mercy, through Christ, God would give His

Holy Spirit, which would progressively sanctify them in heart

and life.

_August 30._--Mirza Ibrahim praises my answer, especially the

first part.

It was on the sacred rock of Behistun, on the western frontiers of

Media, on the high road eastward from Babylonia, that Darius

Hystaspes, founder of the civil policy of ancient Persia, carved the

wonderful cuneiform inscriptions which made that rock the charter of

Achæmenian royalty. At Persepolis only the platform, the pillared

colonnade, and the palace seem to have been built by him; the other

buildings, with commemorative legends, were erected by Xerxes and

Artaxerxes Ochus. Lassen, Westergaard, and our own Sir Henry

Rawlinson,[62] did not decipher these inscriptions for some twenty

years after Martyn's visit. How deaf had Ormuzd proved all through

the centuries to the prayer which Darius the king cut on a huge slab,

twenty-six feet in length and six in height, in the southern wall of

the great platform at Persepolis: 'Let not war, nor slavery, nor

decrepitude, nor lies obtain power over this province.' Henry Martyn

thus wrote of his visit:

After traversing these celebrated ruins, I must say that I felt

a little disappointed: they did not at all answer my

expectation. The architecture of the ancient Persians seems to

me much more akin to that of their clumsy neighbours the

Indians, than to that of the Greeks. I saw no appearance of

grand design anywhere. The chapiters of the columns were almost

as long as the shafts:--though they are not so represented in

Niebuhr's plate;--and the mean little passages into the square

court, or room, or whatever it was, make it very evident that

the taste of the Orientals was the same three thousand years ago

as it is now. But it was impossible not to recollect that here

Alexander and his Greeks passed and repassed; here they sat and

sung, and revelled; now all is in silence, generation on

generation lie mingled with the dust of their mouldering

edifices:

Alike the busy and the gay,

But flutter in life's busy day,

In fortune's varying colours drest.

As soon as we recrossed the Araxes, the escort begged me to

point out the Keblah to them, as they wanted to pray. After

setting their faces towards Mecca, as nearly as I could, I went

and sat down on the margin near the bridge, where the water,

falling over some fragments of the bridge under the arches,

produced a roar, which, contrasted with the stillness all

around, had a grand effect. Here I thought again of the

multitudes who had once pursued their labours and pleasures on

its banks. Twenty-one centuries have passed away since they

lived; how short, in comparison, must be the remainder of my

days. What a momentary duration is the life of man! _Labitur et

labetur in omne volubilis ævum_, may be affirmed of the river;

but men pass away as soon as they begin to exist. Well, let the

moments pass:

They'll waft us sooner o'er

This life's tempestuous sea,

And land us on the peaceful shore

Of blest eternity.

The true character of Martyn's Mohammedan and Soofi

controversialists comes out in the fast of Ramazan, the ninth

month of the lunar year, when from dawn to sunset of each day a

strict fast is observed, most trying to the temper, and from

sunset to dawn excess is too naturally the rule, especially, as

in this case, when Ramazan falls on the long hot days of summer.

Of this month the traditions declare that the doors of heaven

are opened and the doors of hell shut, while the devils are

chained. At this time the miracle play of Hasan and Husain[63]

is acted in the native theatres from night to night. In scene

xxxi. are enacted the conversion and murder of an English

ambassador. Dean Stanley used to tell that Henry Martyn,

horrified at the English oaths put into the mouth of the Persian

who represented the ambassador in the tragedy, took him and

taught him to repeat the Lord's Prayer instead.

_September 20._--First day of the fast of Ramazan. All the

family had been up in the night, to take an unseasonable meal,

in order to fortify themselves for the abstinence of the day. It

was curious to observe the effects of the fast in the house. The

master was scolding and beating his servants; they equally

peevish and insolent, and the beggars more than ordinarily

importunate and clamorous. At noon, all the city went to the

grand mosque. My host came back with an account of new vexations

there. He was chatting with a friend, near the door, when a

great preacher, Hajji Mirza, arrived, with hundreds of

followers. 'Why do you not say your prayers?' said the

new-comers to the two friends. 'We have finished,' said they.

'Well,' said the other, 'if you cannot pray a second time with

us, you had better move out of the way.' Rather than join such

turbulent zealots they retired. The reason of this unceremonious

address was, that these loving disciples had a desire to pray

all in a row with their master, which, it seems, is the custom.

There is no public service in the mosque; every man here prays

for himself.

Coming out of the mosque some servants of the prince, for their

amusement, pushed a person against a poor man's stall, on which

were some things for sale, a few European and Indian articles,

also some valuable Warsaw plates, which were thrown down and

broken. The servants went off without making compensation. No

kazi will hear a complaint against the prince's servants.

Hajji Mahommed Hasan preaches every day during the Ramazan. He

takes a verse from the Koran, or more frequently tells stories

about the Imams. If the ritual of the Christian Churches, their

good forms and everything they have, is a mere shadow without a

Divine influence attend on them, what must all this Mahometan

stuff be? and yet how impossible is it to convince the people of

the world, whether Christian or Mahometan, that what they call

religion is merely an invention of their own, having no

connection with God and His kingdom! This subject has been much

on my mind of late. How senseless the zeal of Churchmen against

dissenters, and of dissenters against the Church! The kingdom of

God is neither meat nor drink, nor anything perishable; but

righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Mirza Ibrahim never goes to the mosque, but he is so much

respected that nothing is said: they conclude that he is

employed in devotion at home. Some of his disciples said to Seyd

Ali, before him: 'Now the Ramazan is come, you should read the

Koran and leave the Gospel.' 'No,' said his uncle, 'he is

employed in a good work: let him go on with it.' The old man

continues to inquire with interest about the Gospel, and is

impatient for his nephew to explain the evidences of

Christianity, which I have drawn up.

_September 22._ (Sunday.)--My friends returned from the mosque,

full of indignation at what they had witnessed there. The former

governor of Bushire complained to the vizier, in the mosque,

that some of his servants had treated him brutally. The vizier,

instead of attending to his complaint, ordered them to do their

work a second time; which they did, kicking and beating him with

their slippers, in the most ignominious way, before all the

mosque. This unhappy people groan under the tyranny of their

governors; yet nothing subdues or tames them. Happy Europe! how

has God favoured the sons of Japheth, by causing them to embrace

the Gospel. How dignified are all the nations of Europe compared

with this nation! Yet the people are clever and intelligent, and

more calculated to become great and powerful than any of the

nations of the East, had they a good government and the

Christian religion.

_September 29._--The Soofi, son of the Moojtahid, with some

others, came to see me. For fifteen years he was a devout

Mahometan; visited the sacred places, and said many prayers.

Finding no benefit from austerities he threw up Mahommedanism

altogether, and attached himself to the Soofi master. I asked

him what his object was, all that time? He said, he did not

know, but he was unhappy. I began to explain to him the Gospel;

but he cavilled at it as much as any bigoted Mahommedan could

do, and would not hear of there being any distinction between

Creator and creature. In the midst of our conversation, the sun

went down, and the company vanished for the purpose of taking an

immediate repast.

Mirza Seyd Ali seems sometimes coming round to Christianity

against Soofi-ism. The Soofis believe in no prophet, and do not

consider Moses to be equal to Mirza Abulkasim. 'Could they be

brought,' Seyd Ali says, 'to believe that there has been a

prophet, they would embrace Christianity.' And what would be

gained by such converts? 'Thy people shall be willing in the day

of Thy power.' It will be an afflicted and poor people that

shall call upon the name of the Lord, and such the Soofis are

not: professing themselves to be wise, they have become fools.

_October 7._--I was surprised by a visit from the great Soofi

doctor, who, while most of the people were asleep, came to me

for some wine. I plied him with questions innumerable; but he

returned nothing but incoherent answers, and sometimes no answer

at all. Having laid aside his turban, he put on his night-cap,

and soon fell asleep upon the carpet. Whilst he lay there his

disciples came, but would not believe, when I told them who was

there, till they came and saw the sage asleep. When he awoke,

they came in, and seated themselves at the greatest possible

distance, and were all as still as if in a church. The real

state of this man seems to be despair, and it will be well if it

do not end in madness. I preached to him the kingdom of God:

mentioning particularly how I had found peace from the Son of

God and the Spirit of God; through the first, forgiveness;

through the second, sanctification. He said it was good, but

said it with the same unconcern with which he admits all manner

of things, however contradictory. Poor soul! he is sadly

bewildered.

As a Persian scholar and controversialist Henry Martyn found a worthy

successor in the German, and afterwards Church Missionary Society's

missionary, C.G. Pfander, D.D. When for some twelve years stationed at

Shushy Fort, on the Russian border of Georgia, he frequently visited

Baghdad and travelled through Persia by Ispahan and Teheran. In 1836

the intolerant Russian Government expelled all foreign missionaries

from its territories, and Dr. Pfander joined the Church Mission at

Agra. In 1835 he first published at Shushy, in Persian, his famous

_Mizan ul Haqq_, or _Balance of Truth_. A Hindustani translation was

lithographed at Mirzapore in 1843, and Mr. R.H. Weakley, missionary at

Constantinople, made an English translation, which was published by

the Church Missionary Society in 1867. This, as yet, greatest of works

which state the general argument for Christianity and against Islam,

was followed by the _Miftah ul Asrar_, in proof of the Divinity of

Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity, and by the _Tarik ul Hyat_, or

the nature of sin and the way of salvation, of both of which

Hindustani translations appeared. In his little English _Remarks on

the Nature of Muhammadanism_,[64] as shown in the _Traditions_, Dr.

Pfander quotes from Martyn's _Controversy_. By these writings and the

personal controversy in India, Dr. Pfander, following Henry Martyn,

was the means of winning to Christ, in tolerant British India, many

Mohammedan moulvies like him who is now the Rev. Imad-ud-din, D.D.[65]

Henry Martyn's description of the Persian is no less applicable to

the Indian Mohammedan, in the opinion of Sir William Muir; 'he is a

compound of ignorance and bigotry, and all access to the one is hedged

up by the other.' The Koran and the whole system of Islam are based on

partial truths, plagiarised from Scripture to an extent sufficient to

feed the pride of those who hold them. But beyond these corruptions of

Judaism and Christianity, for which the dead Eastern Churches of

Mohammed's time and since are responsible, Persians, Turks, Arabs,

Afghans, and Hindustan Muhammadans know nothing either of history or

Christian Divinity. All controversy, from P.H. Xavier's time to

Martyn's, Wilson's, and Pfander's, shows that the key of the position

is not the doctrine of the Trinity, as the Shi'ah Moojtahids of Shiraz

and Lucknow and the Soonnis everywhere make it, but the genuineness

and integrity of the Scriptures, by which the truth of the whole

Christian faith will follow, the Trinity included. The Bible, in

Hindustani, Persian, and Arabic, with its self-evidencing power, is

the weapon which Henry Martyn was busied in forging.

FOOTNOTES:

[54] See article in the _Spectator_ for August 17, 1889, by a writer

who had recently returned from Persia.

[55] See article on the poet in the _Calcutta Review_ for March 1858

(by Professor E.B. Cowell, L.L.D., Cambridge).

[56] London, 1818, pp. 223-4.

[57] Literally, 'one who strives' to attain the highest degree of

Mussulman learning.

[58] Persian form of maulvi, the Arabic for a learned man. The word is

said to mean 'filled' with knowledge, from _mala_, to fill.

[59] The Rev. S. Lee, D.D., Professor of Arabic in the University of

Cambridge for many years, in his _Controversial Tracts on Christianity

and Mohammedanism_ by the late Rev. Henry Martyn, B.D., and some of

the most eminent writers of Persia (1824).

[60] _The Calcutta Review_, No. VIII. vol. iv. Art. VI. 'The

Mahommedan Controversy,' pp. 418-76, Calcutta, 1845.

[61] As translated from the Persian by Professor Lee.

[62] Sir Henry, then Major, H.C. Rawlinson, C.B., visited Persepolis

in 1835. The _Journals_ of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1846-9

publish his copies of the inscription of Behistun and Persepolis and

his translations.

[63] See the Play as collected from oral tradition by the late Sir

Lewis Pelly, in two volumes, 1879.

[64] Second edition published by the Church Missionary Society in

1858.

[65] 'Some of our most eminent Native Christians are converts from

Mohammedanism. We may particularly mention the Rev. Jani Ali, B.A.;

the Rev. Imad-ud-din, D.D.; the Rev. Imam Shah; the Rev. Mian Sadiq;

the Rev. Yakub Ali; Maulavi Safdar Ali, a high Government official;

Abdullah Athim, also a high official, now retired, and an honorary lay

evangelist.'--_Church Missionary Society's Intelligencer_ in 1888.