Abstract
This article is an attempt to study the methods adopted in the Christian missionary
biographies of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in subcontinent from early nineteenth century
to the first half of the twentieth century. These missionaries came into this region with
their strong missionary convictions and they set up a new literary apologetic trend in the
religious history of subcontinent in order to prove the superiority of Christianity over
Islam and to trivialize its norms, values, religious figures and traditions. Though this
trend was not novel in the history of Christian-Muslim relation however, a distinguished
feature of it, in India, was that it took the shape of direct confrontation and animosity e.g.
the great debate between Pfander and Rahmatu-Allah-Kīrānvī held in 1854. This early
confrontational contact between Islam and Christianity played a pivotal role in the
development of an academic environment and had an impact on the Christian-Muslim
relations in the subcontinent in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This study is
an attempt to explore this early intellectual confrontational landscape and its impact upon
each other’s communities. Furthermore, it also attempts to investigate how modern
Christians and Muslims can develop new ways for mutual understanding in the light of
contemporary intellectual traditions. Last but not the least, after highlighting major
shortcomings in their methods, this study cogitates on new contextual approach for the
study of Christianity and Islam.
Farman Ali, Humaira Ahmad. (2018) Early Christian Sīrah Writings of Subcontinent: A Comparative Study of their Methods, Impact and Cogitating on New Contemporizing Methodology, Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization, Volume VIII, Issue 1.
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