Pfander, Carl, Gottlieb (b. Wurttemberg 1803[5]-1865).

 

 

Pfander, Carl, Gottlieb  

A German Protestant missionary polemicist, educated at the Basel Evangelical Missionary Seminary. Schooled in Arabic, Persian and Turkish he  served the with Basel Mission for 12 years (1825-1837) and then the British Church Missionary Society becoming operative in central Asia; especially Armenia and Muslim India, Persia and Turkey.

At Agra and Peshawar in India Pfander engaged in public debates, his most famous being with the learned Shī`ī Muslim scholar Raḥmat-Allāh ibn Khalīl al-Raḥmān  al-Uthmānī, al-Kairanāwī  [= al-Hindī] (1817-1891). After the Indian Uprising of 1858 Pfander was transferred to Constantinople-Istanbul, later retiring to England where he died.

Schirrmacher, Christine.

  • Mit den Waffen des Gegners: Christlich-Muslimische Kontroversen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, dargestellt am Beispiel der Auseinandersetzung um Karl Gottlieb Pfanders 'mīzān al-haqq ՝ und Rahmatullah ibn Khalīl al-'Utmānī al-Kairanawls 'izhâr al-haqq ՝ und der Diskussion über das Barnabasevangelium. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1992.

Dilger, A.,

  • Basler Missionsgesellschaft, hi: RGG/1, Tübingen 1986/3, pp. 914-16
  • Basler Missionsgesellschaft in: LThK/2, Freiburg 1957/1986,
  • Basler Mission, in: Brunotte, Heinz; Weber, Otto (Hg.), Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon, Göttingen 1956, pp. 329-32

 

 Mīzān al-ḥaqq (“The Balance of the Truth”) Shusha (Russian Armenia), 1829

      Pfander’s influential ميزان الحق Mīzān al-ḥaqq (“The Balance of the Truth”), a defence of biblical revelation and integrity countering Islamic views of biblical taḥrīf (falsification, corruption) and the veracity of the Qur’an and prophethood of Muhammad, was originally written in German at Shusha (Russian Armenia) in 1829.  Select printed editions include:

·   1831 Armenian. Mīzān al-ḥaqq   1st ed. pub. Shusha (+ Moscow?).  

·   1832 1st Transcaucasian Turkish [Azari] ed.

·   1835 Arabic [Persian?], Mizan ul haqq = Balance of truth or, A comparison of the Gospel and the Koran. ed. Shoosha [= Shusha].  23cm. Copy at Yale Univ. Lib. American Oriental Society, Room 329.

URDU TRANSLATION

·         1840 1st Urdu ed.  Calcutta/ Mizanpur+  (Agra 1843; 1850)…

·         1862 Trans. By Pfander. London: W.M. Watts. 2[3]39 pp.

PERSIAN TRANSLATION

· 1836 = 1st Persian ed. of Mizān al-ḥaqq.  Shusha.

  • 1839 (?)  Mīzān al-ḥaqq. 2nd. Persian ed. Calcutta: 

  • 1849 (?) 2nd ed. Persian ed. Calcutta.

  •  1849.  3rd. ed. Agra [Peshawar?]

  • 1855 + ??

  • 1862 [4?] Persian ed. ? London

1934 Persian rev. ed. URL =

 http://www.muhammadanism.org/farsi/book/mizan_ul_haqq/mizan_ul_haqq_farsi_1.pdf

TURKISH TRANSLATION

·  1861 1st Ottoman Turkish ed. Kitab-i Mizan ül-hak = Kitāb-i Mizān ul-haqq. Londra: Vilyam Vats nam basmac*n*n ... matbaas*nda (Copy in Princeton).                                Constantinople- London (+1931?). 265pp. 17 cm.

ARABIC TRANSLATION

  • 1865 = 1st Arabic ed.  Mīzān al-ḥaqq . Jerusalem

  • 1874 ADD?

  • 1888 = Arabic Kitāb Mīzān al-ḥaqq.  Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 240pp.

  • 1923 2nd Arabic ed. Cairo: Maṭba`at al-Nīl al-Masīḥiyyah.  484 pp.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

·  1866+1867 1st English trans. R. H. Weakley = Mizan Ul Haqq; or Balance of Truth ... [Mizan ul haqq; or, balance of truth] London: Church Missionary House. 134pp. x

Copy in Oxford, Bodleian BOD Bookstack 141 i.40 Bodleian BOD Bookstack 141 i.40 Indian Inst. IND Nuneham 100 A 22  = 1866  x +326pp.

· 1910  Rev. English trans. THE MIZANU'L HAQQ (Balance of Truth) by C. G. Pfander, D.D. Thoroughly Revised and Enlarged by W. St. Clair Tisdall, M. A. D. D. London : The Religious Tract Society, 1910  (370pp.)

URL =  http://answering-islam.org.uk/Books/Pfander/Balance/index.htm

·  1976 The Mizanu'l haqq : (The Mohammedan controversy). New Delhi: Indo-Asiatic Publishers

·          

Miftāḥ al-asrār (“The Key to the Mysteries”)  Shusha, (Russian Armenia),1837

Composed in German at Shusha in 1837 contains a defence of the incarnation and divinity of Jesus and the argues the truth of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

·    1839 1st Persian ed. Calcutta  + 2nd ed. Agra. 1850.

·    1844 (?) 1st Urdu ed.  Agra / Mirzapur;

  • 1850  2nd. rev. ed. Agra 1850.  + London ?1862.

·    1861 1st Ottoman Turkish ed. Constantinople-London

·   1912 St-Clair-Tisdall, William. rev. English trans. Miftáhu'l-asrár-the Key of Mysteries = MIFTAHU'L-ASRAR (The Key of Mysteries) A TREATISE ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY IN UNITY  BY THE LATE REV. DR. PFANDER, C.M.S. Translated and thoroughly revised by THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL M.A., D.D., C.M.S.  London, Madras and Colombo: Christian Literature Society for India + MADRAS : S.P.C.K. PRESS, VEPERY, 1912 ( [6] 216pp.)

·   1912 URL = http://answering-islam.org.uk/Books/Pfander/Key/index.htm

·  1921 = 2nd Arabic rev. edit. / trans. Tisdall =  حقوق الطبع محفوظة لمطبعة النيل المسيحية بمصر  Egypt [Cairo]: Christian Literature Society: Nile Mission Press

·    URL Arabic  http://www.muhammadanism.org/Pfander/miftahul_arabic/p000.htm

  

Tarīq al-ḥayāt (“The Path of Life”) Shusha (Russian Armenia), 1837

The Tarik-ul-Hayat: a treatise on Sin and Redemption, with especial… composed in German at Shusha in 1837 presents the Christian doctrine of salvation as contrasted with the Islamic notion of sin and sinfulness.
 

PERSIAN

  • 1840 1st Persian ed. Calcutta;

URDU

  • 1847 2nd. (Persian?) ed. Agra, 1847.
  • 1847   Agra (Brit. Lib.) 1st Urdu ed. Agra.  Lodiana: Printed at the American Presbyterian Mission Press 1853 +4 (?)
  • 1858 ? \

ENGLISH

  • 1862 4th ed. English tr. London Tariq-ul-hayat. A treatise on sin and redemption, with especial reference to the false views entertained by the Muhammadans on these doctrines. Yale Univ. Lib. = American Oriental Society, Room 329.
  • 1912 Taríqu'l-hyát. The Path of Life ... / TARIQU'L-HYAT (The Path of Life) by C. G. Pfander, D.D. Translated and thoroughly revised by THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL M.A., D.D., London-Madras-Colombo : C.M.S. Christian Literature Society for India, Vepery printed 1912   (335pp.)

·  URL =   http://answering-islam.org.uk/Books/Pfander/Path/index.htm

 

Remarks on the Nature of Mohammedanism 1840

  • 1840 Remarks on the Nature of Mohammedanism.  Apparently written in English  and first pub. Calcutta: XXX, 1840 + London: XXXX., 1858
  •  (see Schirmacher, 1992, pp. 395). 
  • Ḥall al-ishkāl; a reply to Kashf-ul-Astar [by Muhammad Hādī] … (Urdu) 1st  pub. Agra, 1847  (2 parts in 80pp) + 1877.
  • Iḥtitām dīn-i mubāḥata kā  (Urdu) 1st  pub. Agra, 1855 .
  • 1862 Refī` al-Shubbehāt (“The Dissipation of Doubts” ? Ottoman Turkish) 1st pub. Constantinople+ London, 1862.
  • 1837 “The Tree of Life” (German ms. = “Uber die gottlichen Vorschriften der Bibel”) 1st ed. pub. Shusha: XXX, 1837 + 2nd ed.  (Urdu) Calcutta: XXXX., 1840 (?).
  • 1878 Transcaucasian  (“Ādhirbayjānī”) Turkish New Testament (Bodlein Lib. Oxford) London: XXXX. 

     

Pfander, Karl Gottlieb (1803-1865),

  • Kitāb mīzān al-haqq (1835). Jerusalem 1865. TransL, by R. H. Weakley: The Mizan ul Hauq: or Balance of Truth. London, 1867.
  • "Pfänder՝s letter of 16th Sept 1862 to the CMS." Doc. No. 63a; Archives of Heslop Room/University of Birmingham (unpublished documents).
     

Eppler, Christoph Friedrich.

  • D. Kari Gottlieb Pfander: Ein Zeuge der Wahrheit unter den Bekennern des Islam. Basel: Verlag der Missionsbuchhandlung,
    ies in the north-western provinces and Oudh." Ph.D. Diss., London 1983.
  • "The Publishers," Introduction. In C. G. Pfander, D.D., The Mĩzan-ul-Haqq, Balance of Truth. Villach: Lighter Life, 1986.
     

Eppler, Paul.

  • Geschichte der Basler Mission 1815֊ 1899. Basel: Verlag der Missionsbuchhandlung, 1900.

Eppler,  Christoph Friedrich,

  • Karl Gottlieb Pfander, ein Zeuge der Wahrheit unter den Bekennern des Islam, in: AMZ 15/1888, pp. 199-200
  • Geschichte der Gründung der armenisch-evangeli¬schen Gemeinde in Schamachi, Basel 1873
  • Karl Gottlieb Pfander, • Ein Zeuge der Wahrheit unter den Bekennern des Islam, Basel 1888

 

Flachsmeier, Horst R.

  • Geschichte der evangelischen Weltmission. Giessen: Brunnen֊Verlag, 1963.

Broekema, E. A.,

     • Leven en Werkzaamheden von Karl Gottlieb Pfander (1803-1865), Zendeling onder de Moslims, unveröffentl. 'Doctoraal-Scriptie', Amsterdam 1984
 

St Clair-Tisdall, William (1859-1928)

  • The Sources of Islam. Edinburgh, Scotland: T & T Clark