SavioursOfIslamicSpirit-Volume3 ... - WordPress.com

64 SAVIOURS OF ISLAMIC SPIRITwhich are profitable to all, whether translated or not, beprocurable in your country, send them. We are deputinghonourable Saiyid Muzaffar, a recipient of our favours, forobtaining a few copies of these translations in order tostrengthen our friendship and the bases of unity. He willhave conversation with you and correspond with you” .1Translations of Christian scriptures were produced before theEmperor and a few missionaries also called upon him personallyto explain the doctrines of the Trinity and the truth of Christinity.Badauni writes describing the mission of these Church Fathers:’’Learned monks also from Europe, who are calledpadre, and have an infallible head, called P5pa (Pope)...brought the Gospel, and advanced proofs for the Trinity.”2Akbar had been so crazy about it that in a letter to thefathers of the Christian Society at Goa he wrote:“Your reverences will be able immediately, on receivingmy letter to send some of them to my Court with allconfidencc, so that in disputations with my doctors I maycompare their several learning and character, and see thesuperiority of the Fathers over my doctors, whom we callQazi, and whom by this means they can teach the truth.”8Victory in polemical disputations dees not depend, as theexperience shows, either on the truth of any religion or even thecogent arguments and intrinsic evidences, but on the gift of thegab possessed by a contender. It is not unoften that propoundersof a weak doctrine wins the sympathies of the audience by hiseloquence and playing upon the sentiments of the listeners. Onthe other hand, the advocate of a religion far more virtuous andtruthful is likely to lose the war of words if he lacks thesequalities. It is also doubtful if the scholars representing Islam inthe court of Akbar had adequate knowledge of Christianity and1. Insha'-i-Abul Fazl, p. 392. Mmtakabut Tawarikh, Vol. II, p. 2673. Cited from Dr. Ishwari Prassad, The Mughal Empire, p. 375