Christian Responses to Ahmad Khan's Commentary on the Bible

When Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan began publishing a commentary on the Bible in 1862, he intended the work to dispel the distrust between the Muslim and Christian communities that the Revolt of 1857 had heightened. While the Christians who responded to his efforts did laud his clarification of the traditional Muslim position on the trustworthiness of the Christian Scriptures, they generally interpreted the commentary in light of their own efforts to bring Christianity and civilization to India. They saw Ahmad Khan’s work to be a sign that Muslim prejudices and defences against Christianity were crumbling, and that the conversion of India was progressing. However, they were not prepared to consider it as increasing their own understanding of the Bible or even their understanding of Islam.