Islam and Christianity in 19/20th Century South Asian Debates

Abstract

Abstract Islam and Christianity share much in common but also much that is different. The evidence of interactions between them go right back to the origins of Islam in the seventh century. In early Muslim traditions, Jesus was largely presented as an ascetic, whereas their prophet Muhammad was presented as a political and military ruler; Christianity as a quietist faith and Islam as conquering faith-polity. These early traditions possibly informed the rather oppositional South Asian debates of the nineteenth century. We know that the Muslim conceptions of Jesus have been changing over time. To what extent has the image of Muhammad among Christians changed over time is also a relevant question. Muhammad and Christ were unquestionably often the focal points of the Christian Muslim debates in the nineteenth and the early twentieth century South Asia. Preliminary enquiry of sources suggest that Christians largely looked at Christ and Muhammad as fundamentally opposing characters belonging to different domains; their Muslim counterparts attempted to argue that Muhammad and Christ had much in common and, that Muhammad was in fact the very fulfilment of Christ’s own prophecy. This paper digs both into Muslim (religious doctors) and Christian (missionaries/converts) sources: i. to bring to light a new context of debates (South Asia) on Christ and Muhammad; ii. To examine how Jesus and Muhammad were portrayed in these debates and; iii. To what extent, this South Asian evidence on how Jesus and Muhammad are seen aligns with what we know from writings about them from the Middle Eastern context?