كتاب منهج دراسة الأديان بين الشيخ رحمت الله الهندي والقس فندر
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counter assault, in which they scrupled not to use the stock arguments of European infidelity in their effort to overthrow the authority of the Christian scriptures."]23[Both sides claimed victory, but as Avril Powell points out, while those Christians present were remarkably silent about the whole incident, Muslim accounts rolled off the presses? No detailed account flowed from Muir's pen, who had so enthusiastically supported Pfander's earlier exchanges.
Final Years
Soon after the munazara, Pfander was transferred to Peshawar, which Powell describes as a "diplomatic move on the part of the CMS authorities on news of the debacle reaching Calcutta."]25[However, there is no real evidence that the CMS lost confidence in Pfander or disapproved of his attitude toward Islam. Indeed, Pfander was honored in 1856 with the Lambeth doctor of divinity degree in recognition of his endeavors to convert Muslims and, in the same year, was ordained in Anglican orders by the bishop of Calcutta. The subsequent conversion, too, of Safdar All (1864), although he did not directly ascribe his conversion to Pfander's efforts, and of Imad-ud-Din (1866), who did acknowledge Pfander's influence, were claimed as long-term proof of Pfander's victory.
Pfander remained in India until 1861, when he was appointed to help fellow Basel graduate S. W. Koelle (d. 1902) establish the CMS mission at Istanbul, a city already familiar to him from earlier travels. Perhaps predictably, Pfander's strategy was once again to distribute his books, which he did even in the "precincts of the Great Mosque of St. Sophia, the once famous church whose wails had . . . heard the eloquence of Chrysostom."]26[His Turkish edition of the Mizan appeared in 1861. Throughout his career, even during the violent events in India of 1857 - 58, he always preached in public places. "Bible in hand, as usual, he took his stand on a bridge or in a thoroughfare, and alike without boasting and without fear,
