كتاب منهج دراسة الأديان بين الشيخ رحمت الله الهندي والقس فندر

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In ١٨٣٣ Pfander received permission from the Basel Mission to take some European leave, mainly because he wanted to find a wife. Perhaps expressing a commitment to acculturation, both he and the society appear to have preferred a Russian wife. He was allowed to go first to Moscow and, if unable to find a bride there, was then to try his luck in Saxony. As it happened, he found a suitable match in Moscow--Sophia Reuss, daughter of a minor aristocrat. They married, briefly visited Pfander's family in Saxony, then joined the Shusha Mission. Sadly, ١٨٣٥ was a tragic year. Sophia fell ill and died, while the mission ran foul of the Russian authorities. Some accounts of this development hint that Pfander's efforts to convert Muslims were to blame, but the incident appears to have been initiated by the Armenian archbishop, who, somewhat annoyed when two young deacons requested instruction at the mission, removed them to a monastery and petitioned the czar to expel the missionaries. Pfander became a jobless widower."

Anglican Missionary in India
Pfander's interest in Islam suggested a stationing in a Muslim country. After visiting Turkey, he was instructed to proceed to Calcutta to explore possibilities of working in a predominantly Muslim part of India. Although the Basel Mission was not operating in any of these areas, several Basel missionaries were already employed by the Church Missionary Society (CMS), a voluntary agency within the Church of England. In Calcutta, Pfander studied Urdu and negotiated employment with the CMS. This proved a lengthy process, involving correspondence between the home headquarters of the two mission bodies. Finally in ١٨٤٠ the CMS posted him to its Agra Mission. Meanwhile, he worked on the Urdu version of the Mizan (published in ١٨٤٣) and on his Remarks on the Nature of Mohammedanism (١٨٤٠). In ١٨٤١ he met and married Miss Elizabeth Emma Swinbourne, who had arrived in India the previous year, designated by the CMS for evangelism among women.]١٠[The Pfanders ultimately had three sons and three daughters.