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Articles on Muhammad in the Bible by David Benjamin Kildani (former Roman Catholic Bishop of a Uniate Chaldean diocese)
Biography of the author: David Benjamin Kildani (1867 - 1940) Bishop David Benjamin Kildani (or Keldani) was a Roman Catholic priest of the Uniate- Chaldean sect, but later in his life, after embracing Islam, he changed his name to Abdul-Ahad Dawud (or Dawood). He was born in 1867 in Urmia, Persia; educated from his early infancy in that town. From 1886-1889, he was on the teaching staff of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission to the Assyrian (Nestorian) Christians at Urmia. In 1892, he was sent by Cardinal Vaughan to Rome, where he underwent a course of philosophical and theological studies at the Propaganda Fide College, and in 1895 was ordained Priest. In 1892, Father Kildani contributed a series of articles to The Tablet on "Assyria, Rome and Canterbury"; and also to the Irish Record on the "Authenticity of the Pentateuch." He translated Ave Maria into several languages, published in the illustrated Catholic Missions. While in Constantinople on his way to Persia in 1895, he contributed a long series of articles in English and French to the daily paper, published there under the name of The Levant Herald, on "Eastern Churches." In 1895, he joined the French Lazarist Mission at Urmia, and published for the first time in the history of that Mission a periodical in the vernacular Syriac called Qala-La-Shara, i.e. "The Voice of Truth." In 1897, he was designated as a delegate, by two Uniate-Chaldean Arch-bishops of Urmia and of Salmas, to represent the Eastern Catholics at the Eucharistic Congress held at Paray-le-Monial in France under the presidency of Cardinal Perraud. This was, of course, an official invitation. The paper read at the Congress by "Father Benjamin" was published in the Annals of the Eucharistic Congress, called "Le Pellerin" of that year. In this paper, Bishop Kildani deplored the Catholic system of education among the Nestorians. In 1888, Bishop Kildani was back again in Persia. In his native village, Digala, about a mile from the town, he opened a school. The next year he was sent by the Ecclesiastical authorities to take charge of the diocese of Salmas, where a sharp and scandalous conflict between the Uniate Archbishop, Khudabash, and the Lazarist Fathers for a long time had been menacing a schism. On New Year's Day of 1900, Bishop Kildani preached his last and memorable sermon to a large congregation, including many non-Catholic Armenians and others in the Cathedral of St. George's Khorovabad, Salmas. The topic of his sermon was "New Century and New Men." He recalled the fact that the Nestorian Missionaries, before the appearance of Islam, namely "submission" to God, had preached the Gospel in all Asia; that they had numerous establishments in India (especially at the Malabar Coast), in Tartary, China and Mongolia; and that they translated the Gospel to the Turkish Uighurs and in other languages; that the Catholic, American and Anglican Missions, in spite of the little good they had done to the Assyro- Chaldean nation in the way of preliminary education, had split the nation - already a handful in Persia, Kurdistan and Mesopotamia into numerous hostile sects; and that their efforts were destined to bring about the final collapse. Consequently, he advised the natives to make some sacrifices in order to stand upon their own legs like men, and not to depend upon the foreign missions, etc. Father Benjamin was perfectly right in principle; but his remarks were unfavorable to the interests of the Lord's Missionaries. This sermon hastily brought the Apostolique Delegate, Mgr. Lesne, from Urmia to Salmas. He remained, to the end, a friend of Father Benjamin. They both returned to Urmia. A new Russian Mission had already been established in Urmia since 1899. The Nestorians were enthusiastically embracing the religion of the "holy" Tsar of All Russians! Five big and ostentatious missions, Americans, Anglicans, French, Germans and Russians with their colleges and press backed up by rich religious societies, Consuls and Ambassadors, were endeavoring to convert about one hundred thousand Assyro-Chaldeans from Nestorian heresy unto one or another of the five heresies. But the Russian Mission soon outstripped the others, and it was this Russian mission that in 1915 pressured or forced the Assyrians of Persia, as well as the mountaineer tribes of Kurdistan, who had then immigrated into the plains of Salmas and Urmia, to take up arms against their respective Governments. The result was that half of his people perished in the war and the rest were expelled from their native lands. The great question which for a long time had been working its solution in the mind of this priest was now approaching its climax. Was Christianity, with all its multi-tudinous shapes and colors, and with its unauthentic, spurious and corrupted Scriptures, the true Religion of God? In the summer of 1900, he retired to his small villa in the middle of vineyards near the celebrated fountain of Chali- Boulaghi in Digala, and there for a month spent his time in prayer and meditation, reading over and over the Scriptures in their original texts. The crisis ended in a formal resignation sent in to the Uniate Archbishop of Urmia, in which he frankly explained to (Mgr.) Touma Audu the reasons for abandoning his sacerdotal functions. All attempts made by the ecclesiastical authorities to withdraw his decision were of no avail. There was no personal quarrel or dispute between Father Benjamin and his superiors; it was all question of conscience. For several months, Mr. Dawud, as he was now called, was employed in Tabriz as Inspector in the Persian Service of Posts and Customs under the Belgian experts. Then, he was taken into the service of the Crown Prince Muhammad 'Ali Mirza as teacher and translator. It was in 1903 that he again visited England and there joined the Unitarian Community. In 1904, he was sent by the British and Foreign Unitarian Association to carry on an educational and enlightening work among his country people. On his way to Persia, he visited Constantinople; and after several interviews with the Sheikh AI-Islam Jamal Eddeen Efandi and other Islamic scholars, he embraced the religion of Islam, meaning submission to God.
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