Muslim Polemics against Judaism and Christianity in 18th Century Iran. The Literary Sources of Āqā Muḥammad ʿAlī Bihbahānī’s (1144/1732-1216/1801) Rādd-i shubahāt al-kuffār

Among the refutations, that were written against Christian missionaries at the turn of the 18th/19th century following the order of Fatḥ 'Alī Shāh (reigned 1212/1797-1250/1834), was the extensive Rādd-i shubuhāt al-kuffār by ēqā Muḥammad 'Alī Bihbahānī Kirmēnshēhē (d. 1216/1801). The present article investigates the literary sources of this work among them particularly Ibn Kammūna's (d. 683/1284) Tanqīḥ al-abḥēth li-l-milal al-thalāth and Samaw'al al-Maghrībī's (d. 570/1175) Ifḥām al-yahūd. Other prominent sources of the work are Ḥawārīnāmah written by the Jesuit Father Jérôme Xavier between 1602 and 1607, Lawāmi'-i rabbāniyya by Sayyid Aḥmad Alawī (d. between 1054/1644 and 1060/1650), and Hidāyat al-ḍāllīn of 'Ali Qilī Jadīd al-Islām, the Augustinian convert to Islam of the 12th/17th century.