I have since then done some research on my own to find out more about
this person and his scholarly credentials. Yet I have been unable to
find any mention of him in Catholic or Muslim sources. The Catholic
sources I consulted were extremely detailed, but were on the worldwide
level -- his lack of mention there indicates only that he was never
famous among Catholics either before or after he left the Church.
Additional search might turn up something, but the fact that Keldani
apparently left the Church by the age of 33 makes it seem unlikely that
he was ever well known among Catholics outside of his home town or
region. For information on him, then, one would have to consult archives
for the organizations or places he was connected with. I have contacted
some Chaldean Catholic representatives outside of Iran, but none of them
had heard of Keldani. One of them was personally acquainted with the
man who is presently Chaldean archbishop in Keldani's home town of
Urmiah in northwestern Iran, but he was unable to find out anything
about Keldani on his own.
The Muslim sources at my disposal were only a variety of encyclopaedias
of Islam in Western languages. Some were compiled by Muslims, some by
non-Muslims. None of them made any mention of anyone like "Fr.
Benjamin", "Fr. Keldani", or "'Abdu 'l-Ahad Dawud" in either the index
or the list of contributors. I also had recourse to one or two Iranian
biographical dictionaries, but found nothing there either.
As a result, everything I have been able to find out directly about
Keldani comes from the biography in his book (see below), or from a
couple of autobiographical comments in the text of the book.
Nevertheless, I have found information about many of the things
mentioned in the biography, and I believe that information will serve to
correct or clarify some of the claims or impressions given by the book's
biography.
The biography gives the names of four periodicals that Keldani published
in before he left the Church. As all 4 were quite regional, and
obviously rather old, the libraries I had access to had none of them.
It would seem not unlikely, however, that some of the articles might
have appended to them a brief explanation of who the author was. If so,
getting copies of those articles would serve to fill in the enormous
gaps that the biography below leaves concerning his childhood and his
entry into the Church. I have contacted one of the periodicals, the
Tablet, by e-mail, but was told that there was no autobiographical
information appended to the articles he published in that magazine:
==========================
We did find that Rev. David Benjamin wrote a lengthy
series of ten articles for The Tablet between December
1892 and May 1893 on 'Assyria, Rome and Canterbury' but
unfortunately there is no autobiographical sketch of him.
You may be interested to know that the final article ends
with the words: "I asked Cardinal Vaughan, '...tell the
Holy Father, I most earnestly beg him to pray to Him whose
Vicar he is, for the re-union of Mar Shimum and my most
beloved nation, the Chaldaeo-Assyrians'".
==========================
In addition, the book's biography gives no information on Keldani after
his acceptance of Islam in 1904, at the age of 37, but the Web version
below says, "(died 1940c)" If one knew where and when he died, one
might be able to find a newspaper obituary from the area that would
provide additional information about his life. In addition, there might
be some biographical information given in the article that Keldani wrote
for "the Turkish paper the Aqsham" in 1922 or 1923, as mentioned in the
sixth article of the Web version of the book (i.e., 'Prophet Muhammad Is
the Son-of-Man').
The contents of Keldani's "Articles of Religion" found at the Azhar
Mosque of the Internet (
http://www.mosque.com) appear nearly identical
to the contents of Keldani's book "Muhammad in the Bible." The copy of
"Muhammad in the Bible" that I have seen gives no dates for original or
most recent publication, but was printed in 1981 by Shirkat Printing
Press, Lahore, Pakistan. The biographical sketch found at
http://www.mosque.com/gooda.html appears identical to the biographical
sketch found in the printed book, with the exception of a few minor
differences that appear to be errors in tran******ion. Below I follow
the Web version, noting anywhere where it differs significantly from the
book's version.