Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery. Nabil Matar
of the natives from the lower pagan (Tamil) to the higher Catholic (European) wisdom, the author says (157). Despite Nobili's seeing similarities between Hinduism (Brahminism) and European society, Nobili did not dialogue with the natives but affirmed the Jesuit position and tried to show that Christianity was not a "foreign religion" for low castes (192). Disagreements between the disputants at times led to personal confrontations and character assassination. The book presents the clashes of personalities and the quality of participants. Throughout the debate Nobili appears to win but at die end he loses, when his methods are discarded for lack of supporters and followers. Zupanov brought together a number of letters and correspondence written by both Nobili and Fernandes and others as found in several archives in a very ingenious analysis of them. The author's ingenious dissection of the "ideal" Jesuit letter/text was executed with a remarkable surgical precision (10, 16). The bibliography is extensive, especially the primary sources of unpublished manuscript or letters from the Archivum Romanun Societatis Iesu. The author comments on the "ideal" Jesuit letter, its writing production which aimed at changing the world, the dryness of those letters due to the imposition of a format, their l imitations, and uses that epistolography to recreate and evaluate the debate from different angles. The work is a new unfolding of the disputation but the plot of the debate could not be different — Nobili is a winner without a trophy. But the author does not take sides in the debate. The verdict is decided by the vast source material Zupanov presents to the reader. Much is known about the Malabar Rites issue and Nobili's unorthodox missionary methods and action (154). But Disputed Mission is more than a contribution to Nobili's thought and life; it is an insight into the letter production of the Jesuits and the methods of inculturation; moreover, it is a contribution to the history of the Society of Jesus in India and church history as well. Zupanov has shown that no longer are the Jesuits the only experts of their history, but that a "layperson" can understand it as well or even better. DfiLIO DE MENDONgA, S. J. Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa, India