this point and pushed him into a new passion for service and witness. Gairdner finished his time at Oxford in 1897 but that would not be the last time he would spend in diligent study. In 1910 after serving eleven years with the Church Missionary Society in Cairo, Egypt, Gairdner was granted a one-year leave of absence to study Arabic and Islam. Gairdner was gone for a total of eighteen months leaving at the end of May 1910 and returning to Cairo in November 1911. Gairdner made three major stops on this educational leave, the first being in Potsdam, Germany to study the German language and be able to read German literature of which there were many writings on Islamic topics. The next five months were spent at Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut where he was able to study with Duncan Black MacDonald who was one of the foremost Western scholars of Islam. The last portion of his study year was used to return to Europe where he studied with the Hungarian scholar of Islam, Ignaz Goldziher, and toured different institutions to study methods of missionary training. Career After finishing his schooling at Oxford, Gairdner became a travelling secretary for the Student Christian Movement until 1899. At this point Gairdner was ordained and the Church Missionary Society (CMS) sent him to Cairo with his beloved friend, Douglas Thornton. Gairdner's role in Cairo was to work with educated Muslims and so Gairdner and Thornton opened their home, called Beit Arabi Pasha, to conduct meetings and lead study groups with Muslims of higher education. In January 1905, Thornton and Gairdner were able to release the first issue of their Anglo-Arabic magazine, Orient and Occident. This magazine was created to present articles of general interest and to reach a wider audience than Thornton and Gairdner were already reaching. Many of the articles dealt with questions and objections that Muslims would raise about Christianity such as the authenticity of the Bible. Thornton's death in 1907 was a large blow to Gairdner and tested him severely. However the loss of his dear friend did not hinder him in his ministry. He continued with his work, especially that of the Orient and Occident and even undertook several other writing jobs. This workload put a halt to the meetings at Beit Arabi Pasha a year after Thornton's death but Gairdner was able to finish two books